Monday, April 08, 2013

It's Okay to Get Help


Meg sent this to me.  It's nice that the psychiatrist in charge of Student Health can talk about his own struggles.


1 comment:

EastCoaster said...

1.) Just to make one friendly little correction. He's the head of the University Health Service, not the Student Health Service. Harvard operates its own HMO which provides care to students, faculty, staff and their own offspring. Staff have more choices now,but many still get their care there. As an undergraduate that meant that I had better and more comprehensive access to medical care.

2.) As an undergraduate in the 90's I found that the mental health care was not so great or at least not accessible. There were lots of PSAs about how even Harvard students might need help, but if you called, there was a long waiting list. What they wanted to help people with was Adjustment Disorder. Anything more than that, and they urged you to use your parents' insurance--not such a great option if you were relying on the student insurance. They frequently pushed people to go on leaves of absence (sometimes helpful) or to withdraw.

I think that it's gotten somewhat better, and they now cover prescription drugs too, but I'm not holding my breath.