If none of these gets you anywhere, 833-773-2445 and 988 are free, answered around the clock, and open to you whatever college you are at.

Your first four sessions are free; after that your insurance is billed. The CCPH services page sets it out: individual therapy is “First 4 sessions covered by the student health fee; insurance billed after”, therapy groups get eight, Let’s Talk consultations are “Always free”, and psychiatry is “Billed to insurance; no co-pays at CCPH”. There is no limit on how much care you can have — “There is no formal session limit at CCPH” — only a point at which money enters, and that point is session five. Ask about it at your first appointment so nothing surprises you later. Psychiatry on a CCPH referral also asks that you be a “current MA resident”. No charge for a missed or late-cancelled appointment is published. See section 06.

Ring 545-HELP at any hour, and there is nothing to press. The number is 413-545-4357, published as “anytime, day or night” and “available 24/7/365”, with no option to select, so you will not be navigating a menu while you are upset. Daytime appointments are a different number: call 413 – 545-2337 and press 5. Walk-in and office hours are Monday to Friday, 8:30am to 4:30pm. Who answers at 2am is not published, so if the line does not get you what you need, ring 988 — free and answered around the clock. If you are at the Newton campus, its page still prints an old national number; use 988 instead.

If you leave Massachusetts, ring and ask before your next appointment. The website will not answer the question for you. The only location rule published anywhere on the CCPH site applies to couples and family therapy, where participants must be “physically located in Massachusetts during treatment”. Nothing says whether individual therapy or telehealth can follow you home to Connecticut for the semester, and no out-of-state teletherapy service is named. Psychiatry on a CCPH referral is a separate test again: it asks for a “current MA resident”. So ring 413-545-2337 before you travel. If you are studying from another state, section 02 lists help that is open to you wherever you are sitting.

Three meetings you can simply turn up to, no email first. UMass Recovery publishes Recovery Lunch on Mondays 11am to 1pm, Worcester Unplugged on Mondays 4pm to 7pm, and the All Recovery Meeting on Fridays at 4:30pm — all of them in Worcester DC 155. Walking into a first meeting is a hard door; knowing the room number in advance helps. If a group is too much to start with, BASICS runs one to one from UHS Room 347 and aims to “reduce risky behaviors and prevent substance-related harm”, and the Drinker’s CheckUp is an “anonymous online screening tool” taking “3-5 minutes”. Peer recovery coaching, medication-assisted treatment and alcohol-free housing all exist; ring 413-577-5188 for the details the site leaves out.

If you call for help, you are protected, and so is the person you called about. The Minutes Matter Policy, catalogued as SACL 005, says “If a student seeks help for someone under the influence of alcohol or drugs who needs medical attention, neither party will be charged with a Code of Student Conduct violation.” It covers drink and drugs, caller and casualty. Afterwards, the student who was helped meets with staff and completes an educational programme, and “Serious or recurring incidents trigger heightened health response and potential Student Conduct review”. Nothing in it is voided because police reach the scene first. Make the call: a conduct policy is not the criminal law, and state law protects the caller separately — section 03.

Free, with “no medical training needed”, no appointment and no form. The harm reduction page names where to go: residential service desks at Brett, Crabtree, Cashin, Dickinson, Roots Café, Prince, John Adams and Thoreau, plus University Village, CCPH, University Health Services, the Off Campus Student Center, the SGA Office and the BASICS Office at UHS Room 347. There is no quantity limit. The one thing to plan around is that no opening times are published for any of those desks, so at 3am you may find a closed counter. If that happens, the state will post a kit to your term-time address free — section 05.

Getting started: daytime appointments go through 413-545-2337, option 5, and CCPH takes walk-ins Monday to Friday, 8:30am to 4:30pm. If you are not ready to book a course of therapy, Let’s Talk is a short consultation and it is “Always free”. For recovery you do not need to contact anybody first — the meetings in Worcester DC 155 are open.

• All three recovery meetings run in Worcester DC 155 — Recovery Lunch Mondays 11am to 1pm, Worcester Unplugged Mondays 4pm to 7pm, All Recovery Meeting Fridays 4:30pm.
• The BASICS Office, UHS Room 347 is both the one-to-one programme office and one of the naloxone pick-up points, so you can do both errands in one visit.
• If you want to read the amnesty policy yourself it is catalogued as SACL 005; its policy manager is Patricia Cardoso-Erase and 413-545-2684 is printed on the policy itself.
• At the Newton campus, the counselling page tells after-hours callers to “call 413-545-1802 and listen carefully to all the options” — no option is named, so listen through them all — and its hospital is Newton Wellesley Hospital Emergency Room.

If none of these gets you anywhere, 833-773-2445 and 988 are free, answered around the clock, and open to you whatever college you are at.

Free, and it stays free if you have no insurance. The Counseling Center says it outright: “All enrolled UMass Boston students, regardless of their insurance status, are eligible for our services at no cost.” There is no full-time test and no undergraduate-only test — being enrolled is enough. No session cap is published; the work is described as “Brief and focused individual therapy”. No missed-appointment charge and no cancellation window is published either, though it is worth ringing to cancel so somebody else can have the slot. If you are referred to an outside therapist, the Referrals page routes you through Welltrack Connect and names Open Path Collective, which charges a “$59 lifetime membership fee”. See section 06.

At night, ring the 855 number, not the 617 one. 855-634-4135 is the “UMB 24/7 Crisis Line” and an “on-call counselor” answers it. Save it now. The number printed beside it, 617-287-5690, is the Counseling Center, and the Emergencies page is the honest one about what that means: “(617) 287-5690 (during hours of operation)”. Ring it at 2am and you reach a shut office. Neither line asks you to press anything, and both are printed as plain text rather than tappable links on some pages, so you may have to type them. Seven hospital emergency departments are published with direct numbers, Boston Medical Center among them on 617-414-4075.

Nothing is published about being seen from outside Massachusetts. Six UMB pages carry no licensure rule, no state list and no teletherapy service, so if you study remotely, ring 617-287-5690 and ask whether they can see you where you are before you count on an appointment. Togetherall is available “online, 24/7” and works from anywhere, but it is peer support rather than therapy, and UMB does not present it as the out-of-state answer. The only other online option named belongs to somebody else: Open Path Collective, of whom UMB says “Many of their therapists offer online therapy”. section 02 lists help open to you wherever you are sitting.

There are recovery meetings, and only one of them publishes a time. The one you can plan around is the “UMass Boston Daily Collegiate Recovery Meeting”, listed as “Daily meetings from 8-9PM”. The others — “UMass Boston Recovery Community Meetings (Virtual)”, described as weekly, and Recovery@UMB — publish no day, time or room, and the Wellness page adds the BASU Group, “a bi-weekly peer-led space”, which does not run in summer. Email or ring before you set out rather than guessing. Turning up to a first meeting is hard enough without a wasted journey, and if you would rather talk to somebody first, SAMHSA’s free helpline 1-800-662-4357 is published on the same page.

Call, and neither of you is put through the conduct process for it. The Student Code of Conduct, effective 7 August 2025, says “neither the reporting student nor the student for whom medical assistance was sought will be subject to a Student Conduct complaint for possession, consumption or intoxication under the University’s alcohol or drug policies.” You must “remain with that individual… until University Police or other designated first responder… arrives on scene” and “cooperate fully with first responders”. The protection does not reach anyone “who have already been brought to the attention of University staff or emergency responders”, so dial early rather than waiting. And call even if you are past that point — state law protects the caller whatever the conduct code says. See section 03.

Walk in and take one — “no name or appointment needed”. The counter is UHS General Medicine, on the second floor of the Quinn Administration Building. The kit is free and holds “Narcan spray, Fentanyl & xylazine test strips, CPR face shield”, and somebody will show you how to use the spray if you want — a demonstration is offered, not required. The one thing to plan around is opening hours, which are not published, so that counter will not be there at 3am. For a kit posted to your term-time address free instead, with no prescription and no conversation with anybody, see section 05.

Where to go: UHS General Medicine, Quinn Administration Building, second floor, is the walk-in counter for naloxone and needs no name or appointment. Counselling numbers are printed as plain text rather than tappable links on several UMB pages, so type 855-634-4135 into your phone now rather than hunting for it later.

• The amnesty does not reach students “who have already been brought to the attention of University staff or emergency responders” — which is a reason to dial first rather than wait and see.
• Naloxone kit contents, in UMB’s own words: “Narcan spray, Fentanyl & xylazine test strips, CPR face shield”, from UHS General Medicine, Quinn Administration Building, 2nd floor, “no name or appointment needed”.
• If you land on the resources4u crisis page, do not use the numbers on it: it prints “1-800-273-TALK (8255)” and gives the Crisis Text Line as “Text 741741” with no keyword. 988 is published correctly on the Emergencies page and the Counseling Center resources page.

If none of these gets you anywhere, 833-773-2445 and 988 are free, answered around the clock, and open to you whatever college you are at.

