Nguyen Says HUHS Prioritizes Access to Mental Health Services, Declines to Comment on Luke Tang Trial | News | Harvard Crimson

Harvard University Health Services Director Giang T. Nguyen said in an interview Thursday that HUHS prioritizes access to mental health services, currently offering same-day availability for consultations the first ones.

Nguyen said HUHS has “very good access to mental health resources right now,” and they are “focused on taking care of our students now and providing the services that our students need.” need, especially now that the semester is over.”

“You can check the CAMHS website for weekly updates on how good our access is,” he said. “Currently, it is available on the same day for an initial consultation with a licensed physician.”

Nguyen declined to comment on the recently completed wrongful-death lawsuit involving Luke Z. Tang ’18, a sophomore who died by suicide on Harvard’s campus in 2015. Although the lawsuit against Harvard was dismissed, the case continued against Harvard Counseling and Mental Health Services employee Melanie G. Northrop, who was found not guilty.

During the interview, Nguyen cited policies against commenting on personnel matters and declined to answer any questions related to the case.

Amid ongoing concerns related to long CAMHS waiting times, the University is committed to working to increase student access to mental health services by increasing the number of mental health referrals and provide new services.

Nguyen said HUHS is “committed to providing better access as we move forward,” pointing to staffing gaps the group has worked to address.

“Over the past year, we’ve been hiring a lot to fill positions, especially in our primary care, internal medicine and urgent care areas,” Nguyen said.

“We’ve been able to make significant improvements in access to medical services at CAMHS, so those are the main things we’ve been working on throughout the year and we’re very proud of them,” said Nguyen. .

In particular, Nguyen highlighted the positive impact of TimelyCare, a telehealth service HUHS launched in 2022 that provides mental health care.

According to Nguyen, the cumulative number of TimelyCare visits — including for scheduled counseling and psychotherapy — received by students so far is approaching 11,000. In a January interview with The Crimson, CAMHS Director Barbara Lewis put the growing number at the time at around 9,000.

Nguyen added that subscriptions to TimelyCare services continue to grow, with 137 new subscribers and 632 visits in March.

Per Nguyen, 40 percent of these visits were made after hours, which is helpful “because our students are often busy during the day and many of them want to do other things and have a mental health visit in the evening.”

These after-hours visits are possible, Nguyen said, “TimelyCare is a remote service, and they have access to doctors who are licensed in Massachusetts, but they may not live in Massachusetts.”

TimelyCare has seen high reviews from student patients, according to Nguyen, who said the visit average so far has been 4.9 out of five stars for scheduled counseling, health coaching services and mental journeys.

Reflecting on the past academic year, Nguyen said the annual flu clinic held at the Smith Campus Center — which provided vaccinations for 12,000 people — was a “real big success” for HUHS.

“One of the biggest things we’ve done is revamp our flu vaccination campaign,” Nguyen said. “We’re very excited to be able to repeat that and do even more next year.”

He added: “We already have the days of the scheduled flu vaccination clinic.”

Looking ahead, Nguyen said he doesn’t foresee any changes or improvements to vaccination requirements for the next school year.

Nguyen concluded the discussion by warning that even though the rate of respiratory disease is decreasing in Massachusetts, students should maintain public health and social welfare practices, keeping an eye out for forms of some infectious diseases and gastrointestinal diseases.

– Staff writer Alex Chou can be reached at alex.chou@thecrimson.com.

– Staff writer Camilla J. Martinez can be reached at camilla.martinez@thecrimson.com. Follow him to X @camillajinm.