Resources

Please see below for a variety of Harvard-based mental health resources – compiled by previous undergraduate DIB Committee representatives and alums Maddie Goldberg and Elida Kocharian.

All Harvard Community

Harvard University Counseling and Mental Health Services

CAMHS offers one-on-one consults and appointments with licensed mental health professionals, workshops and support groups, online mental health resources, and an online mental health screening. Due to the COVID-19 pandemic, CAMHS is currently offering only virtual visits, which you can schedule online through the patient portal or by calling.

Location: Smith Campus Center, 4th floor. Additional clinics at Harvard Law School (Pound Hall) and Longwood Medical Campus (Vanderbilt Hall and Kresge Building). 

Contact: During business hours (Monday-Friday, 8 AM-5:30 PM), call: (617) 495-2042 for the Smith Campus Center clinic

• (617) 495-4414 for the Harvard Law School clinic
• (617) 432-1370 for the Longwood Medical Campus clinic
• (800) 439-0183 for TTY information
• Before/after hours and on weekends, call:(617) 495-5711 for urgent care (to speak to the mental health clinician on call)
• (617) 495-1198 for TTY information

HUHS Center for Wellness and Health Promotion

Harvard University Office of Alcohol and Other Drug Services is part of this.

Undergraduates

Contact Peer Counseling Description 

Contact is a confidential, drop-in peer-counseling program that provides a safe space for Harvard undergraduates with a focus on LGBTQIA+ identities and experiences, gender, sexuality, and relationships. Contact also offers online resources, books, and safer sex supplies.

Location: Thayer Basement office (B-04), 8 PM-11 PM every night.

Contact: (617) 998-6898, 8pm – 8am nightly

Eating Concerns Hotline and Outreach (ECHO) 

ECHO is a confidential, drop-in peer-counseling program that offers support and a safe space for Harvard undergraduates who have eating concerns or who are concerned about someone else in their life.

Location: Elliot Basement T-24, Sunday through Thursday, 8pm – 11pm

Contact: (617) 495-8200, 8pm-8am nightly

Indigo Peer-Counseling Description 

Indigo is a confidential, drop-in peer counseling program that offers support and a safe space for students grappling with concerns that lie at the intersection of identity and mental health. Indigo is focused on how race, ethnicity, socioeconomic status, first-generation identity, citizenship status, ability, gender, sexuality, and other identities inform individual experience.

Location: Thayer B-01, 8pm-11pm

Contact: 617-256-1183, 8pm-8am

RESPONSE

RESPONSE is a group of undergraduate students trained to provide peer counseling on any and all relationship issues – from concerns about dating to concerns about sexual harassment or assault. They provide non-judgmental, non-directive, and anonymous support, and resources to Harvard undergraduates of all genders and sexualities.

Location: Lowell EL-15, Sun-Wed 8-11pm

Contact: (617) 999 8353, 8pm-8am

Room 13

At Room 13, trained peer counselors offer guidance around gender, identity, SES, alcohol and drugs, grief, relationships, eating, health, school, and anything else. Room 13 takes people and their concerns seriously; they will listen and respond non-judgmentally. When you call or drop in, no one will pressure you to talk about anything you don’t want to. They also offer listening workshops by appointment.

Location: Thayer Basement B-09 in Harvard Yard  

Contact: 617-366-7375 or harvardroom13@gmail.com

Hours: Every night during the academic year, 7 pm – 7 am ET. (Drop in or by phone at 617-366-7375)

Graduate Students

GSAS Office of Student Services

Students are encouraged to visit the student service office (Office B-2) or contact the student service team by phone or email.

• GSAS Support Resources

Employees

Harvard University Employee Assistance Program

Harvard’s Employee Assistance Program (EAP) offers free, confidential help for all Harvard employees and their adult household members. You can reach the EAP any time for personal or work-related concerns at 877-EAP-HARV (877-327-4278).

Harvard Human Resources Office of Work/Life

Lots of resources here that we can make prominent on our website too: 

• childcare
• mindfulness
• caring for elders and other adults
• LGBTQIA+ resources
• domestic violence     

General

• 60 Digital Resources for Mental Health
• NAMI Massachusetts 
• Science Careers and Mental Health Collection, Nature
• Room 13 Online Mental Health Resources
• Tips for Finding a Culturally Competent Therapist
• Guide to Psychiatry and Counseling
• Differences between a Psychologist, Psychiatrist, and Therapist
• College Student Mental Health Resources

URM-serving affinity groups for EPS/ESE

Queer Earth Scientists Organization (QuESO)

QuESO is a community group specifically for people who identify as queer/questioning. QuESO members have built a space where queer folks can go and feel that they can be their authentic selves, without worrying about outing themselves to the community at large or facing judgement from within. Please read the group’s mission statement here, and the QuESO Rules of Engagement.