It costs nothing, and your insurance is never touched. The policies page says “There are no fees, costs, or health insurance associated with any UMLCS counseling services.” Check you qualify before you book, because the rules here are precise: “All full-time and many part-time matriculated UMass Lowell students are eligible for services”, first-year students from “the first day of classes”, graduate students at “at least 1 credit”. Online-only students, continued-matriculation students and anyone fully withdrawn for the current semester are not eligible. Your first appointment is a 25-minute consultation in person, usually same-day or next business day, and you are asked to “arrive 20 minutes prior” to complete forms. No session cap and no missed-appointment charge is published.

Ring 855-890-2879 at any hour and ask for the on-call counsellor. The number is 855-890-2879, there is no menu, and UML publishes it identically across at least four pages, so it is the one to save. On-campus emergencies go to 978-934-4911, or 44911 from a campus phone. Save 988 alongside it, because UML publishes no national crisis number anywhere: if the 855 line is engaged or does not get you what you need, 988 is free and answered day and night. One thing worth knowing in advance: the page titled Mental Health Support carries no crisis number at all, so do not go looking there in a hurry.

If you are an online-only student, campus counselling is not open to you. The policies page says so plainly and offers nothing in its place, so go straight to section 02, which lists crisis lines and services that are open to everybody, whatever you are enrolled in and wherever you are. If you are a matriculated student who is simply out of state for a while — on co-op, on placement, home for the semester — nothing published says whether you can still be seen by telehealth. Ring 978-934-6800 and ask before you travel rather than finding out when you need an appointment.

There is no campus meeting with a day, a time and a room — so here is where to look instead. Students In Recovery sits within the Wellness Center and says the university “values and supports a well-rounded college experience for its students in recovery”, and what it gives you is a list of doors that are always open: Alcoholics Anonymous, Narcotics Anonymous, SMART Recovery, Al-Anon, GRASP, Yoga of 12-Step and Learn to Cope. Any of them will take you exactly as you are. For treatment nearer to home, UML names Lowell House Addiction Treatment and Recovery, which runs sober housing and recovery coaching. To talk it through first, the Substance Use Helpline is 800-327-5050, free and confidential; section 02 has more.

There is a Good Samaritan Policy, and its text will not load. It is Appendix E of the Student Conduct Code, which is marked “Reviewed and Updated September 2025”, and nobody can tell you from outside what it covers or what conditions attach, because the appendix does not open. If that matters to you, ask the Dean of Students or ring Counseling Services on 978-934-6800 for a copy before you need it. And if you are deciding right now whether to call for somebody, call. The college conduct process is a separate thing from the criminal law, and Massachusetts law protects a person who calls for help regardless of what any campus policy says — section 03.

Nothing is published about getting naloxone at UMass Lowell. Not on the Wellness Center pages, the recovery page, Health Services, the residence life pages or counselling. So use the state route, which is simpler anyway: Massachusetts will post you a free kit with fentanyl test strips in it, to your term-time address, with no prescription, no insurance and no conversation with anybody — section 05 has how to ask. Any Massachusetts pharmacy must also hand you naloxone without a prescription. If you want to know whether the campus holds kits, Health Services is 978-934-6800.

Getting started: Counseling Services is at Meehan Student Center, Suite 300, and your first appointment is a 25-minute consultation in person, offered same-day or next business day — ask for that rather than waiting for a therapy slot. Arrive 20 minutes early to complete the forms, and check your eligibility on the phone if you are part-time or in your final semester.

• Who is eligible, in UML’s own words: “All full-time and many part-time matriculated UMass Lowell students are eligible for services” — with online-only students excluded and graduate students needing “at least 1 credit”.
• The counselling centre’s opening time is published two ways, 8:30am on one page and 8:15am on two others. Arrive by 8:15 and you cannot lose fifteen minutes of a same-day slot.
• Counseling Services and Health Services share 978-934-6800 and both sit in Meehan Student Center, Suite 300, 100 Meehan Way (220 Pawtucket Street).

If none of these gets you anywhere, 833-773-2445 and 988 are free, answered around the clock, and open to you whatever college you are at.

Free to every registered student. “Counseling services are paid for by student fees and are free to all BSU students”, and “All registered Bridgewater State University students are eligible for an initial consultation appointment”. Registered is the only test — not full-time, not fees paid in full. That guarantee is written around the first consultation rather than the therapy that follows it, so at that appointment ask plainly what happens next and whether anything later is chargeable. Ongoing work is “typically 1-12 sessions” at “a maximum of one session each week”. No missed-appointment charge appears anywhere. Insurance only comes up if you are referred to an outside provider; section 06 covers paying for that.

Ring 508-531-1331 by day, and have a backup for the night. The number is 508-531-1331. One BSU page prints it as “Counseling Services * 24/7 Support”; the Title IX confidential crisis page gives the same line as an office, Monday to Wednesday and Friday 8:30am to 4:30pm and Thursday from 9:30am. So if nobody answers, ring 988, free and open around the clock, or text HELLO to 741741 — both are what the counselling service’s own page tells after-hours callers to do. There is nothing to press on any BSU line. After hours a “clinician” is described but no service is named. On campus, the named hospital is Brockton Hospital.

Nothing is published about being seen from outside Massachusetts. The MyBSU portal advertises “free virtual and in person Counseling Services”, and no page says where you may be sitting when you use the virtual half: five BSU pages carry no licensure rule, no state list and no teletherapy service. So if you are out of state, or about to be, ring 508-531-1331 and ask whether they can see you there before you count on an appointment. Get the answer before you travel rather than after. section 02 lists help that is open to you wherever you are.

For drink or drugs, the door is Health Promotion, Weygand Hall Room 1048. Ring 508-531-2200. They “oversee the Alcohol and Drug Program on campus” and offer “individual consultation, prevention efforts, and educational outreach”, and their Peer Educators “connect students to university and community resources”. That is what Bridgewater publishes: there is no recovery meeting on campus with a day, a time or a room, and no recovery community, coach or sober housing. That is not a reason to stop. The Substance Use Helpline on 800-327-5050 is free, confidential and open to anybody, and section 02 has meetings and treatment you can reach from Bridgewater.

Bridgewater’s policy does not promise you will not be disciplined. Where a student aids an intoxicated or impaired individual by contacting BSU Police or Residence Life staff, “it is up to the discretion of the Director of Community Standards, or designee, to determine if any involved parties or Student Organizations will be subject to disciplinary action”. So it is decided case by case. It does reach both drink and drugs, and it is the only policy here that names student organisations. It does not cover physical harm, property damage, harassment, hazing or Title IX matters. Call anyway: the conduct process is not the criminal law, and state law protects a person who calls for help whatever the university decides afterwards — section 03.

This is the one campus here where you can get a kit at 3am. Naloxone sits in roughly 60 locations including every residence hall, stored in the same cabinets as the defibrillators and marked on the campus map with a heart and lightning-bolt symbol, plus the parking monitor booths outside Moakley, West and Harrington. It is there “at any time”, for students, staff and faculty, with no training requirement, no appointment, no form and no staffed counter to find first. Look at the map now, so you know your nearest cabinet before the night you need it. No price is published; if you would rather have your own kit posted to you free, see section 05.

Where things are: Counseling Services and the Wellness Center are both in Weygand Hall Room 1110, 351 Great Hill Drive, and the Wellness Center is 508-531-1252; Health Promotion, for drink and drugs, is Weygand Hall Room 1048. Everybody starts with an initial consultation appointment, so ring 508-531-1331 to book that rather than arriving expecting therapy. For naloxone training, ask for Detective Sergeant Robert McEvoy at BSU Police.

• What the amnesty actually says: “it is up to the discretion of the Director of Community Standards, or designee, to determine if any involved parties or Student Organizations will be subject to disciplinary action.” It is a decision, not a guarantee — and the law in section 03 is separate from it.
• Naloxone sits in roughly 60 AED cabinets including every residence hall, plus the Moakley, West and Harrington parking monitor booths, marked with a heart and lightning-bolt symbol on the campus map and available at any hour with no training required. For training, Detective Sergeant Robert McEvoy, BSU Police, 508-531-1212.
• If you need a domestic violence line, use 800-799-7233, which is printed correctly on BSU’s student crisis page. The Title IX page gives “(800) 656-4673” under that name, and that is RAINN’s number, not the domestic violence hotline.

If none of these gets you anywhere, 833-773-2445 and 988 are free, answered around the clock, and open to you whatever college you are at.

Free, and your insurance is never billed. The Counseling, Prevention and Wellness Center answers it in one line: “No, there is no cost to see a counselor. We do not bill insurance”. What is not published is who counts as a student, so if you are on a non-credit or workforce course, ring and ask before your first appointment rather than assuming either way — nobody will mind the question. Care is “short-term” and “The number of appointments varies based on the student’s needs”, with no number attached. No missed-appointment charge is published. The centre is Room B-138, open “9 a.m – 5 p.m Monday-Friday” for appointments and for walk-ins, so you can turn up.

