Mental Health Care in North Brunswick, 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 an adult, 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. The county's second screening service, at Raritan Bay Medical Center in Perth Amboy, sees adults and children: 732-324-5289. More numbers are on our crisis page.

North Brunswick sits just south of New Brunswick, home to Robert Wood Johnson University Hospital and several Rutgers mental health programs. That geography does a lot of the sorting for a family here. Day programs and weekly counseling are a few minutes away on Livingston Avenue and Blackhorse Lane. The emergency room is north, in New Brunswick. The county's crisis screening and its walk-in crisis program are farther north, across the Raritan in Piscataway.

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, call Middlesex County's screening line, run by Rutgers, at 732-235-5700, 24 hours a day. For a child or teen, call PerformCare at 1-877-652-7624. In town, Princeton House Behavioral Health runs partial hospital and intensive outpatient programs at 1460 Livingston Avenue (888-437-1610). For weekly counseling, Jewish Family Services of Middlesex County, a nonprofit at 219C Blackhorse Lane, 732-777-1940, says it accepts Medicaid, Medicare and many insurances.

Which way do you drive?

North on Route 1 or Route 27: the emergency room

Robert Wood Johnson University Hospital is at 1 Robert Wood Johnson Place in New Brunswick. RWJBarnabas Health says its emergency department offers urgent care to everyone, 24 hours a day, every day of the year. The emergency entrance is on Little Albany Street.

One detail matters for parents. The pediatric emergency department is inside the main hospital emergency department. It is not in the separate children's hospital building. If you drive a child there, follow the signs to the main emergency entrance.

The hospital's emergency page does not describe a separate psychiatric service. It is the place for an injury or a medical problem. For an overdose, call 911 rather than driving. If the worry is purely psychiatric and nobody is in immediate danger, call the screening line below first for an adult, 732-235-5700, or PerformCare for a child or teen, 1-877-652-7624.

If someone is too unwell, too agitated or too unsafe to ride in your car, do not drive them. Call 911.

Farther north, across the river: Rutgers in Piscataway

New Jersey runs psychiatric emergencies through designated screening services. The state's list, updated October 8, 2026, names two for Middlesex County. The primary one is Rutgers University Behavioral Health Care at 671 Hoes Lane in Piscataway, 732-235-5700. The second is an Affiliated Emergency Service at Raritan Bay Medical Center, 530 New Brunswick Avenue in Perth Amboy, 732-324-5289.

Rutgers says its screening service is available to adults, 24 hours a day, 365 days a year. For a child or teen, the Rutgers line is not the first call. PerformCare is.

When it cannot wait for an appointment but is not an emergency

Next to the screening service, Rutgers runs Early Intervention Support Services (EISS) at 667 Hoes Lane West, Piscataway. Call 732-235-4422. Rutgers describes it as short-term, intensive treatment for people at risk of needing screening or a hospital stay. It serves Middlesex County residents 18 and older with acute mental health symptoms who can be safely treated as outpatients.

You do not need an appointment. The brochure lists walk-in hours of 8 a.m. to 8 p.m. Monday through Thursday and 8 a.m. to 5 p.m. Friday through Sunday. Treatment lasts up to 30 days. EISS is grant funded by the state, and the brochure says services are provided regardless of a person's ability to pay or insurance. People already enrolled in PACT or RIST are not eligible.

Our Piscataway guide covers both Hoes Lane programs.

Staying in town: Livingston Avenue and Blackhorse Lane

Princeton House Behavioral Health, North Brunswick

Princeton House Behavioral Health, a facility of Princeton Medical Center, runs an outpatient site at Building 100, 1460 Livingston Avenue. Call 888-437-1610. Penn Medicine says the site provides intensive outpatient and partial hospital programs for adults and children.

These are day programs, not weekly therapy. The partial hospital program runs Monday through Friday, 9:30 a.m. to 3:30 p.m. The intensive outpatient program runs 9:30 a.m. to 12:30 p.m., and patients attend four days a week. For a working adult, that may mean taking leave.

The site lists separate tracks: a women's program, a men's trauma program, a young adult program, an older adult program (four days a week), a tween program, an adolescent program, a co-occurring disorders program for mental health and substance use together, and a program called Gateway. The page does not list the insurance plans it takes, so ask when you call.

Jewish Family Services of Middlesex County

Jewish Family Services of Middlesex County (JFS) is a nonprofit human services agency. Its counseling office is at 219C Blackhorse Lane, with a second office in Monroe Township. Call 732-777-1940.

