Nguyen says HUHS prioritizes accessibility to mental health services, declines comment on Luke Tang trial | News | The Harvard Crimson

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

Nguyen said HUHS has very good access to mental health resources right now and they are focusing on taking care of our students now and providing the services they need, especially at this time as the semester is winding down.

You can check the CAMHS website for weekly updates on how good our access is, he said. Currently, same day availability for initial consultations with a licensed therapist.

Nguyen declined to comment on the recently concluded wrongful-death trial of Luke Z. Tang, 18, a sophomore who killed himself on Harvard’s campus in 2015. Although the case against Harvard had already been dismissed, a lawsuit was brought forward against Harvard Counseling and Mental. Melanie G. Northrop, an employee of Health Services, who was found not guilty.

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

Amid ongoing member concerns about long waiting times for CAMHS, the University has committed to working to expand student access to mental health services by increasing the number of mental health appointments and offering new services .

Nguyen said HUHS is poised to provide much better access as we move forward, noting staffing gaps the group has worked to address.

Over the past year, we’ve been doing a lot of hiring to replenish the ranks, especially in our primary care, internal medicine and urgent care area, Nguyen said.

We’ve really been able to make some huge improvements in terms of access to clinical services at CAMHS, so those are the main things we’ve been working on over the year that we’re really proud of, Nguyen added.

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

According to Nguyen, the cumulative number of TimelyCare visits, including scheduled counseling and psychiatry visits received by students to date, is close to 11,000. In a February interview with The Crimson, CAMHS director Barbara Lewis reported that the cumulative count at the time was about 9,000.

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

For Nguyen, 40 percent of those visits were after hours, which helps 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

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

TimelyCare has received high reviews from student patients, according to Nguyen, who said the average visit rating so far has been 4.9 out of five stars for scheduled counseling, health coaching services and visits psychiatry

Reflecting on the past academic year, Nguyen said the annual flu clinic held at the Smith Campus Center that provided vaccinations to 12,000 people was a huge success for HUHS.

One of the biggest things we did was revamp our approaches to the flu vaccination campaign, Nguyen said. I was really excited to be able to repeat this and make it bigger and better next year.

In fact, we already have the dates for our flu shot clinic scheduled, she added.

Looking ahead, Nguyen said he does not anticipate any changes or updates to vaccination requirements for the upcoming academic year.

Nguyen concluded the interview by warning that while the rate of respiratory disease continues to decline in Massachusetts, students should maintain practices to maintain the health and well-being of the community by watching for other types of infectious diseases and gastrointestinal illnesses.

Writer Alex Chou can be reached at alex.chou@thecrimson.com.

Writer Camilla J. Martinez can be reached at camilla.martinez@thecrimson.com. Follow her on X @camillajinm.