Counselling here is a weekday service, 9am to 5pm, and there is nothing after it. For nights and weekends, save 988 — free, confidential and answered around the clock — and ring 911 for a medical emergency. On campus in the day you can “dial the Emergency Phone Extension, 2222, from the nearest College phone”. One warning about the college’s own tools and resources page: it prints the National Domestic Violence Hotline as 1-800-799-7223, and that is a wrong number that goes nowhere. The real one is 1-800-799-7233. The same page prints the retired “800-273-TALK (8255)” for the national lifeline; use 988 instead.

Nothing is published about being seen from another state. Five BHCC pages carry no licensure rule, no state list and no teletherapy service, and searches for telehealth return course-delivery pages about teaching rather than counselling. Bunker Hill runs substantial online and distance programmes, so if you are studying from outside Massachusetts, ring a counsellor directly — 857-262-1317 reaches Dr Sartreina Dottin — and ask what they can offer you where you are. Do it before you need an appointment, not during. section 02 lists help that is open to everybody, wherever you are sitting.

Bunker Hill publishes no recovery meeting or substance use programme — so here is where to start. The Counseling, Prevention and Wellness Center in Room B-138 is still the right door: four counsellors are named there with direct lines, and you can ask to talk about drink or drugs like anything else. Nobody there is designated the alcohol and drug lead, so ask for whoever is free. For help beyond the college, the Substance Use Helpline on 800-327-5050 is free, confidential and open around the clock, and section 02 lists meetings and treatment near Charlestown. The one treatment provider named on BHCC’s own pages is Westbridge, 800-889-7871.

If you report in good faith, you are protected. Section 8F of the Student Code of Conduct says “A reporting individual acting in good faith that reports a violation of the Code will not be subject to disciplinary action for violations of alcohol and/or drug use policies occurring at or near the time of the Code violation, provided that they did not harm or place the health or safety of any other person at risk.” Know its shape: it covers the person who reports, and says nothing about the person who needed help. It is also written about reporting rather than about medical emergencies. Call regardless — state law protects a person who calls for help, and it is separate from college discipline. See section 03.

Bunker Hill publishes no way to get naloxone on campus. So use the state route, which asks nothing of you: Massachusetts will post a free kit with fentanyl test strips to your term-time address, with no prescription, no insurance and no conversation with anybody — section 05 has how. Any Massachusetts pharmacy must also give you naloxone without a prescription, and there is no need to explain why you want it. If you would rather ask on campus whether kits are held anywhere, the Counseling, Prevention and Wellness Center in Room B-138 is the place to ask.

Getting started: Room B-138 is the door, open 9am to 5pm Monday to Friday for appointments and for walk-ins, and you can ask for a counsellor by name — Dr Sartreina Dottin, Miranda Cardona, Mary Cannon and Liz Driscoll all publish direct lines. Health Services is a separate office in the E building and its hours are published two different ways, so ring before you walk over.

• Four counsellors with direct lines: Dr Sartreina Dottin 857-262-1317, Miranda Cardona 857-262-1345, Mary Cannon 857-500-3322 and Liz Driscoll 617-228-2313, in Room B-138, with offices at B-138C, B-138F and B-138G.
• Two numbers on the tools and resources page will not reach anybody useful. It prints the National Domestic Violence Hotline as 1-800-799-7223 — the real one is 1-800-799-7233 — and it prints “800-273-TALK (8255)” while labelling 988 as “The Samaritan’s Crisis Hotline”. Dial 988 for the national line.
• Health services hours are published two ways: “Monday – Friday: 10 a.m. – 3 p.m.” in Room E-154 on one page, and Monday, Wednesday and Thursday 10:30am to 3:30pm, Tuesday 11am to 6pm and Friday 9am to 1pm in the handbook, with the clinic in E145. Ring before you walk over.

If none of these gets you anywhere, 833-773-2445 and 988 are free, answered around the clock, and open to you whatever college you are at.

Counselling costs you nothing, and it is your health fee that pays, not your insurance. CAMHS says services are “offered at no cost and are covered by your student health fee”, and that mandatory fee gives “all Harvard Students access to almost all care”. So if you waived the Blue Cross plan because you are on a parent’s policy, counselling is still free to you. How much you get is less clear: the FAQ calls the model “short-term”, the insurance page promises “As many visits as medically necessary”, and the only countable number published, 12, belongs to TimelyCare. Ask at your first appointment how many sessions to expect. Cancel anything you cannot attend — a missed appointment is $25. See section 06.

Ring 617-495-2042 at any hour, and do not press 1. The number is 617-495-2042, it is the CAMHS Cares Line, it runs weekends and holidays, and Harvard prints it identically on four pages. The thing to know before you dial is that the same number is the front desk, and the only digit published — press 1 — goes to administrative staff, appointments and prescription refills. The digit that reaches a counsellor is not published, so stay on the line and follow the prompts rather than pressing 1 when you are in crisis. Harvard names no hospital, only “the nearest hospital emergency room”. If the line does not get you what you need, 988 is free and answers day and night.

Inside the United States you keep counselling; outside it, you do not. TimelyCare, Harvard’s teletherapy service, states that counselling and psychiatry are “not available outside of the United States”, and abroad you keep health coaching, TalkNow and the peer forum only. In the US you get “Up to 12 telehealth counseling visits fully covered each academic year”, and three things are required for any of it: that you are a registered student, that you use your Harvard email address, and that you pay the student health fee. Whether CAMHS itself can see you when you are sitting in Texas in January is not published, so ring 617-495-2042 and ask before term ends. See section 02.

Email Janet Lawrence, LICSW, and ask what is running this term. She is the published route to all three things on offer: short-term individual therapy, a substance use consultation, and a clinician-led recovery group. Ask before you set out, because the schedules disagree — the College calendar lists the group as Wednesdays 4:30pm to 6pm in the HUHS West Wing Conference Room at the Smith Campus Center, with a run of 18 March to 13 May 2026, while the substance use page says it meets on Zoom. A first recovery meeting is a hard enough door without arriving at an empty room. Send the email, ask when and where, and go.

Seek treatment and you will not be disciplined — including if you supplied the drink. The Help-Seeking Policy protects students seeking treatment “for themselves or another person” from discipline for violations “pertaining to the use or provision of drugs or alcohol”. That word provision matters: at most colleges the person who supplied it loses the protection, and here they keep it. Harvard draws its line at “possession in quantity, sale, or distribution”. Nothing is voided because police arrive first, and no limit is published on how often you may rely on it. The policy is hard to find, and the Dean of Students page mentions it without quoting it. Call regardless: college discipline is not the criminal law, and state law protects the caller — section 03.

Harvard does not publish a way to get naloxone on campus. Not on the prevention office pages, the substance use service, the health service homepage or either crisis page. So use the state route, which asks nothing of you: Massachusetts will post you a free kit with fentanyl test strips, to your term-time address, with no prescription, no insurance and no conversation with anybody — section 05 has how to ask. Any Massachusetts pharmacy must also give you naloxone without a prescription. If you would rather ask a person on campus, Urgent Care at the Smith Campus Center is 617-495-5711, daily 8am to 6pm.

Getting started: 617-495-2042 is both the 24-hour crisis line and the appointments desk, so it is one number to save. In office hours press 1 to book; in a crisis stay on the line instead. Urgent Care is at the Smith Campus Center, daily 8am to 6pm. Cancel anything you cannot attend — the no-show fee is $25, and it is appealable on a form.

• The recovery group is listed as Wednesdays 4:30pm to 6pm, HUHS West Wing Conference Room with a run of 18 March to 13 May 2026, and elsewhere as a Zoom group — email Janet Lawrence, LICSW, to find out which is true this term.
• The CAMHS Cares Line, 617-495-2042, is also the front desk, and the only published digit, press 1, routes to appointments and prescription refills rather than to a counsellor.
• $25 is the no-show fee, appealable on a form. The FAQ asks you to cancel “in a timely manner” without saying how many hours, so cancel as soon as you know.

If none of these gets you anywhere, 833-773-2445 and 988 are free, answered around the clock, and open to you whatever college you are at.

Free, with a written promise of no copay. Counselling is “included in your Institute fees; you will have no copay”, and visits are described as “confidential, free of charge, and easy to arrange”. Who can come is as broad as it gets — “any MIT students who feel stressed or troubled” — and nothing turns on whether you carry the MIT plan or waived it. No session cap is published and no missed-appointment charge. One number on that page is not for you: the “up to four free and confidential counseling sessions per person, per concern” belongs to MyLife Services, which is for staff, faculty and postdocs. See section 06.

