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CAMHS Psychiatric Care

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Welcome to CAMHS Psychiatric Care

We look forward to meeting you!

A psychiatrist is a medical doctor who can diagnose and treat mental health conditions such as anxiety, depression, and ADHD. At CAMHS, we have a team of psychiatrists who provide consultation to students with all types of mental health concerns. They can diagnose psychiatric conditions, prescribe medications if appropriate, provide psychotherapy or coordinate with a patient’s therapists at CAMHS or outside of Harvard, and make referrals to other types of mental health treatments such as intensive outpatient programs and TMS. Their goal is to work with students to optimize their mental health and, in turn, their experience at Harvard.

Practical information about meeting with a psychiatrist at CAMHS:

Confidentiality
  • Everything you discuss is confidential. Exceptions to this are:
    • If you give written permission for your psychiatrist to communicate with someone about your care.
    • If your psychiatrist determines there is an imminent risk of safety to you or someone else, then your doctor may need to communicate with others.
Appointments
  • Initial appointments with a psychiatrist are one hour long and are done in person.
  • Follow-up appointments are shorter visits that focus on medication treatment. (The frequency of these is based on what is appropriate to your condition.)
  • It is important for you to arrive on time for all appointments. If you arrive late, we may need to reschedule your appointment to another time.
  • Please complete the BHM survey upon arrival.
  • If it has been more than a year since you have been seen, then you will need to be scheduled for another one-hour intake appointment.
Prescriptions
  • We discuss your prescriptions during every appointment with us and send refills to the pharmacy to last until your next scheduled appointment. 
  • If you think you don’t have any refills, please call the pharmacy and speak with them directly and ask if there is a prescription available. (The automated refill system for the pharmacies often does not recognize that there is a prescription on hold and available for you.) 
  • If the pharmacy tells you that there are no refills available, please contact your psychiatrist using the secure messaging system through the portal, as we do not respond to refill requests that come directly from pharmacies. Please include the following in your secure message (even if you think we already have this information):  
  1.  the name and address of the pharmacy and 
  2.  the medication name, the pill strength (dosage) & how often you take it. 
  • If your psychiatrist is away, call (617) 495-2042. The covering doctor may send an interim supply of medication. That clinician may need to check in with you by phone before refilling the medication. Please make sure you are ready to receive a phone call sometime that day, including calls from blocked numbers. 
Missed Appointments and Rescheduling
  • We reserve your appointed time just for you; we cannot offer it to other students who are waiting if you miss an appointment or come late. If you do not show up for your scheduled appointment, you will be charged the missed appointment fee.
  • If you need to cancel your scheduled visit, first call (617) 495-2042 and speak to our front desk staff to get another appointment. Then, please send your psychiatrist a secure message to let them know you had to cancel. 
  • Because many students need this kind of help, our schedules can get backed up. It can take many weeks to get another appointment, so call as soon as possible if you need to make a change.
Ways to Communicate Between Visits
  • We use secure messaging via the HUHS portal to communicate between visits or to let you know if we need to change your appointment. 
  • If you need to communicate with your psychiatrist, please use this secure messaging system. We avoid email communication since it is not HIPAA secure. 
  • Typically, psychiatrists check their secure messages only on the days they are in the office.
  • If your issue is urgent, do not rely on secure messaging; please see the section below.
Urgent Issues Between Scheduled Visits
  • If you have an urgent issue during working hours, first contact the CAMHS front desk and ask if your doctor is available that day. If not, front desk staff can direct you, as CAMHS urgent care appointments are available every business day.  
  • If you need to speak with a clinician by phone about an urgent mental health concern, you may call (617) 495-2042 (24/7) and select the option to talk with a CAMHS Cares Counselor. You will be connected directly with a mental health clinician. 
  • If your issue is an emergency, then you should call 911.
Documentation Requests
  • There may be times when you need documentation from your psychiatrist. This would first need to be reviewed with your doctor, and you may need to schedule an appointment for the review. Please allow at least two weeks for your psychiatrist to complete any documentation. If we don’t have two weeks, then we may not be able to get the documentation done on time.