Mental Health Care in Highland Park, 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 at any hour. For adults, Middlesex County's 24-hour psychiatric emergency screening line, run by Rutgers University Behavioral Health Care, is 732-235-5700. For a child or teen, call PerformCare at 1-877-652-7624. More numbers are on our crisis page.

Highland Park is a small, walkable borough built around Raritan Avenue, and the Raritan River is all that separates it from New Brunswick. The county's crisis services, Rutgers' outpatient network and a university training clinic that sees community clients are all a few miles away. Some are a walk across the bridge. Others take a bus and a transfer.

The borough adds its own pieces: a social worker at the Community Center, an office for older adults, a teen center and private practices. A graduate student renting off Raritan Avenue, a family on NJ FamilyCare and a retiree who no longer drives will each start in a different place, so this guide sorts the options by situation.

Quick answer: Call 911 if anyone is in immediate danger. For thoughts of suicide or a mental health crisis, call or text 988 at any hour. For an adult who may need a hospital evaluation, Middlesex County's 24-hour screening line, run by Rutgers University Behavioral Health Care at 671 Hoes Lane in Piscataway, is 732-235-5700. For a child or teen, call PerformCare at 1-877-652-7624. For an adult in crisis who can safely stay home, Rutgers' Early Intervention Support Services at 667 Hoes Lane West, 732-235-4422, takes walk-ins. For help with benefits, NJ FamilyCare or caring for an older relative, call the borough social worker at 732-712-2025.

Which crisis service is closest to Highland Park?

Call 911 for anything life-threatening: a weapon, an overdose, an attempt in progress. Do not drive or ride a bus to a crisis like that.

When nobody is in immediate danger but a phone call will not be enough, Middlesex County has two state-designated screening services. The state's list, updated October 8, 2026, names Rutgers University Behavioral Health Care at 671 Hoes Lane, Piscataway, 732-235-5700, as the primary one. Rutgers says its screening service runs 24 hours a day, 365 days a year, and describes it as available to adults. The state also lists an affiliated service at Raritan Bay Medical Center in Perth Amboy, 732-324-5289. From Highland Park, Hoes Lane is the closer of the two.

For a child or teen, call PerformCare at 1-877-652-7624, 24 hours a day. PerformCare says that for a life-threatening emergency you should always dial 911. Otherwise, it may send a mobile response team to your home within one hour of notification and can provide up to eight weeks of stabilization services. If your child should be evaluated for hospitalization, PerformCare refers you to a local screening center.

A walk-in option for adults that is not an emergency room

Next door to the screening service is Rutgers' Early Intervention Support Services (EISS), at 667 Hoes Lane West. Call 732-235-4422. It is for adults with acute symptoms who can be safely treated as outpatients: someone who is panicking, not sleeping, or frightened by their own thoughts, but who can stay home safely.

Rutgers' Middlesex brochure lists walk-in hours of Monday through Thursday, 8 a.m. to 8 p.m., and Friday through Sunday, 8 a.m. to 5 p.m. It serves Middlesex County residents 18 and older for up to 30 days, regardless of insurance or ability to pay, because a state grant funds it. Services are available in Spanish. Our Piscataway guide explains how to choose between EISS and the screening line.

When police are the ones who respond

In October 2023, the New Jersey Attorney General's office named Highland Park among the first Middlesex towns in ARRIVE Together, which pairs police with Rutgers mental health professionals on some behavioral health calls. The borough's site does not say how it runs today. If you call 911 about a mental health crisis, say so plainly, and say whether there is a weapon. For a situation that is not an emergency, the Highland Park Police dispatch line is 732-572-3800.

What does the borough itself offer?

Highland Park's Department of Community Services works out of the Community Center, 220 South Sixth Avenue. It opens at 8 a.m. on weekdays and closes at 4 p.m. on Monday, Wednesday and Thursday, 6 p.m. on Tuesday, and 1 p.m. on Friday.

The borough social worker, 732-712-2025. This is not a therapy line. The borough describes the department as an advocate and referral service for programs such as NJ FamilyCare, SSI, food stamps, energy assistance, Medicare and home care, with counseling on Medicaid and other health coverage. The borough says these services are free and confidential, with home visits for people who are frail, disabled or homebound. If depression is tangled up with an unpaid utility bill or a lapsed insurance card, this is a practical first call.

The department also runs a food pantry at the Community Center on the second and fourth Thursdays of the month.

The Office of Aging serves adults 55 and older. Its page lists a weekly Yiddish group, kosher lunches on Tuesdays and Thursdays, and medical transportation for non-emergency appointments anywhere in Middlesex County. Ask for a ride at least two weeks ahead if you can, since space is limited. Membership is $20 a year for residents. The page notes that some programs may not have resumed, so call before you count on one.

Where can Rutgers graduate students get counseling?