Ring 617-253-2916, at any hour. MIT Health publishes 617-253-2916 for “Urgent Mental Health Concerns” and says “Mental health clinicians… available 24 hours a day”. Put it in your phone now, because a second number circulates: the Faculty Guide gives 617-253-4481 as the 24/7 counselling line, while every other MIT page calls that the main switchboard — so if somebody reads that one out to you at 2am, use 2916 instead. Emergency Management labels 2916 “Mental Health (students, non-emergency)”; it is still the right number for an urgent concern. On campus, ring MIT Police on 617-253-1212 for a faster ambulance. Nothing to press.

You have to be physically in Massachusetts. MIT states it in one sentence: “Because some states have laws restricting the provision of telehealth services across state lines, MIT Health’s telehealth services are available only to patients who are physically located in Massachusetts at the time of the appointment.” It is where you are sitting that counts, not where you live. So if you are going home to California over winter break or abroad on a placement, arrange something before you go, because MIT names no teletherapy service to fall back on. Ring 617-253-2916 while you are still here, and see section 02 for help that is open to you wherever you are.

Email aods@mit.edu — that is the published way in. Alcohol and Other Drug Services runs BASICS as “A 2-session program”, one to one and private, screening with the AUDIT and DAST questionnaires, and nothing is priced. If you would rather start on your own, the 360 Proof Personal Feedback Index takes about fifteen minutes online. For meetings, MIT says AA and NA meet “both on campus and within surrounding community” and gives you aaboston.org and nerna.org rather than a day, a time or a room — so ask aods@mit.edu what actually meets on campus. The Substance Use Helpline, 800-327-5050, is free and confidential, and section 02 has more.

Call: this is the widest protection of the fourteen. The Mind and Hand Book covers alcohol and prohibited substances and protects four groups — the student treated, the student who called, student organisations, and students reporting a crime or a policy violation in good faith while intoxicated, with sexual misconduct and hazing named. There is no cap on how many times you may rely on it and no repeat-incident bar. What you must do: ring 100 on campus or 617-253-1212, stay with the person, cooperate with staff, and complete any education asked of you afterwards. It is failing to follow up, not being found by staff, that voids it. State law protects the caller too — section 03.

MIT publishes nothing about naloxone for students. Not on its pharmacy page, its urgent care page, the training menu or either handbook drug policy. So use the state route: Massachusetts will post you a free kit with fentanyl test strips, with no prescription, no insurance and no conversation with anybody — section 05 has how to ask. Any Massachusetts pharmacy must also hand you naloxone without a prescription, and MIT Health runs one. If you want to ask a clinician in person, Urgent Care in Building E23 is answered 24 hours a day on 617-253-1311.

Getting started: counselling visits are described as “easy to arrange” and open to “any MIT students who feel stressed or troubled”, so you do not need a referral or a reason that sounds serious enough. For anything to do with drink or drugs, email aods@mit.edu. And keep both night-time routes: 617-253-2916 for an urgent mental health concern, 617-253-1212 for MIT Police, which brings an ambulance to campus faster than 911.

• The same number, 617-253-2916, is called “Urgent Mental Health Concerns” by MIT Health and “Mental Health (students, non-emergency)” by MIT Emergency Management. It is the right number either way.
• The Dean on Call has a direct callback number, 617-258-5152, published only in the Faculty Guide; the Student Life route is through MIT Police.
• MIT is explicit that on campus its own police line beats 911 — ring 617-253-1212 “for faster ambulance response”.

If none of these gets you anywhere, 833-773-2445 and 988 are free, answered around the clock, and open to you whatever college you are at.

Free, and your insurance is not billed — but check which tier you are in. BU says “There is no cost for our appointments and we do not bill your insurance”. Full-time students get everything regardless of insurance; part-time students without the BU plan get “groups and emergency help only”; online-only students are “ineligible for direct services”. Ask at your first appointment how many sessions you can expect, because one page says three different things: “Short-term therapy typically in the range of 2 to 8 sessions”, “We don’t have a specific session limit”, and “usually 3-4 sessions over a few months”. Seen off campus on the BU plan it is $10 a session with “no limit on the number of sessions”. See section 06.

Ring 617-353-3569 at any hour, and there is nothing to press. BU publishes 617-353-3569 as 24/7/365 with an on-call counsellor answering, and prints it identically on five of its pages, so it is the one to save. Counselling itself is shut at weekends and opens at 11am on Thursdays, two and a half hours later than the rest of the week. Ignore crisis numbers you meet elsewhere on bu.edu: a College of Fine Arts page still prints the retired “1-800-273-TALK (8255)” and gives the text line as START to 741-741 and as the five-digit 74141. Use 988 as your backup instead — free, and answered around the clock.

Ring and ask before you leave the state. Nothing is published about where you may be sitting: four BU pages carry no licensure rule, no physical-presence test and no study-abroad sentence, while BU offers counselling “in-person or by Zoom” with day and evening appointments. So get an answer from 617-353-3569 before a long break rather than during one. The one teletherapy service BU names is Mantra, reachable only through a referral coordinator, with no coverage map published. Online-only students are not eligible for direct services and are routed to Togetherall, a moderated peer forum. section 02 lists help that is open to everybody.

Email recovery@bu.edu and ask when the next meeting is. There is a real recovery community here, and it goes by two names — the “BU Recovery Community (BURC)” on one page and “The Collegiate Recovery Program (CRP)” on another — so search for both. Meetings are “held weekly throughout the academic year” and are “peer-led by a BU student in recovery”, and no day, time or room is published, so the email or the interest form is how you find out. Somebody will write back with a time, and you do not have to explain yourself to ask. Screening is anonymous and covers cannabis as well as alcohol, and nothing published carries a fee.

Call, and neither of you is sanctioned for the drink or the drugs. BU’s policy reads: “When a BU student seeks help for themselves or others who’ve used alcohol or drugs, neither student will receive a sanction for alcohol or drug use, as long as they complete an educational or counseling program on campus.” Both parties, drink and drugs, with that programme afterwards as the one condition. BU is also the only university here that tells students the law behind it, citing M.G.L. c. 94C § 34A, the overdose Good Samaritan law — though its Dean of Students copy of the same sentence leaves the citation out. Make the call: the statute stands on its own, whatever the university decides. See section 03.

No kits on campus, but BU tells you exactly where to go and what it costs. Massachusetts pharmacies “are required to have naloxone available and will provide naloxone without a prescription”, and BU names two: CVS at 900 Commonwealth Avenue and the BMC Pharmacy at Shapiro, 725 Albany Street. It is free on the BU student plan and free on the staff plan, and uninsured you should expect “$30–$50 (cost can vary) for two doses/one box”. No appointment, form or training is needed. Pharmacy counters keep hours, so for a kit that arrives without a journey, the state will post you one free — section 05.

Before you ring: counselling is shut at weekends and opens at 11am on Thursdays, so plan around that. A second counselling office runs on Wednesdays only, at the Solomon Carter Fuller Mental Health Center, 85 East Newton Street, Room 816. For recovery, the way in is the interest form or recovery@bu.edu. Ask at your first appointment how many sessions you can expect, because the published answer varies.

• Three different session counts sit on the page titled Counseling — “2 to 8 sessions”, “We don’t have a specific session limit” and “3-4 sessions over a few months”. Ask which applies to you at the first appointment.
• BU is the only university here that prints the statute for students: M.G.L. c. 94C § 34A. Section 03 sets out what it does and does not cover.
• Two BU pages carry numbers not to dial: a College of Fine Arts page tells you to text START to 741-741 (and elsewhere to 74141) and to ring “1-800-273-TALK (8255)”, and BU Safety pairs a correct 988 with the retired TTY line 1-800-799-4889.

If none of these gets you anywhere, 833-773-2445 and 988 are free, answered around the clock, and open to you whatever college you are at.

Free, and BC is the most honest here about how much you get. “There are no charges for the services provided by University Counseling Services.” Rather than a cap, BC publishes an estimate and a range: “Average number of psychotherapy sessions for most students are 6-8 sessions”, and therapy “can range anywhere from few sessions to ongoing sessions within a semester or more”. What decides access is enrolment rather than insurance — full-time degree students get everything, while part-time and non-matriculating students are “eligible only for consultation, evaluation, and referral”, which is an assessment and a list of outside therapists. You start with a same-day 30-minute consultation or a 20-minute triage call, and no missed-appointment fee is published.

Ring 617-552-3310 and press option 2 for the Psychological Emergency Clinician. The number is 617-552-3310, and that instruction is printed identically on the emergencies page, the contact page and the appointments page, so you can rely on it. The only thing to watch is the hour: the same page gives office hours as “Monday through Friday 8:45 a.m. to 4:45 p.m.” and, a line later, tells you to press 2 “outside Monday–Friday, 8:45–4:00 p.m.” If you are ringing between 4pm and 4:45pm, press 2 anyway. For a medical emergency on campus ring 617-552-4444. BC publishes no 988; save it, it is free and answers around the clock.

