Some common attitudes about depression: “It’s just sadness,” or “They should just snap out of it.”

The high school’s health and fitness department is working to clear up misconceptions and help students get the help they need with the Break Free From Depression program from Boston Children’s Hospital, according to health and fitness teacher Roberta Skoff.

This four-day unit was first implemented last year during the second semester as an effort to lower the rates of depression among adolescents in Brookline. It was taught for a second time this year, ending shortly before Thanksgiving vacation, according to health and fitness teacher Allyson Toney.

Skoff said a push for implementing a unit of this sort came from statistics showing high estimates for the number of adolescents in America with depression.

“More than 800,000 American teenagers suffer from depression each year, so the statistics are alarming,” Skoff said. “The percentage of adolescents with depression that go undiagnosed or treated is 60 to 80 percent, and that’s a lot. That’s why they created the unit, and that’s why the information is just so important to get across.”

According to Skoff, the unit consisted of talking about overall mental health, depression, suicide, coping skills, stress and the differences among them. She said that they talked about the negative sentiments and misconceptions attached to depression.

“There shouldn’t be a stigma attached to it,” Skoff said. “If you have an illness like cancer or diabetes or something, people wouldn’t make fun of you. And for them to hear that for a mental illness, there shouldn’t be a stigma attached to it, that is very rewarding to me.”

Health and fitness teacher Billy Graham said if he were to alter anything in the unit, it would be to lengthen it and make it available to other students besides freshmen.

“I think we shortchange our students, and the school is doing a disservice by not having health class more than a semester for an entire four years of high school,” Graham said.

Some students said they felt the unit, although short, was enlightening and helpful because of the resources provided.

shman Alma Bitran said. “It just gave us the facts and what to do, so it helped with that. And I think a lot of people before that, they were thinking that depression is something you can just get over, or it’s just a feeling, but it really helped to teach people that it’s a disorder that you have to get help for.”

Freshman Serra Muftu said the class would be quiet and would not make any jokes after watching serious and thought-provoking documentaries.

According to Graham, students were given emotional check-ins at the end of every class so if they wished to see someone, the teachers could connect them with guidance counselors, social workers or psychologists.

Toney said that talking to someone is the first major step towards getting the help students need.

“I guess I wish we could have started up this curriculum a while ago,” Toney said. “I mean, it’s better late than never, but I feel like there were a lot of students struggling, and we could have helped a lot more students with this mental health unit a long time ago.”

Skoff said it is important for students to realize that depression is a real thing that can touch anybody.

“One of the things we have to realize is that it doesn’t just afflict a certain population,” Skoff said. “Depression hits everybody. Whether you’re wealthy, whether your poor, whether you’re from a one-parent family, whether you have blonde hair or dark skin, it doesn’t matter.”

Lizzy Filine can be contacted at [email protected].