There’s something to be said for having people around.

Illustration of residents gathered around a dining table after dinner while another person moves through the adjoining room
Watch our video about Wellmet5 min

Wellmet is a nonprofit transitional living program for adults with psychiatric illness. Residents live together in ordinary homes in Cambridge and nearby communities, with live-in counselors, a structured week, built-in community and increasing independence.

Founded 1960Nonprofit founded by Harvard faculty and students
Four homesTwo in Cambridge · One in Somerville · One in Medford
Live-in counselorsAround every evening and weekday mornings
A gradual next stepStructure and support alongside increasing independence
Illustration of a lived-in kitchen with groceries on the worktable and someone putting food away

An ordinary home with more structure built into it

People go to work, school, volunteering, appointments and day programs, then come home. Someone makes dinner, people talk or read or watch something, and some go out while others stay in.

If you're coming from a period when ordinary life has become difficult, you don't have to arrive ready to do everything at once. There is a structure to step into, people around, and help getting your footing.

Over time, more of the week becomes yours to build.

Living at Wellmet →
Illustration of residents sharing a living room, some talking while another reads and someone walks through the adjoining room

There are advantages to doing life with others

Someone notices you came home. Someone asks how the interview went. There are people downstairs when you don't particularly want to be alone - and a bedroom when you do.

And sometimes you're the person other people are counting on: to make dinner, do your part, show up.

You don't have to be particularly outgoing. But at Wellmet, living with other people isn't incidental to the program. It's part of the point.

Living here means taking part

You don't have to arrive knowing how to do everything - we'll help you figure it out.

20 hours of day structure

Work, education, volunteering or outpatient treatment.

Four community evenings

Dinner and time with other residents.

Shared household life

Cooking, chores and small everyday responsibilities.

Weekday daytime structure

Residents are out of the house from 10am–2pm.

Individual goals work

A weekly meeting with an assigned counselor.

Outside clinical care

Weekly therapy and psychiatric care at least monthly.

Somewhere between independent living and residential treatment

RESIDENTIAL TREATMENT

Treatment and clinical care organize much of daily life.

→
WELLMET
Ordinary life moves back toward the center.
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INDEPENDENT LIVING

You manage your home, structure and everyday life largely on your own.

You live in a home, take part in a household, build a week and gradually take on more of your own life - with structure, community and live-in support around you.

Clinical treatment continues outside Wellmet. Psychiatric illness is taken seriously here without having to be the subject of everyday life.

People come to Wellmet from very different places

You might be:

Living independently or with family and finding that without enough structure or other people around, life has become smaller.
Taking time away from college after psychiatric illness interrupted your education, or beginning to return.
Leaving a hospital or residential program and ready for considerably more independence, but not quite ready to live alone.
Doing well in some parts of life while still benefiting from structure, occasional prompting or practical support in others.
Or simply ready for a next step with more independence, but not no support at all.
Is Wellmet for me? →

Find what you need

Thinking about living here?Resident FAQs →
For familiesHow Wellmet works →Family FAQs →
For clinicians & referrersProgram and referral information →Clinician FAQs →
Thinking about Wellmet?Costs & Applying →Start an Application →