Mental Health Care in Bellmawr and Runnemede, NJ: A Local Guide

Call 911 if anyone is in immediate danger. For thoughts of suicide or a mental health crisis, call or text 988, any hour. Both boroughs are in Camden County, so if someone may be a danger to themselves or others but is not in immediate danger, call the county's crisis screening line, run by Oaks Integrated Care: 856-428-4357 (856-428-HELP), 24 hours a day. Our crisis page has more numbers.

Bellmawr and Runnemede are neighboring boroughs in Camden County, and they share a high school and a county crisis system. This guide is for the men in both towns who work with their hands or wear a uniform: tradesmen, drivers, warehouse crews, police officers, firefighters and EMTs. It is for the man who will fix a neighbor's furnace at 10 p.m. but will not make one phone call about his own sleep, drinking or temper.

The reason to write for men is in the federal numbers. The Centers for Disease Control and Prevention reports that the suicide rate among males in 2024 was nearly four times the rate among females. This guide starts with steps that take a single phone call, because that is often all a man like this will agree to, and works up to the county crisis system in Cherry Hill.

Quick answer: Call 911 if anyone is in immediate danger. For thoughts of suicide or a mental health crisis, call or text 988, any hour. If someone may be a danger to themselves or others but is not in immediate danger, call Camden County's crisis screening line, run by Oaks Integrated Care, at 856-428-4357, 24 hours a day. Police officers and their families can call Cop2Cop at 1-866-267-2267, and veterans, service members and their families can call Vet2Vet at 1-866-838-7654; both answer 24 hours a day. Camden County adults who need help today but not a hospital can walk in to Oaks' Mental Health Urgent Care, 2051 Springdale Road, Cherry Hill, 856-254-3800.

What is the smallest first step?

A phone call to someone who does not know you or your boss. None of these lines needs an appointment. If anyone is in immediate danger, call 911 instead.

• 988 Suicide & Crisis Lifeline: call or text 988, any hour. The state says it is free and confidential, staffed by trained crisis counselors, and open to anyone in mental health-related distress or worried about someone who is.
• NJMentalHealthCares: 1-866-202-4357, open 8 a.m. to 8 p.m., seven days a week. The state says its trained staff offer free, confidential emotional support and help connecting people to services. Call it when you know something is off but not what help you need. It is not a crisis line.
• Peer Recovery Warmline: 1-877-292-5588. Trained peers who have lived with a mental health condition answer. The state lists its hours as weekdays 8 a.m. to 10 p.m., weekends 5 p.m. to 10 p.m. and holidays 3 p.m. to 10 p.m. Those evening hours fit a day shift. It is meant for people working on their own recovery, not for emergencies.

If the problem is drinking or pills, ReachNJ, 1-844-732-2465, is the state's 24-hour addiction helpline. The state says it serves residents regardless of insurance or ability to pay.

Do police officers have their own line?

Yes. Cop2Cop, 1-866-267-2267, answers 24 hours a day for New Jersey law enforcement officers and their families. Rutgers University Behavioral Health Care has run it under a state contract since 2000. The people who pick up are retired officers and licensed clinicians, so you do not have to explain the job.

Cop2Cop says it offers more than a conversation: clinical assessments, referrals to clinicians in its police clinical network, and critical incident stress debriefings for officers involved in traumatic incidents. A spouse can call too. Because the line is for law enforcement, firefighters and EMTs should use 988 or the workplace programs below, and ask whether their department or union has a peer support team.

For non-emergency police calls, Bellmawr lists 856-931-2120 and Runnemede lists 856-939-0330. For an emergency in either town, call 911.

Veterans and service members

Vet2Vet, 1-866-838-7654, offers 24-hour support to New Jersey National Guard members, active military personnel, veterans, their families and caregivers. The state lists call, chat, text and email. With your permission, it says, staff will keep following up with you.

For a veteran in crisis who is not in immediate danger, the Veterans Crisis Line is 988, then press 1, or text 838255. The VA says you do not have to be enrolled in VA benefits or health care to call.

Some veterans will walk into a post before they will dial a number. The boroughs list VFW Post 9563, 52 Essex Avenue, Bellmawr, 856-931-9724, and VFW Post 3324, 13 East 6th Avenue, Runnemede, 856-939-9822. A post is not a counseling office, so pair the visit with one of the calls above.

Does your job already pay for counseling?

Check before you assume it does not. Ask whether your employer offers an Employee Assistance Program, or EAP. The federal Office of Personnel Management describes an EAP as a voluntary, work-based program that offers free and confidential assessments, short-term counseling, referrals and follow-up to employees with personal or work-related problems, including stress, grief, family problems and alcohol or drug use.

Ask how many sessions are covered, who sees the record, and where they send you when the free sessions run out. If you carry a union card, ask your steward or business agent whether the local has a member assistance program and what it covers.

For tradespeople, the federal Occupational Safety and Health Administration keeps a page on preventing suicides in construction that opens with 988 and lists industry groups with job-site resources.

When it is more than a bad week

These Oaks programs are based in Cherry Hill. Call first; the drive may not be needed.