Ring and ask before you go home for a long break. Nothing is published about being seen from outside Massachusetts, in either direction: four BC counselling pages carry no licensure rule, no physical-presence test and no teletherapy service to fall back on. So get an answer from 617-552-3310 in advance rather than assuming your appointments continue. The one thing BC names in this space is WellTrack, “an online resource that provides evidence-based tools to promote mental health and wellness” — a self-guided app rather than a clinician, and no substitute if you need to talk to a person from New Jersey in January. section 02 lists help open to you wherever you are.

Go to Gasson Hall 013/025 yourself and it is free. That office runs more than anywhere else here — BASICS, a BASICS Booster, CODE, a Cannabis Assessment, ICS, AIM and simple voluntary consultations — staffed by Judy Oxford and by Tim Burke, MSW, LICSW, LADC1, a licensed addiction counsellor. Walk in of your own accord and there is no charge. Be referred or sanctioned into one and there is a “$50 fee assessed to students referred to BASICS, BASICS Booster, CODE, or Cannabis Assessment” or a “$100 fee for students sanctioned to complete AIM, ICS, or a Substance Abuse Assessment”. Boston College Recovery Housing is a named sober residence, and the meetings BC gives times for are in East Boston and in Fall River.

Call: “neither the caller nor the impacted party will receive a status sanction related to substance use”. That covers both of you. The condition falls on the person who was treated, who “will be required to complete certain educational and/or counseling interventions” — not may, will. BC prices those same interventions at $50 and $100 when a student is referred or sanctioned into them, and does not say whether the amnesty route counts as the free self-referral, so ask Gasson Hall 013/025 on 617-552-9900 what you will owe. None of that is a reason to hesitate on the night. The conduct policy is not the criminal law, and state law protects the caller — section 03.

Boston College does not publish a way to get naloxone on campus. Not on either copy of its alcohol and drug page, the recovery page or university health services. So use the state route, which asks nothing of you: Massachusetts will post you a free kit with fentanyl test strips, with no prescription, no insurance and no conversation with anybody — section 05 has how to ask. Any Massachusetts pharmacy must also give you naloxone without a prescription. If you want to ask on campus, the Alcohol and Drug Education Program in Gasson Hall 013/025, 617-552-9900, is the office most likely to know.

Getting started: you begin with a same-day 30-minute consultation or a 20-minute triage call, so ring 617-552-3310 and ask for that rather than waiting for a therapy slot to appear. For drink or drugs, walk into Gasson Hall 013/025 yourself and it costs nothing. That office appears under three names across BC’s pages — Office for Student Wellness, Murray Center for Student Wellness and Health Promotion — and it is all the same place.

• One page, two closing times: office hours of “8:45 a.m. to 4:45 p.m.” and, a line below, an instruction to press option 2 “outside Monday–Friday, 8:45–4:00 p.m.” Between 4pm and 4:45pm, press 2 anyway.
• $50 for BASICS, a BASICS Booster, CODE or a Cannabis Assessment on referral; $100 for AIM, ICS or a substance abuse assessment on sanction; and “Services are free to those who self-refer”.
• The two recovery meetings BC publishes times for are Wednesday 5pm to 6:15pm at 175 North Main Street, Fall River, about fifty miles away, and Friday 7pm in East Boston.

If none of these gets you anywhere, 833-773-2445 and 988 are free, answered around the clock, and open to you whatever college you are at.

Free and unlimited — if you are full-time, on ground and degree-seeking. Northeastern publishes “Unlimited free virtual counseling sessions” through Uwill, matched on “immediacy, gender, ethnicity, and focus area”, plus free in-person care in Boston, New York City and Oakland. Check that eligibility line before you count on it, because it is three conditions deep: “full time on ground degree seeking students”. If you are part-time, online or non-degree, you are outside both the counselling and the 24/7 line, and what is offered instead is Togetherall and self-assessment modules — section 02 lists help that is open to everybody. No cap is published for in-person sessions and no missed-appointment fee.

Ring 877-233-9477 in the US, 855-229-8797 in Canada, 781-457-7777 anywhere else. At any hour, on any of them — 877-233-9477, 855-229-8797, 781-457-7777 — a licensed therapist working for Uwill answers, and there is nothing to press. Save the numbers now, because the page you are most likely to land on will not give them to you: the counselling homepage publishes only “In case of emergency, call Northeastern Police (NUPD) at 617.373.3333 or 911”, with no crisis line and no 988 on it at all. In the day you can drop in without an appointment, 11am to 2pm daily and 5pm to 7:30pm on Tuesdays and Thursdays.

You can be seen from outside Massachusetts, and there is a number for wherever you are. Uwill counselling is free, virtual and unlimited, and three regional lines are published — United States, Canada and international — so leaving the state does not end your access. Northeastern also runs in-person care at its own campuses in Boston, New York City and Oakland. Two things to check for yourself: no coverage map is published, so ask Uwill whether your therapist is licensed where you are sitting, and no licensure rule is published for Northeastern’s own clinicians. All of it still depends on being full-time, on ground and degree-seeking.

Ring the Office of Prevention and Education on 617-373-4459. Three people are named there — Colin Griffiths, Alex Kane and Bella Donovan — and what they run is “Two fifty-minute meetings”, virtual or in person, with personalised feedback, plus a 90-minute OPEN Group and the eCheckup to Go self-assessment you can do alone. Nothing is priced, which is worth asking about, because that check-in is required after an amnesty incident. There is no recovery meeting, recovery community, coach or sober housing published anywhere on northeastern.edu, so for a meeting use the Substance Use Helpline on 800-327-5050, free and confidential, or section 02.

Call early — the protection is lost if staff find the emergency first. The Code of Student Conduct, the 2026-2027 edition, protects the caller, the student treated and student organisations from discipline “for the violation of possession or consumption of alcohol or drugs”. It then says the policy does not apply if University employees discover the emergency, naming police, faculty, staff and “residence hall personnel” — in a residence hall your RA counts, so dial before anyone walks in. Repeated instances may be actioned “regardless of manner in which incident was reported”, and the final say sits with the director of OSCCR. Even past that point, call: state law protects a person who calls for help — section 03.

Walk into 307 Ell Hall, 360 Huntington Avenue, Monday to Friday 9am to 4pm. Show a Northeastern ID to confirm you are a community member and take a free kit containing “2 doses of 4 mg naloxone nasal spray, one rescue breathing mask, and educational materials”, plus five fentanyl test strips. There is no appointment, no form and no training requirement; a staff member will show you how to use it and offer you more, and Northeastern states that “personal information is not recorded”. Larger quantities and collection outside those hours are arranged by email. If you need one tonight instead, section 05 has the state’s free postal kit.

Getting started: mental health drop-in runs 11am to 2pm daily and 5pm to 7:30pm on Tuesdays and Thursdays, which is the only published evening walk-in of the fourteen, so you can be seen without booking. Carry your Husky Card if you are collecting naloxone at 307 Ell Hall — the ID is checked, though no record is kept. For drink or drugs, the Office of Prevention and Education is 617-373-4459.

• 307 Ell Hall, 360 Huntington Avenue, Monday to Friday 9am to 4pm — free kits of two naloxone doses plus a rescue breathing mask and five fentanyl test strips, ID checked, and “personal information is not recorded”.
• Northeastern names who picks up its crisis line: Uwill, on four separate pages, with the answerer described as a licensed therapist. You are not ringing an answering service.
• The amnesty does not apply “if University employees discover the emergency” — police, faculty, staff and residence hall personnel are all named, and the naloxone page repeats the headline without that exclusion. Dial first.

If none of these gets you anywhere, 833-773-2445 and 988 are free, answered around the clock, and open to you whatever college you are at.

Counselling is free; psychiatry costs $100 a visit unless you are on the Tufts plan. The initial psychiatric evaluation is free for everyone, and medication follow-ups of 20 to 30 minutes are free on the Tufts plan and “$100” without it — monthly reviews come to roughly $1,200 a year if you waived it. “CMHS cannot bill your health insurance directly”, so you pay up front and claim “possible reimbursement” yourself. Who qualifies for any of it: “all currently enrolled full-time students as well as currently enrolled part-time students who have paid the Health and Wellness fee”. If you are not on the Tufts plan, ask the cost before your first psychiatry appointment. See section 06.

Ring 617-627-3360 and press 1 for the Counselor on Call. That digit is published in one place only, the emergency contacts page — the CMHS FAQ and the staff guide both say only “follow the prompts” — so remember it: 617-627-3360, then 1. From 9am to 5pm the same number is the front desk. Keep 617-627-3400, the Tufts 24/7 Help Line, as a backup if nobody picks up. Ears for Peers, answered by students, runs 7pm to 7am on 617-627-3888. Tufts publishes no 988 and names no hospital, so save 988 too — it is free and answered around the clock.

