Harvard University
Mental Health
To commemorate Mental Health Awareness Month, the Harvard community is exploring how we cope with, manage, and understand mental health and how it impacts our lives.
The toll of a global pandemic
The COVID-19 pandemic has led to a rise in mental health concerns, including anxiety, stress, and feelings of isolation.
Mental health in a post-pandemic world
Matthew Nock discusses the increase in adolescents experiencing mental health issues and what treatment might look like in a post-pandemic world.
Coping with pandemic stress on campus
Many have struggled with health and safety concerns associated with working, teaching, and learning, both remotely and on campus.
How has the pandemic impacted children’s mental health?
A series of national surveys conducted in 1999, 2004, and 2017 provided a baseline for looking at children’s mental health, revealing some troubling underlying trends.
How pandemic stressors can affect mental health
Lifestyle disruptions during the pandemic may have triggered inflammation in the brain contributing to fatigue, concentration difficulties, and depression
Why returning to “normal” feels so not
Psychologists, psychiatrists, and counselors have long predicted that once the pandemic’s physical impacts lessened, there would be a mental health fallout.
The cost of distancing
Experts share that for most healthy individuals, additional time spent socially distant from family and friends may worsen a growing national mental health problem.
Managing mental health
Mental health impacts each person differently. Harvard experts share ways to care for ourselves and for others.
Learn more from the Center for Wellness and Health Promotion
- Health care workers
Increasing investments in mental health benefits everyone
- College Students
Creating a culture of success—for all college students
- Employees
Ways managers can support employees’ mental health
- Spiritual communities
Cultivating a contemplative practice
- Adolescents
What do anxious teens need?
Is a mobile app as good as a therapist?
Mental health apps claim to treat depression, anxiety, and other mental illnesses without therapy appointments. Do these apps actually work, or are they too good to be true?
Research and discoveries
Mental health resources at Harvard
Library resources to support mental health
Libraries are for more than just working and studying, and Harvard affiliates are encouraged to take advantage of these free resources to practice self-care and support good mental health.
The graduate student mental health crisis
A 2020 report indicated that nearly one in four graduate students surveyed at Harvard exhibited symptoms of moderate to severe depression. Take a deep dive into the graduate student mental health crisis with Dr. Emily Bernstein, a clinical psychologist at Massachusetts General Hospital’s Center for Digital Mental Health.