Brought to you by the Depression Is Real Coalition, The Down & Up Show is dedicated to the reality of depression. Each week our hosts will talk with some of the world's top experts on depression, as well as people who have been impacted by this illness. The reality of depression is that it is a debilitating and potentially deadly medical condition that affects more than 15 million Americans every year. The other reality of depression is that there is hope.

Dr. John Draper

Dr. Draper is director of the National Suicide Prevention Lifeline at the Mental Health Association of New York City. He has extensive experience in suicide prevention, crisis center management, and systems coordination. As a counseling psychologist, he worked with hundreds of persons at risk for suicide in their homes as a Brooklyn mobile crisis professional for 7 years. He eventually served as clinical director and consultant to the city's department of mental health. Dr. Draper continues to work as a consultant to the city, training mobile crisis professionals in risk assessment. As the founding director of the Mental Health Association of New York City's 24-7 LifeNet Multicultural Hotline Network and Public Education Division in 1996, Dr. Draper was responsible for overseeing all aspects of the hotline network's development, including staff hiring and training, customized software program design and implementation, data management and reporting, and all network-related multicultural outreach and education activities. Under his stewardship, the Mental Health Association of New York City's public education and hotline capacity grew exponentially, expanding its funding more than fourfold to a $2 million operation, from initially serving 10,000 persons in its first year to serving more than 120,000 persons through its hotline, depression screening, and other outreach initiatives in its seventh year. Dr. Draper's training as a family systems therapist has also aided him in his work to facilitate collaborations among major human service, law enforcement, and emergency systems in the area. He has engineered major behavioral health, public education, and outreach initiatives through the city's police, fire, education, aging, health, and mental health departments, and he has chaired three city behavioral health committees to ensure ongoing systems collaborations.

Beginning September 11, 2001, Dr. Draper's 1-800-LIFENET crisis call center became the primary vehicle for mobilizing the largest disaster mental health response ever undertaken in the United States. Following the attacks on 9/11, LifeNet became the central network entry point for federally funded crisis counseling services and hotlines throughout New York and to some parts of New Jersey and Connecticut. Currently, LifeNet continues to function as the American Red Cross's main entry point for persons seeking 9/11-related behavioral health assistance throughout the Nation. Dr. Draper has authored chapters on the role of hotlines in disaster mental health in two books that will be published later this year.