Whether you can be seen from another state depends on which insurance you bought. What Tufts publishes is HealthiestYou, “a national telehealth service” giving “free access to mental health care”, and it comes with the Tufts student health insurance plan rather than with being a Tufts student. If you waived the plan and go home out of state, Tufts publishes no route at all — no licensure rule, no vendor, no referral mechanism — so ring 617-627-3360 and ask what CMHS can do before you travel. No coverage map is published for HealthiestYou either. Section 06 covers the plan, and section 02 lists help open to you wherever you are.

Email Laura Michelson, Alcohol and Drug Specialist in Health Service — she is the way in to all of it. THREAD runs BASICS as “a two session harm reduction session”, does screening and assessment, and offers anonymous UScreen self-assessments for alcohol, cannabis and prescription drugs, none of it priced. She also arranges the two named substance-free residences, Wilson House and Simpson House, which are open to first-year as well as continuing students. There is a peer recovery group, and it meets only “Periodically… To learn more about upcoming meetings, email Laura.” So email and ask when the next one is. It is a fair thing to ask, and it is the only way to find out.

The wording is “will not typically” — so know what you are relying on, and ring anyway. The conduct appendix says “Students who seek medical help for themselves or someone else will not typically face disciplinary action for alcohol or other drug possession or use related to that incident.” That is a strong expectation rather than a promise, and Tufts publishes no condition, exclusion or criterion that would tell you when the unusual case arises. The protection that does not bend is the law rather than the handbook: Massachusetts protects a person who calls for help regardless of what a college policy says. Section 03 sets out exactly what it covers. Ring early either way.

Naloxone and fentanyl test strips are free from THREAD — ask them where to collect. Tufts puts it plainly: “You can visit THREAD for fentanyl test strips and naloxone. You have free access to these resources at Tufts and can request them here.” No training, appointment, prescription or eligibility test stands in the way. What is missing is the address: no building, room number or opening hours is published, so email Laura Michelson or ring Health Service and ask. If you want a kit without waiting, the state will post you one free — section 05. Tufts also publishes the MA Overdose Prevention Hotline, 800-972-0590, which you can ring while you are using alone.

Getting started: 617-627-3360 is the front desk from 9am to 5pm and the Counselor on Call after hours, so it is one number to save either way. Everything to do with drink, drugs, sober housing and the recovery group goes through Laura Michelson in Health Service. And if you would rather talk to somebody your own age, Ears for Peers is 617-627-3888, 7pm to 7am.

• Psychiatry medication follow-ups of 20 to 30 minutes are free on the Tufts plan and $100 without it, paid up front, because “CMHS cannot bill your health insurance directly”. Ask the price before the appointment.
• “Press 1” is published exactly once, on the emergency contacts page; the FAQ and the staff distress guide say “follow the prompts” instead. Press 1.
• Wilson House and Simpson House are named substance-free residences open to first-year students, arranged through Laura Michelson, Alcohol and Drug Specialist in Health Service.

If none of these gets you anywhere, 833-773-2445 and 988 are free, answered around the clock, and open to you whatever college you are at.

The strongest money promise here — behind one annual form. The Counseling Center says “We will not limit students’ care due to session limits, ability to pay, or limited health insurance”, that copayments “are covered by Brandeis and will be paid out of student fees”, and that anything an insurer does not cover is not billed on to you. There is no session cap. The form is the thing to deal with now: you must be enrolled three-quarter or full-time in a degree-granting programme and “report their insurance to the school annually (through University Health Plans)”. On the plain wording, miss that declaration and you are not eligible to be seen. See section 06.

Brandeis publishes four out-of-hours numbers. Save all of them and work down the list. Start with 781-736-3730, the on-call clinician the Counseling Center names on its own services page. If nobody answers, try 781-736-3785, which PARC gives for after hours; then 781-239-8312, described as “our answering service”; then 781-736-3677, which reaches a nurse at the Student Health Center. Nothing needs to be pressed on any of them. For a medical emergency on campus, ring Public Safety on 781-736-3333. And 988 is free and answered around the clock wherever you are.

Ask before you leave Waltham, because nothing is published about it. Five Brandeis pages carry no licensure rule, no physical-presence test and no out-of-state referral route, and Brandeis names no teletherapy service of any kind. So if you are taking medical leave, going home for the winter or studying abroad, ring 781-736-3730 in advance and get an answer about whether the Counseling Center can keep seeing you, and what to do if it cannot. The promise not to limit care by session limits or ability to pay is real, and it has no published mechanism once you leave. section 02 is open to everybody.

BASICS at the Counseling Center, and meetings off campus. BASICS is published as “a two-session assessment designed specifically for college students” — an initial screening, then a personalised feedback session — and nothing is priced. There is also consultation if you are worried about somebody else, and referral to providers in the community. The published contacts are hawp@brandeis.edu and 781-736-3678. For a meeting you will be travelling: what Brandeis lists is a state treatment directory, Al-Anon, and Alcoholics Anonymous Young People’s Meetings in Boston, nine miles away. If you would rather talk first, the Substance Use Helpline on 800-327-5050 is free and confidential, and section 02 has more.

Ring Public Safety and neither of you is referred to the conduct process at all. The policy says that if you call 781-736-3333 and remain with the student until help arrives, “neither you nor the person needing help will be referred to the student conduct process” — protection from the process itself rather than only from a punishment, which is stronger than most. It covers drink and drugs and both of you, and alone here it asks for no education programme afterwards. One practical note: it lives on a health promotion page about alcohol emergencies rather than in Section 5 of Rights and Responsibilities, so save that page. Then call — state law protects the caller separately, section 03.

Brandeis publishes nothing about naloxone, so get a kit yourself — it is easy. Nothing appears on its health and wellbeing pages, its two alcohol pages, the counselling service’s drug page or the Student Health Center, and nothing on the page about what to do in an alcohol or drug emergency. Massachusetts will post you a free kit with fentanyl test strips in it, to your term-time address, with no prescription, no insurance and no conversation with anybody — section 05 has how to ask — and any Massachusetts pharmacy must hand naloxone over without a prescription. An opioid overdose can be reversed, and a kit in your room is what makes that possible.

Before anything else: report your insurance annually through University Health Plans, because on the plain wording you are not eligible to be seen without it. Urgent walk-in hours are published two ways — the homepage says 11am Monday to Friday, the hours page says 11am to 12pm and 3pm to 4pm Monday to Thursday and 11am to 12pm and 1pm to 2pm on Friday — so aim for 11am, which appears in both.

• The four after-hours numbers, in the order to try them: 781-736-3730 for an on-call clinician, 781-736-3785 on the PARC page, 781-239-8312 for “our answering service”, and 781-736-3677 for a nurse.
• The undergraduate page titled Mental Health Support gives only two numbers, 781-736-3333 for Public Safety and 911. The clinician numbers are not on it, so save them separately.
• Two student lines run to a timetable rather than around the clock: the PARC hotline “runs during the semester only”, and 6TALK, (781) 736-TALK, runs 10pm to 2am.

If none of these gets you anywhere, 833-773-2445 and 988 are free, answered around the clock, and open to you whatever college you are at.

Free to enrolled students, and appointments are usually every other week. Counselling is provided “at no cost”, with no full-time test and no fee test. What Amherst publishes instead of a session cap is a rhythm, and it is candid about why: students are “typically seen in a bi-weekly fashion”, which the FAQ puts down to demand, and individual counselling is described as short-term, goal-oriented and “typically bi-weekly”. That is half the rate most people expect, so it is the thing to weigh if you want weekly sessions and are deciding between the centre and an outside therapist. Single Session Treatment — “one therapy session with no commitment” — is offered in its own right. No missed-appointment fee is published.

Ring 413-542-2354 at any hour — and type it rather than trusting the help guide. That number, 413-542-2354, is on every Center for Counseling and Mental Health page, a clinician answers it — “A clinician connects with callers during mental health crises” — and there is no menu to navigate. The page called Quick Help Guide for Students prints 413-542-2381 beside the centre’s name instead, and that line appears nowhere else on amherst.edu: it is not the health centre, the switchboard or the police. The same guide gives the retired “1-800-273-8255” as the national line. Use 988, which is free and answered day and night.

You cannot be seen from outside Massachusetts, so arrange something before you go. Amherst states it exactly: “The Center for Counseling and Mental Health is unable to see students who are outside of the state of Massachusetts at the time of service, due to license limitations.” It is where you are physically sitting that counts, not where you live, so going home to New Jersey for interterm ends the appointments. Raise it at your next session and ask what to do instead. The only alternative Amherst names anywhere is MySSP, a teletherapy service printed on the Quick Help Guide and on no counselling page, and section 02 lists lines open to you wherever you are.

There is a meeting you can walk into: Fridays 3pm to 4pm, Pemberton Lounge, Chapin Hall. It is the Weekly Recovery Group, open to students “in, seeking, or contemplating recovery from alcohol, nicotine, weed, and any other substance”. Contemplating is the word to hold on to — you do not have to have decided anything to sit in that room. If you would rather start one to one, Leslie Roberts, Wellbeing Educator for Alcohol and Other Drugs, is in Keefe Health Center 202, and BASICS and CASICS each run as “two hour-long private, one-to-one sessions” about ten days apart, by referral or on your own initiative, unpriced. The centre says openly that it does not provide intensive substance use care.

