Harvard Health Services Director Jean T. Nguyen said in an interview with The Crimson on Monday that Harvard has seen a “slight increase in students accessing mental health care” in a recently distributed survey. “I’m there.”
Last spring, Harvard University participated in the American University Health Association’s National Collegiate Health Assessment Survey to assess the physical and behavioral health of graduate and undergraduate students, including substance use, sexual health, mental health, sleep habits, exercise, and nutrition. and collected health data. students.
The survey was conducted from Feb. 26 to March 8 and received responses from 3,823 students, Nguyen said. This corresponds to a response rate of just over 19 percent of all students invited to participate.
“In conversations with people who oversee data collection nationally for NCHA, and also with health leaders on other campuses at other universities, we’ve actually gotten significantly higher response rates than other universities. “Professor Nguyen said.
Nguyen said about 69 percent of survey respondents were graduate and professional students, which is roughly in line with Harvard’s student demographic.
“That’s what we expect from an overall distribution standpoint,” he added.
Barbara Lewis, director of counseling and mental health services, said CAMHS had a “highest number of consultations ever in September”, confirming the findings.
Mr Lewis said CAMHS had 550 consultations this month, compared to 467 in September last year. She added that TimelyCare, a teletherapy and health coaching platform, conducted 760 appointments and 66 health coaching visits in August and September.
“Students are really watching the videos,” Lewis said. “The most viewed videos are about sleep, and the second most viewed videos are about social concerns and anxiety.”
While the use of mental health resources has increased, the study also found a “slight decline” in self-reported anxiety levels, Professor Nguyen said, adding that this was due to increased access to “mental health resources” such as timely care. This is thanks to the university’s efforts in the health field. The care and services provided through the ‘Human’ campaign and CAMHS’ Clinical Access Coordinators are becoming increasingly accessible.
Going forward, Lewis said, CAMHS is “committed to meeting the needs of our students, and I think we’ve been able to do that so far.”
According to Lewis, TimelyCare has an average satisfaction score of 4.9 out of 5.
Lewis added that while “more than 50% of Timely Care providers are non-white,” CAMHS’ goal of 65% diversity across race, ethnicity and sexual orientation has been met. said.
“There are certain categories where it’s very difficult to find clinicians, and those are mostly Jewish and Muslim areas,” Lewis said.
Lewis said CAMHS also continues to work to reduce patient wait times for mental health appointments, a consistent complaint among students.
“You may have to wait three to five days for your initial consultation, but you can also have your initial consultation the same day if you call our office,” she says. “Currently, the wait time to actually get scheduled with a therapist is one to two weeks.”
Research shows that aside from mental health concerns, sleep may also be a common concern among Harvard students.
“We found that approximately 60% of students reported getting 7 to 9 hours of sleep. This, of course, means that approximately 40% of students do not get 7 to 9 hours of sleep each day. ,” Professor Nguyen said.
Nguyen added, “27 percent of students surveyed said they felt they needed more sleep than they actually got,” which reflects the video interest in TimelyCare. I’m doing it.
The study also assessed students’ physical activity levels.
According to Professor Nguyen, “75 percent of students actually do the recommended 150 minutes of physical activity per week,” but “about one in four students do a little more physical activity per week.” You can,” he added.
“We know how important it is not only for physical health, but also for mental well-being,” he added.
Nguyen said Harvard University’s recently developed mobile app CrimsonZip, a group fitness connectivity platform, aims to “build a community around physical activity.”
HUHS spokeswoman Tiffany A. Green said Harvard is “generally consistent with the efforts of other schools that participated in the study.”
“What we’ve seen overall is that Harvard is not a huge outlier compared to other universities,” she added. “Many of our students are going through the same thing, they’re just in different parts of the country.”
—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 her on X @camillajinm.
