But according to UHS officials, there is no official restriction on the number of therapy sessions that students can receive.

“The notion that you can only be seen 12 times is just false,” Barreira says. He adds that the only restrictions on therapy apply when students seek care from therapists outside of UHS; in these cases, the student health insurance plan will only cover 12 sessions.

“There’s a review, but the review just has to do with getting our colleagues to look at what we’re doing with the treatment and what we should be doing differently,” Barreira says.

Chief of Mental Health Richard D. Kadison concedes that during the busiest months, some students must receive slightly less care to accommodate appointments for students with acute distress.

“Sometimes people who have been seen more, their visits will be spread out a little bit more due to supply and demand and trying to accommodate students,” Kadison says.

A SENSE OF RUSH

Some students say that they faced disquieting experiences at key moments in their care, including a sense that they were either rushed through intake appointments or faced with excessive wait times at after-hours urgent care.

Ellie, whose name has been changed to protect her privacy, sought care this past fall when she began to feel anxious and depressed. While she was given an intake appointment within a week, she was shocked when her therapist told her she was bipolar after a 20-minute conversation.

“I was surprised that she could come to the conclusion so quickly,” Ellie says.

One freshman student, who does not wish to be named, says that when he accompanied a friend to Mental Health Services during finals period in the fall, he was disconcerted by how long it took for a therapist to arrive.

“The fact that it took an hour and a half to see someone is alarming,” the individual says.

A student involved with mental health advocacy at Harvard, who also does not wish to be identified, says that some of these issues were widely acknowledged as weaknesses in the Harvard mental health system.

“I personally have gotten a lot of complaints from students that the counselors themselves rush people through appointments. [And] there are some pretty terrible stories of people going in after hours, and the on-call psychologist coming in 45 minutes late,” the student said.

Another potential source of difficulty is the division of mental health care between therapists, who provide counseling, and prescribers—nurse practitioners or psychiatrists—who dispense medication to students.

While some students say they appreciate having two different people to turn to, others say this system creates a disconnect between the different aspects of their treatment.