Mental Health Care in Edison, NJ: A Local Guide

Edison has four places to start inside town lines: a hospital behavioral health clinic on James Street, a Rutgers community clinic, the counseling office at Middlesex College, and a South Asian mental health helpline run by an Edison-based nonprofit. What it does not have is its own psychiatric emergency screening center. That is in Piscataway, and the first section below explains when to use it.

Which local option fits depends mostly on whether you have insurance and on who you are: a student, a South Asian family, someone whose drinking or drug use is part of the picture. Each section says who it is for. If cost is the main obstacle, read the Rutgers section at the end closely. For the full county list, including low-cost training clinics and partial hospital programs outside town, see our Middlesex County resource page.

If someone is in immediate danger, call 911. For a mental health crisis, call or text 988 any time. Middlesex County's 24-hour psychiatric emergency screening center is Rutgers University Behavioral Health Care at 732-235-5700.

When it cannot wait until Monday

The state designates one screening center for each county, and Middlesex's is Rutgers University Behavioral Health Care at 671 Hoes Lane in Piscataway, reachable around the clock at 732-235-5700. Screening staff evaluate a person in a psychiatric emergency and decide what level of care is needed.

The county also has an Affiliated Emergency Service at Raritan Bay Medical Center, 530 New Brunswick Avenue in Perth Amboy, at 732-324-5289. Both are listed in the state's screening directory, last updated September 14, 2026.

Use 911 first if anyone is in danger. Use 988 if you need to talk to someone now. Use the screening line when you think someone may need a hospital evaluation and you want to know where to bring them. More on how these fit together is on our crisis page.

If nobody is in danger and you simply do not know where to start, that is a different call. NJMentalHealthCares, at 1-866-202-4357, helps you find care anywhere in the state. It is open 8 a.m. to 8 p.m. every day and is not a crisis line.

The hospital clinic on James Street

Hackensack Meridian JFK University Medical Center runs an outpatient behavioral health clinic at 65 James Street, Edison. Call 732-321-7189. If you have insurance and want therapy or a psychiatrist, this is the simplest place in town to start. Unlike the Rutgers clinic, its address, phone number, and hours are all published.

According to Hackensack Meridian Health, the clinic sees adults and teens. On the mental health side it offers individual, family, and group therapy, psychiatric evaluations, medication management, coping skills and anger management groups, and psychotherapy for young adults. On the substance use side it runs an adult intensive outpatient program, medication-assisted treatment, relapse prevention groups, and support groups for family members.

Hours are Monday through Thursday, 9 a.m. to 8 p.m., and Friday, 9 a.m. to 4 p.m. It is closed weekends. The evening hours matter if you work a day shift and cannot take time off for appointments.

The clinic's page does not list which insurance plans it takes. Ask when you call, and have your member ID card in hand. If the first opening is weeks away, ask to be put on a cancellation list. For help figuring out what kind of clinician you need, read how to find a therapist in Middlesex or Camden County.

If you are a Middlesex College student

Middlesex College's counseling office is on its Edison campus, in the Johnson Learning Center, Room 270. Licensed mental health counselors see full-time and part-time enrolled students at no cost, in person or virtually.

Call 732-906-2546 or email [email protected]. The office is open Monday through Friday, 8:30 a.m. to 4:30 p.m.

Outside those hours, the college partners with Uwill, which gives students free virtual counseling and 24/7 crisis support. The college says no registration is needed for the crisis side.

If you need psychiatric care or medication, ask the counselors to point you to one of the clinics in this guide.

If your family is South Asian

Some people put off care because they expect a therapist will not understand their family, their faith, or the pressure of living between two cultures. Two organizations in or near Edison work on exactly that. SAMHIN is the place to start if you want help finding a clinician. SAMHAJ is built around support groups, including one for relatives.

SAMHIN (South Asian Mental Health Initiative and Network) is based in Edison and is reached by phone; it does not publish walk-in hours. Its HelpLine, 888-581-3230, is free and confidential and is answered by trained staff or a mental health clinician, 10 a.m. to 7 p.m. Eastern, every day. SAMHIN states plainly that the HelpLine is not a crisis line; in an emergency, use 988 or 911. SAMHIN also keeps a provider directory you can search by location, specialty, and languages spoken.

SAMHAJ (South Asian Mental Health Awareness in Jersey) is a program of NAMI New Jersey, whose office is in North Brunswick. It welcomes people of Indian, Pakistani, Bangladeshi, Sri Lankan, Nepali, Bhutanese, and Maldivian origin. Staff and volunteers speak Hindi, Tamil, Telugu, Gujarati, Konkani, and Marathi.

SAMHAJ runs two free online groups on the first Thursday of most months, 7 to 8:30 p.m.: a family support group for relatives, and a NAMI Connection group for people living with a mental health condition. There is also a youth group for South Asian young adults ages 18 to 30. Reach NAMI New Jersey at 732-940-0991.

A family member is often the first to notice something is wrong. If that is you, our guide on what to do when someone you love will not get help may be useful alongside a SAMHAJ family group.

When drinking or drug use is part of it

The Township of Edison runs its own Addiction Services program. It links residents to detox, treatment, and aftercare, and offers access to peer recovery coaches. The coordinator's line is 732-248-7295, and the township lists a 24/7 confidential addiction support hotline at 732-596-4199.

This program is focused on substance use. If depression, anxiety, or another mental health condition is also in the picture, the JFK clinic and the Rutgers Edison clinic, covered next, both offer mental health and substance use care.

Rutgers' Edison clinic, and why the label matters

Rutgers University Behavioral Health Care runs adult outpatient services at an Edison site. Rutgers lists it as a Certified Community Behavioral Health Clinic, or CCBHC. Rutgers does not publish the street address, so you reach it through the Access Center at 1-800-969-5300, which routes you to the nearest location.

The CCBHC label is what matters if money is the obstacle. Under the federal certification criteria (SAMHSA, 2023), a CCBHC may not deny anyone behavioral health care because they cannot pay. It must reduce or waive fees to keep that promise, and it must publish a sliding fee discount schedule. The same criteria say no one can be turned away because of where they live or because they lack a permanent address.

For other ways to pay for care, see therapy without insurance in NJ and NJ FamilyCare mental health coverage. But if you have no insurance, or a plan with a high deductible, call the Access Center first and ask about the sliding fee schedule for the Edison clinic before you book anything. Because a CCBHC has to publish that schedule, asking where you fall on it is a routine question, and the answer should tell you roughly what you will pay before the first appointment.