Oaks Mental Health Urgent Care, 2051 Springdale Road, Cherry Hill, 856-254-3800. It serves Camden County adults 18 and older who need help now but not a hospital. Oaks lists its hours as Monday to Friday, 9 a.m. to 8 p.m., and Saturday, 9 a.m. to 5 p.m. It takes walk-ins, and it offers telehealth during the same hours. You can keep working with the team for up to 30 days. For billing, Oaks lists self-pay, third-party insurance, Medicaid and a sliding fee based on income. Medicare is not on that list, so ask if that is your coverage.

Crisis screening, 856-428-4357. Oaks, the county's designated screening center, says it serves adults and youth in a psychiatric emergency 24 hours a day. Oaks' locations page lists its screening site as Crisis Screening at Jefferson Cherry Hill Hospital, 2201 Chapel Avenue, Cherry Hill, and its crisis page asks you to call 856-428-HELP before you go. Oaks also says that anyone at imminent risk of harm should call 911.

Adult Mobile Outreach, through 856-428-4357. For an adult whose symptoms are getting worse and who will not come in, Oaks sends clinicians to meet the person in the community. Oaks says anyone can request it, including family members, friends, colleagues and employers.

Regular counseling. The way into Oaks' outpatient program is its Access Center, 1-800-963-3377, Monday to Friday, 9 a.m. to 8 p.m. Oaks warns there may be a waitlist. Outpatient hours run weekdays to 9 p.m., and counseling can happen at home, work, school or in the community. Medicaid, Medicare, some private insurance and sliding-scale self-pay are all on its list. Its Cherry Hill offices are at 19 East Ormond Avenue, 856-428-1300, and 1409 North Kings Highway, 856-482-8747.

The Oaks offices and the urgent care are described in more depth in our Cherry Hill guide, and the Camden County page lists other options. For a man without coverage, or with a deductible he will not touch, see therapy without insurance.

Teens at Triton, and younger kids

Both boroughs send their high school students to Triton Regional High School, 250 Schubert Avenue, Runnemede, 856-939-4500, part of the Black Horse Pike Regional School District. Triton's school profile says it serves Runnemede, Bellmawr and Gloucester Township; our Gloucester Township guide covers the wider district.

Triton has two staff roles a teenage boy can go to without it becoming a big production. The Mental Health Assistance Counselor has an open-door policy for all students and covers anxiety, stress, depression, anger and grief. The Student Assistance Coordinator, ext. 2011, handles alcohol, drugs and other risky behavior; a parent can call about a child. Its S.T.O.P. program gives families dealing with drug or alcohol use six-week counseling sessions with an outside agency, at no cost to the family, the school says. Both offices promise confidentiality, with exceptions for thoughts or attempts of suicide, abuse or neglect, and threats of abuse against another person.

For younger children, the Bellmawr Public School District lists a counselor at each school: Bellmawr Park Elementary, 856-931-6272, ext. 2127; Ethel M. Burke Elementary, 856-931-6362, ext. 3202; and Bell Oaks, 856-931-6273, ext. 1200 for grades 5 and 6 and ext. 1367 for grades 7 and 8. The Runnemede Public School District, whose offices are at 24 North Black Horse Pike, links families to Care Solace, 888-515-0595. Care Solace says it helps families find and book care, around the clock, in more than 200 languages, at no cost through the district. It is not a treatment provider.

If a child or teen is in crisis but not in immediate danger, PerformCare, 1-877-652-7624, answers 24 hours a day. For a life-threatening emergency, PerformCare says to always dial 911. Otherwise it may send a mobile response team to your home within an hour. Under New Jersey law (N.J.S.A. 9:17A-4), a teen 16 or older who believes they need mental health care can consent on their own to temporary outpatient treatment, not including medication. If you are not sure whether a son's anger or silence is more than a phase, our parent's guide lists the warning signs.

If you are asking for someone else

You may be reading this because he will not. A wife, a brother, a crew chief or a partner on the next shift may be the first to see it: the extra drinks, the quiet, the short fuse.

If he is in danger right now, call 911 first. Otherwise, the 988 Lifeline's advice for helping someone else is plain. Be direct and talk about suicide matter-of-factly. Listen without debating his feelings. Do not act shocked, and do not agree to keep it secret. The suicide prevention campaign #BeThe1To suggests asking it straight out: "Are you thinking about suicide?" If the answer is yes, stay with him, and call or text 988 together.

The Lifeline also says to remove the means, such as weapons or pills. In Bellmawr, unwanted prescriptions can go in the police drop box on the lower level of the Municipal Building, 21 East Browning Road; the borough says you can use it anonymously.

If he is getting worse and will not go anywhere, you can call 856-428-4357 and ask for Adult Mobile Outreach. Oaks says a coworker or an employer can make that request, not only family. If he is a police officer, his spouse can call Cop2Cop at 1-866-267-2267. If he is a veteran, Vet2Vet at 1-866-838-7654 takes calls from families and caregivers.

Call 911 right away if he has a weapon and is talking about using it, has taken pills or anything else to overdose, is attempting suicide, or cannot be woken up. Do not put him in your truck and drive him yourself in any of those situations. Stay with him, if it is safe, until help arrives.