Please contact Esther James if you are interested in joining.

Affinity Group for Black EPS/ESE Community Members

This group was created to support members of the who identify as Black of are of Black Heritage. Meetings are offered throughout the academic year (set by member availability each term). 

Please contact Esther James if you are interested or for more info. 

Affinity Group for Latinx EPS/ESE Community Members

We are in the process of creating a group to support members of the who identify as Latinx or are of Latinx Heritage. Meetings will be offered throughout the academic year (set by member availability each term).

Please contact Esther James if you are interested in joining or if you’d like more info.

Information on affinity groups outside of the EPS/ESE Community

URM-Serving Affinty Groups in GSAS and SEAS

The Graduate Student Recruitment and Retention subgroup created this document with a list of affinity groups within Harvard/GSAS available to URM students, including:

URM-serving affinity groups in GSAS

• GSAS Minority Biomedical Scientists of Harvard
• GSAS Underrepresented Scholars in Neuroscience
• GSAS Society of Underrepresented Students in STEM
• Harvard GSAS Latinx Student Association
• Harvard Women in Science and Engineering
• Harvard University Native American Program
• W.E.B. Du Bois Graduate Society of GSAS
• LGBTQ@GSAS

See the full list of GSAS affinity groups here. 

URM-serving affinity groups in SEAS

• Harvard Society of Hispanic Professional Engineers (HSHPE)

The Kuumba Singers of Harvard College 

The following description was taken from the Kuumba President’s letter, found on the organization’s website.

“Almost 50 years ago, in 1970, Harvard did not have a space like Kuumba for Black students. The campus had not imagined or made room for their presence or their inevitable excellence. Black students saw the need to build a spiritual and cultural home where they could celebrate who they were and where they came from without fear or apology. So, they created Kuumba.

As an organization, Kuumba is a choir, an experience, a home, a refuge, a struggle, a dream, a responsibility, and most importantly, Kuumba is a family. In Kuumba, we end our rehearsals in a circle. In this circle, we share our blessings, our hopes, our dreams, and our sorrows. Nothing is too small or too large for us to shoulder or lift up as a community. It exemplifies, in the best way possible, what Kuumba has been, is, and can be for so many: a circle of support and a bridge over troubled water. Like a circle, it is infinite and whole, and like a bridge, it continues to stand the test of time. 

Whether you are a prospective member, an alumnus/ae, or an avid supporter, we invite you to come to any and all of the events we publicize on this website and our Facebook page, including our weekly rehearsals (Tuesdays & Thursdays in the Student Organization Center at Hilles) during the academic year. As a non-audition choir and as a community, this space is always open to all identities and their intersections. Come as you are.”

Virtual meetings offer every Tuesday and Thursday. Please contact Esther James if you are interested or for more info. 

Affinity Group for Asian Americans and Pacific Islanders in Geosciences

Below is info on the launch of a new group called Asian Americans and Pacific Islanders in Geosciences (AAPI in Geosci) – a grassroots, member-driven organization committed to building a community that supports AAPIs within geosciences.

This group is open to all community members — undergraduates, graduate students, postdocs, faculty, educators, administrators, scientists, professionals, retirees, and more — who self-identify as Asian American and/or Pacific Islander (AAPI) or are interested in learning more about AAPI issues. Geosciences is broadly defined to encompass any discipline related to Earth and the environment, including but not limited to oceanography, planetary science, and atmospheric sciences.

If you would like to receive email updates about the group, please fill out this Google Form. 

Co-founders and interim leaders of AAPI in Geoscience
Christine Y. Chen, O.K. Earl Postdoctoral Fellow at Caltech
Daniel E. Ibarra, UC PPFP and Miller Institute Postdoc at UC Berkeley
Kimberly V. Lau, Assistant Professor at Penn State

GSAS Parental Accommodation and Financial Support

• https://gsas.harvard.edu/student-life/harvard-resources/parental-accommodation-and-financial-support

General caring for children information

• https://hr.harvard.edu/childcare

Financial assistance

• GSAS Parental Accommodation and Financial Support for PhD students
• Staff/Faculty Financial Assistance for Childcare
• For tenured, tenure-track, and senior non-ladder faculty childcare support is available through the ACCESS program: ($4,000-$24,000 for childcare for families with combined income < $200,000; check website when applications are due, usually in the early summer)