Amherst names the drugs, which almost nobody does. The College “has instituted a medical amnesty policy covering alcohol and other substances – including, but not limited to, cannabis, cocaine, heroin, and fentanyl”, and protected students “will not be subject to a violation of the AOD policy”. Three situations are covered: asking for help for yourself, asking for someone else, and being the person helped. Education is a may rather than a must — “Referral for AOD education may apply”. It does not protect a student who “repeatedly violate College policies”, and it does not cover criminal possession, damage or violence. Call regardless: state law protects the caller separately from the College — section 03.

Training is published; where the kits are is not — so ask, and order one meanwhile. The alcohol and other drugs page lists Narcan training on Monday 19 October, 6pm to 7pm, Environmental Health and Safety hosts a naloxone training video, and a session with Tapestry Health, the regional harm reduction organisation, appears on the calendar. The page points to a Naloxone Rescue Kits page that cannot be found, and no other page gives a pick-up point, a price, a quantity limit or opening hours. So ask Leslie Roberts in Keefe Health Center 202 where kits actually are, and in the meantime the state will post you one free with fentanyl test strips — section 05.

Getting started: 413-542-2354 is the number for both appointments and crises, so it is the only one you need to save. If you are not ready to commit to a course of therapy, ask for Single Session Treatment — “one therapy session with no commitment” — and expect ongoing appointments about every other week. For anything to do with drink or drugs, Leslie Roberts is in Keefe Health Center 202.

• 413-542-2354 is the number on the counselling landing page, the crisis page and the services page. 413-542-2381, printed beside the same service’s name on the Quick Help Guide, appears nowhere else on amherst.edu — use the first one.
• Weekly Recovery Group, Fridays 3pm to 4pm, Pemberton Lounge in Chapin Hall — open to students in recovery from “alcohol, nicotine, weed, and any other substance”, and to students still deciding.
• The counselling landing page publishes 988 and the Crisis Text Line with the correct keyword — text HOME to 741741. Ignore the “1-800-273-8255” printed on the crisis and quick help pages.

If none of these gets you anywhere, 833-773-2445 and 988 are free, answered around the clock, and open to you whatever college you are at.

Free to every enrolled student — and ask how long your teletherapy sessions are. “All clinical services are free to enrolled Williams students”, with no full-time test and no fee test. In-house therapy runs fortnightly by default: “The majority of students working with therapists are seen every other week. Sessions are 45 minutes in length”, with self-scheduled 20-minute check-ins in between. TalkSpace, the teletherapy service, is free and year-round, and Williams publishes two different session lengths for it — “four, 45 minute live video sessions a month” on one page and “4, 30 minute live video-sessions/month” on two others — so ask which you are getting when you sign up. Messaging is unlimited on all three pages.

Ring 413-597-2353 and select option 2 for the on-call clinician. That instruction is printed identically on three Williams pages, so it is reliable, and the person who answers 413-597-2353 works for ProtoCall, which Williams names outright. If you would rather reach somebody on campus, ring Campus Safety and Security on 413-597-4444 and ask for the on-call therapist. For an urgent medical need after 4:45pm, 413-597-2206 reaches Thompson Health Center, where you are asked to listen to the after-hours options and none is named. The Pond House is open Monday to Thursday 8:30am to 5pm and Friday to 4pm. Williams publishes 988 as well.

You can keep going from another state, through TalkSpace. Williams publishes it plainly: “This service is free to all enrolled Williams students. It may be used year-round, on or off campus”. That is a funded, named route that does not stop when you leave Williamstown, and it costs you nothing. What Williams does not publish is whether your own Integrative Wellbeing Services therapist can keep seeing you once you are outside Massachusetts, so ask them directly before the break rather than assuming the appointments continue. section 02 lists lines that are open to you wherever you are sitting.

Ring Laini Sporbert, M.Ed., Substance Abuse Educator, on 413-597-3165. She takes appointments about substance use at the Health Center and you can ring her yourself — 413-597-3165. Two programmes are named, “Straight Dope” for marijuana and “Drink Smart” for alcohol, and no structure, length, referral route or price is published for either, so ask her what they involve. There is no recovery meeting on campus: what Williams lists is Alcoholics Anonymous, Narcotics Anonymous, Hazelden and the federal treatment finder, and any of those will take you as you are. The Substance Use Helpline, 800-327-5050, is free and confidential; section 02 has more.

Call — and Williams is the one policy here that tells you about the bill. If an individual seeks medical attention “for themselves or for another”, no conduct action is taken for consuming or possessing alcohol or drugs, and the policy says “student(s)”, so it covers everybody who calls — which matters when a room full of people is deciding who dials. It then publishes the two things students fear most: you are responsible for the hospital costs, with a critical needs request available, and the incident may lead to your parents being told. Mandatory education and a meeting with a dean follow, and it is not for repeated use. It does not bind the police, and state law protects the caller on its own terms — section 03.

Williams publishes no way to get naloxone on campus, so order one to your room. Nothing appears on the alcohol and other drugs page, health education, the handbook or the health service homepage. Massachusetts will post you a free kit with fentanyl test strips in it, to your term-time address, with no prescription, no insurance and no conversation with anybody — section 05 has how to ask. Any Massachusetts pharmacy must also give you naloxone without a prescription. The College’s own amnesty policy anticipates an ambulance and a hospital bill; a kit in your room is what you can do before any of that starts.

Getting started: the Pond House is open Monday to Thursday 8:30am to 5pm and Friday to 4pm, and alongside 45-minute therapy you can self-schedule 20-minute check-ins, which is an easier first step than booking a full session. TalkSpace is free to all enrolled students and works on or off campus, year-round. For drink or drugs, ring Laini Sporbert directly on 413-597-3165.

• “(413) 597-2353 and select option 2 to speak to the on-call clinician” is published identically on three pages, and ProtoCall is named as the service that answers — you are reaching a clinician, not a message service.
• TalkSpace sessions are published as 45 minutes on one page and 30 minutes on two others. Ask which you are getting when you register, because over a month that is an hour of therapy either way.
• The amnesty policy states that the student is responsible for hospital costs, with a critical needs request available, and that the incident may result in parental notification — the only policy here to tell you either thing in advance.

So if it matters that you reach someone local, ring this instead

Call or text the Behavioral Health Help Line on 833-773-2445. It is Massachusetts-only, it is free, and it reaches your local Community Behavioral Health Center whatever area code your phone has. That is the reason this page leads with that number rather than with 988.

Two things that make it work

Have naloxone in the room and unlock your door. The operator can send help, but help arrives faster to an open door — and anyone who reaches you can use the kit. Section 05 tells you how to get one free by post.

If SafeSpot is engaged, the national Never Use Alone line does the same job on 800-484-3731 or 877-696-1996, “24/7 – 365 days a year”. Both services exist and both answer.

If drink and drugs are both involved

That is one person but two statutes, and they do not reach the same distance. § 34A covers any age and also protects you on probation, pretrial release and parole. § 34E covers only the under-21s and none of those.

So the same call can be fully protected as to the drug and not as to the alcohol. Tell the ambulance crew everything that has been taken regardless — they cannot treat what they do not know about, and what you tell them is about keeping someone alive.

If you are weighing it up in the moment

Ring anyway. The worst realistic outcome of a campus conduct process is a conversation and an education session. The worst outcome of not calling is not recoverable.

If you are afraid of what your college will do, you can ring an outside number instead — 911 for an emergency, or the Behavioral Health Help Line on 833-773-2445. Neither reports to your dean. Section 08 sets out who can be told what.

Where that protection reaches, and where it stops

Your own protection applies “while on the premises where the drug testing services are conducted”. So you can take a substance to a harm-reduction programme to have it tested and be covered there.

It does not give you a general right to possess a controlled substance. Off the premises you are back to the ordinary position: the strips are fine to carry, the substance still is not. A bill that would take strips out of the paraphernalia definition altogether passed the Senate on 18 September 2025 and is still pending, not law.

Before anything else: there is almost always a better route

A Section 35 is the hardest, slowest and most frightening way to get somebody into treatment, and it is not the only one. If the person is willing — even reluctantly, even only today — the Massachusetts Substance Use Helpline on 800-327-5050 will look for a detox or treatment place with you, free, at any hour, and a voluntary admission usually happens sooner than a court date.

If it is a crisis right now rather than a plan, everything in section 02 is open tonight, including a crisis team that will come to the house.

What the number actually means

“Not to exceed 90 days.” That is the maximum, not the length. Most commitments are shorter.

There is no extension and no renewal in § 35. If you read that it is “90 days, renewable”, that belongs to a different part of the law.

Somebody has to keep asking whether it is still necessary. Reviews are mandatory: “a review of the necessity of the commitment shall take place by the superintendent on days 30, 45, 60 and 75 as long as the commitment continues”.

