While the process focused more intensely on the University Health Services, since it serves the entire Harvard community, the Committee also examined the breadth of services at the Bureau of Study Counsel and other school-based counseling services, with a particular focus on the extent to which services create an integrated and coordinated path to clinical care. The years of late adolescence and early adulthood mark not only the common traumas of young adult development, but also the onset of most serious psychiatric conditions. While students at Harvard are extremely gifted, these talents do not protect them from susceptibility to mental health and emotional crises. With the knowledge of the vulnerability of the student population, the Committee paid special attention to the University's ability to create a milieu that ameliorates potential triggers of crises and provides appropriate services when clinical care is indicated. Mental health clinicians are based at the main UHS site in Holyoke Center and also, on a more limited basis, at three satellite clinics at the Law School, Business School, and Longwood Medical Area.
Office hours vary at each site, with some early evening availability at most clinics.
After hours and on weekends, on-call clinicians at the Holyoke site respond to all mental health emergencies and to any instance in which a student visits the Holyoke clinic. Wait times until appointments vary according to urgency, clinician requests, and demand, which peak at certain times during the academic year. Some students are also referred to external clinicians. In addition, several schools operate their own counseling services. The Bureau's primary mission is to serve undergraduates, but graduate students from GSAS, the Kennedy School, and the Graduate School of Education are also eligible to use the Bureau's services.