Lactation Support and Room Book

Lactation room in Northwest Labs

• Parents need to pre-register for access to the lactation rooms on campus. Each has the same hospital-grade Medela pump (model: Symphony) for which you need your own accessory kit ($50). The Office of Work/Life has a few donated kits available for free so it would be worth emailing them.  More information can be found online including the brief registration form.
• For the SEC in Allston, SEAS has two lactation rooms located in the SEC, rooms 6.400.R4 and 1.400R1 and two lactation rooms located at 114 Western Avenue, rooms 2311 and 3317.
• For Cambridge, SEAS has one lactation room located in Maxwell Dworkin, room 318.
• For EPS (Geomuseum), the closest location are in the Northwest Building and the Science Center

Parental leave for benefits-eligible employees

• 4 weeks of short-term disability leave
• 4 weeks of leave (benefits-eligible postdocs receive 4 weeks of full pay)
• 12 weeks for family leave (Paid Family and Medical Leave – PFML) (including bonding leave within 12 months of the birth, adoption or foster placement of a child and care for a service member)

Finding Childcare 

• https://hr.harvard.edu/finding-child-care

Enrolling dependents in health insurance as a student

• Need to fill out waiver first, takes about 24 hrs to process
• After, backup care can be found even on short notice (i.e., the day before)
• Access to up to 20 days of agency-placed back-up care (in-home or in-center). This refreshes each July 1. Agency placements mean that your caregiver is likely to change even if you are booking care on consecutive days because it depends on availability.
• Faculty copay for back-up care after July 1, 2021 will likely increase to $12/hour for in-home care (4 hour minimum) and $35/day for in-center care.
• If you do engage a regular caregiver, even for this short time, you may have payroll and tax responsibilities.

FlexWork Guidelines

• https://hr.harvard.edu/flexwork

Provisions related to children in the Graduate Student Union Agreement (2020)

ARTICLE 22 CHILD CARE FUND

Effective upon ratification of this Agreement, the University shall make a fund available to reimburse salaried bargaining unit members for child care expenses at licensed child care facilities (child care centers, family child care providers, after school programs, daytime summer camp programs) or an in-home provider with a Social Security or Tax I.D. number. Commencing on July 1, 2020 or upon ratification of this Agreement, whichever comes last, the fund will be $350,000 for FY 21, but pro-rated for the balance of FY 21 should ratification occur after July 1, 2020. There shall be no rollover of any unexpended funds from one year to the next. Reimbursement for such child care expenses shall be made in accordance with procedures, policies and requirements established by the Union, subject to approval by the University.

ARTICLE 23

FAMILY FRIENDLY BENEFITS

Section 1. Ph. D SWs shall be eligible for access to Care.com at no cost for such membership and subject to relevant rates and procedures. Under current policy, SWs have access to the Care.com providers for up to 10 days a year at a subsidized rate of $5 per hour. SWs may utilize Care.com for additional days at full provider rates.

Section 2. All Ph. D SWs shall be eligible for the Parental Accommodation and Financial Support program which provides a one-time stipend of $6516 for the birth or adoption of a child. During the accommodation period, students may request and receive unpaid time off from their duties up to 12 weeks. Effective July 1, 2020, the stipend will be raised to $6831.

ARTICLE 24 LEAVE PROVISIONS

Section 1. Sick Leave

A. SWs shall have a right to a reasonable number of days per semester or summer session of sick leave with no loss of compensation. SWs are permitted to use sick time for any of the following reasons:

1. Caring for their own physical or mental illness, injury or medical condition
2. Caring for a physical or mental illness, injury, or medical condition of their child,
   spouse, parent, or spouse’s parent;
3. Attending their own routine medical appointment;
4. Attending a routine medical appointment for their child, spouse, parent, or spouse’s
   parent and members of the household regularly sharing the employee’s residence
5. Addressing the psychological, physical, or legal effects of domestic violence; or
6. Travel necessitated by any of the above.

• A SW who is using a sick day must inform their supervisor as soon as possible.
• In no case shall the sick time provided be less than would be provided to an individual covered by the Massachusetts Sick Time Law.

Section 2. Family and Medical Leave of Absence

SWs may take an unpaid Family and Medical Leave of Absence of up to 12 weeks for the birth or adoption of a child, childcare, their own serious health condition or work-related disability, or care of an immediate family member with a serious health condition. “Immediate family members” include parents or step-parents, child or step-child or spouse. SWs are expected to notify their supervisors and directors of graduate studies at least four months in advance whenever possible of the anticipated birth or adoption of a child, so that appropriate arrangements can be made to cover any teaching or research responsibilities.

SWs who are Ph. D candidates are eligible to apply for financial assistance for the birth or adoption of a child under the Parental Accommodation and Financial Support.