UHS Failure

THE University Health Services' psychiatric department is rapidly losing the confidence of the College. At a time when drug problems and draft pressures are increasing, recent statistics show that fewer students are using the UHS facilities. This year's figures reverse a trend of sharp rises in student visits. The blame for the new disaffection rests squarely with Dr. Graham B.Blaine Jr., chief of Psychiatric Services, and Dr. Dana L. Farnsworth, director of the UHS.

Blaine and Farnsworth said in interviews last week that their numerous public statements on drugs and sex could be driving Harvard students away from the Health Services. "Public speaking by senior staff members has contributed to the impression that we are overly conservative and not sympathetic," Blaine said.

Blaine said that the reason UHS psychiatrists keep on talking is that they have a more important responsibility to the outside community than to their individual patients: "We feel the responsibility to the community is greater than one-to-one therapy." It is this attitude that is keeping seriously disturbed students from consulting UHS doctors. They are turning elsewhere, or worse, trying to handle difficult problems on their own.

Farnsworth has lamented, "We're called upon for lectures and conferences on drugs all over the country but rarely are we approached on the problem at Harvard." Harvard students do not want UHS advice because they believe that the Services is out of touch with what is happening here.