If you are a Rutgers graduate student renting in town, Rutgers Student Health says full-time graduate students pay the student health fee and can use its counseling center, CAPS, at 17 Senior Street on the College Avenue campus, just across the river. Individual and group counseling are free for students who have paid that fee, and CAPS says it does not set session limits. Psychiatry is billed to your insurance. Part-time students can use Student Health too, but they do not pay the fee and are billed for a copay or insurance. Rutgers excludes part-time students on Medicaid or Medicare from Student Health.

Call 848-932-7884 to book. CAPS says it has a walk-in policy for urgent needs during office hours. Rutgers' fall 2026 hours page lists those as Monday, Tuesday, Thursday and Friday, 8:30 a.m. to 4:30 p.m., and Wednesday, 10:30 a.m. to 4:45 p.m. Outside those hours, the same number reaches crisis support by phone. CAPS offers both in-person and virtual sessions.

Rutgers says family members, faculty and staff are not eligible. A graduate student's spouse or partner cannot use CAPS, and online-only students cannot either. For them, start with the options in the next section.

Where can you get low-cost or Medicaid-covered care?

Rutgers Center for Psychological Services (GSAPP), 152 Frelinghuysen Road, Piscataway, on the Busch campus. Call 848-445-6111 and press 2. This Rutgers training clinic sees clients of all ages from the university and the surrounding communities. Some of its clinics offer low-cost care based on household income and ability to pay. Rutgers students without the university's health plan pay $20 a session. Sessions are in person only. Hours are Monday and Wednesday 9 a.m. to 9 p.m., Tuesday and Thursday noon to 9 p.m., and Friday 9 a.m. to 4 p.m. Our New Brunswick guide lists its specialty clinics.

Rutgers UBHC Access Center, 1-800-969-5300. This is the intake line for Rutgers' outpatient behavioral health services. It lists Certified Community Behavioral Health Clinic sites in New Brunswick, Edison and Monmouth Junction. Its outpatient page does not list street addresses, so ask which site is closest.

Jewish Family Services of Middlesex County, 732-777-1940. Its counseling program offers therapy for individuals, couples and families, for concerns including depression, anxiety, stress, grief, relationships and marriage, with support groups based on need. It says it accepts Medicaid, Medicare and many insurances. Its offices are at 219C Blackhorse Lane, North Brunswick, and 1600 Perrineville Road, Suite 26, Monroe Township. JFS describes itself as serving people of all races, ethnicities and religions.

For coverage questions, see our guides to NJ FamilyCare mental health coverage and therapy without insurance.

Private therapy in the borough

Private practices do work in the borough. One we confirmed on its own site is IPG Counseling, which lists a Highland Park office at 1119 Raritan Avenue and the phone number 732-246-4183. Its site says that office moves to 317 Cleveland Avenue, Suite 205, effective November 1, 2026, so check the address before your first visit. IPG lists individual, couples, family, child and teen therapy, offers telehealth, and accepts Aetna, Medicare, UnitedHealthcare and Oxford with most providers. It does not list Medicaid, so on NJ FamilyCare, start with JFS. Our guide to finding a therapist explains how to check a license.

Can you find counseling that fits your faith or culture?

Often, yes, but you usually have to ask. JFS's counseling page does not describe programs for any particular religious community, so do not assume. On the first call to any clinic, ask the question that matters to you. Can sessions avoid the Sabbath and holidays? Is there a clinician who speaks your language, or who has worked with families from your community before?

Many people first raise a worry with a rabbi, pastor, imam or other faith leader, and one who knows local clinicians can make that first call easier. Anyone at risk of harm still needs 911, 988 or the screening line.

Children and teens

For a child or teen in crisis who is not in immediate danger, PerformCare's line, 1-877-652-7624, comes first. For a teenager or young adult who wants to talk, 2NDFLOOR, 1-888-222-2228, is New Jersey's youth helpline, open 24 hours a day.

The borough's Zone 6 Teen Center, 600 Benner Street, 732-712-2277, is open to Highland Park residents and Highland Park High School students on weekday afternoons. It is not a counseling program. There is no fee, and a parent must sign the application. Our guide to teen and child mental health help in NJ covers warning signs and the state's children's system. 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 what care anyone at home needs, NJMentalHealthCares, 1-866-202-4357, offers free, confidential support and referrals from 8 a.m. to 8 p.m., seven days a week. It is not a crisis line.

Walking distance or a short bus ride

From Raritan Avenue, the College Avenue campus is a walk across the bridge into New Brunswick. For many graduate students who live in town, that puts CAPS on Senior Street within walking distance.

Two NJ TRANSIT routes, the 810 and the 814, list stops along Raritan Avenue in Highland Park, and both stop at George Street and Albany Street in downtown New Brunswick. Check NJ TRANSIT's MyBus or trip planner for times. For Hoes Lane or the Busch campus, plan a transfer or a ride. EISS and the screening line can tell you by phone whether you need to come in at all. If you are 55 or older, ask the Office of Aging about its medical rides.

If the trip itself is what keeps someone from going back, ask for video sessions. CAPS and IPG both offer them. Our guide to online therapy in NJ explains how telehealth works with insurance. GSAPP's training clinic is the exception, because it sees clients in person only, so plan that trip once and book the same slot each week.