Release can happen at any point on the superintendent’s written determination that it “will not result in a likelihood of serious harm”, with notice to the court and, with consent, to whoever filed.

The “case management services … for up to 1 year” is not a year-long order. It is help that stays available after the commitment ends. A Section 35 is not a one-year commitment.

Do not count on that 2026 date

The deadline is conditional, not a cliff edge. The same Act lets commitments continue past it “until the department of public health or the department of mental health have identified, licensed or approved facilities with sufficient capacity”.

The Commonwealth’s own report of 29 June 2026 says those replacement beds do not exist yet. MASAC remains operational as a secure facility, and there were no transfers out between 1 November 2025 and 1 April 2026 and no newly licensed or approved facilities.

If you are reading this after January 2027, check the position again — and either way, ask the court and the lawyer on the day where this particular commitment is going.

The one thing to say out loud: ask for a lawyer

Under § 12(b) — the hospital route — you only get a lawyer if you ask for one. The facility “shall inform the person that it shall, upon such person’s request, notify the committee for public counsel services”, and they “shall immediately appoint an attorney who shall meet with the person”.

So the appointment is immediate — but the trigger is you asking. Under § 35, and under the court route at § 12(e), counsel is appointed automatically whether you ask or not. On this route it is not. Say it at reception, say it to the first person in scrubs, and say it again if you are not sure it was heard. It costs you nothing.

You can also demand an emergency hearing. Anyone admitted under § 12(b) who believes the admission “is the result of an abuse or misuse of this subsection” may ask — personally or through the lawyer — for a hearing in the district court where the facility is, and unless you want a delay the court “shall hold such hearing on the day the request is filed with the court or not later than the next business day”.

A Section 35 stops you holding a firearms licence

§ 35 requires the court to tell you that you are “prohibited from being issued a firearm identification card pursuant to section 129B of chapter 140 or a license to carry pursuant to sections 131 and 131F” unless a petition for relief is later granted.

You cannot file that petition for five years. “After 5 years from the date of commitment” you may ask the committing court to restore it, and it may be granted only if you are “not likely to act in a manner that is dangerous to public safety” and relief “would not be contrary to the public interest”. A refusal can be appealed for a fresh look.

It is worth knowing in advance if you hunt, shoot or are considering a career where this matters, because no crime is involved and nobody expects a civil commitment to do it.

Ask your dean of students early — this is a college question, not a legal one

Massachusetts law does not say what happens to your enrolment. Nothing in c. 123 § 35 mentions education, and no state rule governs it. It is decided entirely by your institution’s own leave-of-absence and medical-withdrawal policy, and those differ at every one of the fourteen colleges on this page.

So ask early, and ask in writing. The questions worth putting are: does this count as a medical leave, what happens to this term’s fees and credits, what do I have to do to come back, and who needs to know. A dean of students, a case manager or a student advocate can usually answer all four in one meeting.

The one thing that is legal rather than institutional: a § 35 order is a court order, so somebody held under it physically cannot attend. That is not a disciplinary matter, and it is worth saying so plainly in your first email.

The easiest route: have it posted to you, free

Order from store.youcan.info and a kit comes to your address. The state’s own naloxone FAQ confirms it: you can “order naloxone to be delivered to your home address through the You Can Save a Life website”. It is run by Health Resources in Action and BeHERE, funded by DPH and SAMHSA.

What is in the kit: naloxone nasal spray (two doses), fentanyl test strips, a rescue breathing mask and educational wallet cards.

Cost: free. Who can order: “This service is currently only available to Massachusetts residents”, so use your term-time address. What you have to do: watch a short video before ordering. Nobody rings you, and nobody at your college is involved.

Search for the address, not the name — the site brands itself “You Can”, and searching the longer name lands you on unrelated national campaigns. Type store.youcan.info straight into the bar.

Bridgewater State — roughly 60 cabinets, every residence hall, any hour

Kits sit in roughly 60 locations across campus including every residence hall, in the same cabinets as the defibrillators, marked on the campus map with a heart and lightning-bolt symbol, plus the exterior parking monitor booths at Moakley, West and Harrington.

They are there “at any time”, for students, staff and faculty, with no training requirement, no appointment, no form and no counter to find first. If you are at Bridgewater, you can get a kit at 3am.

Northeastern — 307 Ell Hall, and nobody writes your name down

Walk into the Office of Prevention and Education at 307 Ell Hall, 360 Huntington Avenue, Monday to Friday 9am to 4pm, show a Northeastern ID, and take a kit with “2 doses of 4 mg naloxone nasal spray, one rescue breathing mask, and educational materials”, plus five fentanyl test strips.

No appointment, no form, no training first — somebody shows you how to use it and offers you more. Larger quantities and out-of-hours collection are arranged by email. And the line that makes it usable: “personal information is not recorded”.

Do not read the top row as the cut-off

The row labelled MassHealth Income Standard (100% FPL) — $522 a month for a household of one — is a historic categorical standard, not the line you have to come under. Plenty of people earning well above it qualify. Eligibility runs on Modified Adjusted Gross Income, so let the application work it out.

And if you come across a figure of $2,982 a month, that is the 300% federal benefit rate the state uses “to determine eligibility for certain MassHealth applicants and members aged 65 and older”. It is not your number.

If a letter or a text arrives

Open it and answer it. MassHealth says it will use the data it already holds to confirm that you are excused or already meeting the requirement, so in most cases there will be nothing for you to do — but if it asks, reply with proof of your enrolment, or say which treatment programme you are in.

Watch for the blue envelope. That is the renewal paperwork, and it is the one thing on this page that can cost you your coverage by being left on a desk. If you have moved, make sure MassHealth has your current address and a phone number that works.

If you are not sure whether your course load or your programme counts, ring 800-841-2900 between 8 and 5 on a weekday and ask before the deadline rather than after it.

What it pays for, and the one thing to ask about

The state says the HSN “pays for some health services provided by acute care hospitals or community health centers”, and covers “hospital facility charges” including “room and bed, nurses, technicians and equipment”.

The state does not say online whether the Health Safety Net covers mental health and addiction treatment, so ask when you apply. Do not assume either way, and do not let the uncertainty stop you applying. If you are facing a therapy, detox or psychiatric bill at an acute care hospital or a community health centre, ask that hospital’s or health centre’s financial counsellor about behavioural health by name — they deal with this every day and the answer takes one phone call.

If you are worried about immigration status: the general rule for all three programmes is that “your citizenship or satisfactory immigration status must be verified”. Ask the financial counsellor or an application assister what that means for you before you rule yourself out.

How to apply

Fill in the ACA-1 Member Booklet — the same form as MassHealth.

Health Safety Net toll-free: 877-910-2100.

No hours are published for that line, so try it during the working day first. If you cannot get through, the hospital or health centre where you are being treated has a financial counsellor who can start the application with you.

Check your course load before you assume it applies to you

The rule bites on “Students enrolled in at least 75% of the academic requirements for full-time students”. Below 75% and the mandate is not on you — though you may still want cover, because the bills do not care.

Online-only students are outside it. Schools need not offer the plan “to students enrolled in exclusively online courses”.

Do not mix this up with the half-time test in the MassHealth work requirement above. They are two different thresholds doing two different jobs: a student at 60% of a full load is outside this insurance mandate and still meets the MassHealth education test.

Check the addiction benefits by name before you waive anything

Ring the plan you intend to keep and ask, in these words, what it covers for substance use disorder treatment — outpatient counselling, medication for addiction, detox and residential care, and what your share of the cost would be. Ask the same about mental health sessions and whether there is a session limit.

Do it before the waiver deadline rather than after it. Waiving onto a plan that turns out not to cover the treatment you need is the one mistake in this section that is genuinely expensive and genuinely hard to undo.

Two things that decide when your cover starts

Finish by the 23rd and your cover starts on the first of the next month. The Connector gives the worked examples: 23 October 2026 gives 1 November 2026; 23 November gives 1 December; 23 December gives 1 January 2027.

“Enrollment is not complete until you make your first premium payment for your coverage by the due date.” Signing up is not the same as being covered, so make the payment while you are thinking about it.

Which to ring, and what to do at the weekend

After 7pm, ring ANAD — it is the only one of the two still open, up to 10pm Eastern. Before then, take your pick: ANAD is peer-led, so you will speak to somebody who has been there; the Alliance is staffed by licensed therapists.

Neither of them opens at weekends. If it is Saturday night, ring the Behavioral Health Help Line on 833-773-2445 — 24 hours, every day, including holidays. It is not eating-disorder-specific, but it is staffed, it is free and it will not turn you away. Section 02 has the rest of the round-the-clock numbers.

If you have the old NEDA number, 1-800-931-2237, use one of the two above instead. It now redirects to the National Alliance, and only within the Alliance’s weekday hours — so ringing it late at night reaches nothing.