Expanded Urgent Care Hours

To the editors:

I want to clarify some misrepresentations about UHS in the article "Ordinary People."

The Mental Health Service continues to work hard to improve access for students to the Service and to improve communication with the deans, proctors and tutors in the University. There are two important themes in Nguyen's article with which I whole-heartedly agree.

First, ordinary people get depressed and sometimes make suicide attempts. Open lines of communication amongst deans, mental health professionals and tutors and proctors are important ways to recognize problems and help people access care.

It is also true that we are not mind-readers and sometimes don't pick up the severity of someone's situation when he or she calls up to make an appointment. We are always trying to find the right balance of inviting people to come in for care and letting them define the urgency of the visit, i.e., by not asking too many questions that feel intrusive when someone calls to make an appointment.

It is important for students to know that we have further increased our urgent care/walk-in hours to four hours a day on Monday through Friday. There are urgent care hours with staff available from 9:30 to 10:30, 12:30 to 1:30, 3:30 to 4:30 and 5 to 6 Monday through Friday, and there is a Mental Health Clinician on call on evenings and weekends available to come in and speak with students on-site or speak on the phone with students who call in with questions or concerns.

We have instituted a new system of liaisons to each of the Houses and the Freshman Dean's Office so that College officers will have a personal relationship with our staff. We are always available for consultation to tutors and proctors.

We also meet with and coordinate care with the Bureau of Study Council, as many students access both of our systems. We are increasing our training hours for tutors and proctors during the year and are strongly committed to doing whatever we can to prevent suicide.

The Mental Health Service is a dedicated group of clinicians who want to do whatever we can to help the students at Harvard deal with the myriad stresses and demands that they face in this very intense environment. We hope that ordinary people will come to us for help with their problems and concerns because we are all vulnerable, and relationships and support are the best ways to deal with life's stresses and uncertainties. RICHARD KADISON   April 6, 1999 The writer is the chief of Mental Health Services at UHS.