JFS offers individual, couples and family therapy, plus support groups chosen by need. It says all of its therapists are licensed by the State of New Jersey and that every new client gets a psychosocial assessment. The topics it names include depression, anxiety, relationships, stress, grief and marriage issues. Its counseling page does not list hours, fees or a minimum age, so ask about all three.

What sets JFS apart for many families is coverage. JFS says, "We accept Medicaid, Medicare, and many insurances." That makes it an in-town option for weekly counseling on NJ FamilyCare.

If you are not sure whether someone needs a day program like Princeton House or a weekly session like JFS, our guide to levels of mental health care walks through the difference.

What if cost is the obstacle?

On NJ FamilyCare or Medicare, start with JFS, and confirm your exact plan on the phone. Our NJ FamilyCare mental health guide explains what the program covers.

For an adult in acute distress with no insurance, EISS in Piscataway is the one program in this guide that says it serves people regardless of ability to pay.

For ongoing care, Rutgers runs an outpatient network through one intake number, its Access Center, 1-800-969-5300. Its outpatient page lists Edison and New Brunswick among its sites and describes the care as serving adults. It does not list the plans it takes, so ask. RWJBarnabas Health also runs a behavioral health Access Center at 1-800-300-0628. It says the line is staffed 24 hours a day and helps callers find providers and programs across New Jersey.

The Middlesex County resource page lists more options, including a Rutgers psychology training clinic that offers lower-cost care to some clients. See also therapy without insurance in NJ and online therapy, which removes the drive.

What does the township itself offer?

North Brunswick's Health Department page says the township contracts with the Middlesex County Office of Health Services for public health. The township's Middlesex County Resources page points residents to the George J. Otlowski, Sr. Center for Mental Health Care, a community mental health center sponsored by Middlesex County at 570 Lee Street in Perth Amboy. The county says the center serves Middlesex County residents 5 and older by appointment, in person or by telehealth. It accepts Medicaid, Medicare and some private insurance, with a sliding fee for people without insurance. The county's main page for the center lists 732-376-6789 to schedule an appointment; its other pages list 732-442-1666. It also lists Pyx Health for Youth, a county teen wellness app it describes as free to eligible participants. Two township services also matter.

Rides for older residents. The township's Senior Transportation Program takes residents 62 and older who do not drive to medical appointments. Trips outside North Brunswick are for medical appointments only and must be within 10 miles of the township. The fare is $3 each way for those trips, from a prepaid account that must hold at least $25. Book at least two business days ahead through the Senior Center, 15 Linwood Place, 732-418-2222.

Domestic violence advocates. The North Brunswick Domestic Violence Response Team is made up of trained volunteer advocates who work with the police department. The township says the team is available around the clock and is dispatched through the police. You can ask an officer for it, or call the police department at 732-545-3200. If you are in immediate danger, call 911.

Children and teens

For a child or teen in crisis, call 911 first if life is at risk. PerformCare says: "For a life-threatening emergency, always dial 911." For anything short of that, call PerformCare at 1-877-652-7624, 24 hours a day. It can send a mobile response team, which may reach your home within one hour of notification and can offer up to eight weeks of stabilization. If your child needs a hospital evaluation, PerformCare refers you to a screening center.

For more structured care, Princeton House lists both a tween program and an adolescent program at its North Brunswick site. Penn Medicine's page for its children's programs gives the tween ages as 10 to 12 and the adolescent ages as 13 to 18, including 18-year-olds still in high school, so ask which one fits your child. 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 the worry started at school, or the school noticed it first, call the school counselor. Our guide to child and teen mental health help in NJ covers warning signs and how to work with the school.

A line for help choosing

NJMentalHealthCares, at 1-866-202-4357, helps people find mental health care in New Jersey. It is open 8 a.m. to 8 p.m., every day. It is not a crisis line. If anyone is in immediate danger, call 911. Outside those hours, or if things are getting worse, call or text 988.

What to have ready when you call

A first call goes faster with the answers in front of you. Gather:

• The insurance card, front and back, or the NJ FamilyCare or Medicare card. Have the member ID ready.
• A list of every medication, with the dose and the prescriber. Include anything recently started, stopped or skipped.
• What changed, and when. Write down the date things got worse and what you noticed: sleep, eating, talk about death, drinking or drug use, missed work or school.
• Past treatment, such as a hospital stay, a diagnosis, or a program that did or did not help.
• The names and numbers of current providers, if there are any: a therapist, a psychiatrist, a primary care doctor.
• Your own availability. Day programs like Princeton House run weekday daytime hours.

If you cannot find something on this list, make the call anyway.