Mental Health Care in Voorhees, 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. Camden County's crisis screening service, run by Oaks Integrated Care, answers 856-428-4357 (856-428-HELP) around the clock. Our crisis page has the rest.

On paper, Voorhees is well covered. Virtua's hospital on Bowman Drive has two emergency rooms, Virtua runs a behavioral health office on Evesham Road, and Center for Family Services lists an outpatient site in town. Look closer and less of it is open to you than the addresses suggest. Virtua says the Evesham Road office is for Virtua Primary Care patients its doctors refer. Virtua lists its inpatient psychiatric units at its Mount Holly and Willingboro hospitals. The county's walk-in urgent care is in Cherry Hill, and crisis screening starts with a phone call.

So this guide is sorted by who can use each service and when: the ER, urgent care, crisis screening, weekly therapy, and the written steps Eastern Regional High School follows when a student is at risk. Services in other Camden County towns are on our Camden County resource page.

The hospital on Bowman Drive

Virtua Voorhees Hospital is at 100 Bowman Drive, main number 856-247-3000. It has two emergency rooms, one for adults 18 and older and one for children. Virtua says the children's ER has providers from the Children's Hospital of Philadelphia.

Virtua's mental health page says every Virtua hospital ER offers 24/7 emergency psychiatric care. The same page lists Virtua's inpatient psychiatric units at its Mount Holly and Willingboro hospitals. So if an ER visit in Voorhees ends in an admission, ask the staff where the bed would be.

Use the ER, or 911, when there is immediate danger, a weapon, an overdose, or a medical problem on top of the mental health one.

When it cannot wait for an appointment but nobody is in danger

For an adult who is panicking or not sleeping but is not in danger, Oaks Integrated Care asks people to call or visit its urgent care first, before a screening center or an ER. Oaks Mental Health Urgent Care is at 2051 Springdale Road, Cherry Hill, phone 856-254-3800. It is for adults 18 and older in Camden County who need help now but do not need to be hospitalized.

It is open Monday to Friday, 9 a.m. to 8 p.m., and Saturday, 9 a.m. to 5 p.m., for walk-ins or telehealth. You meet with a team member soon after you arrive, build a plan together, and can keep working with the team for up to 30 days. Oaks accepts self-pay, private insurance, Medicaid, or a sliding fee based on income. After hours, Oaks points people to 856-428-HELP or 911. Our Cherry Hill guide covers the urgent care center and crisis screening in more detail.

Crisis screening starts with a phone call

Crisis screening is for someone who may be a danger to themselves or others but is not in immediate danger, or who is too unwell to stay safe at home. If the danger is happening now, call 911 instead.

Oaks runs Camden County's designated Crisis Screening Center and says it sees adults and youth in a psychiatric emergency 24/7, all year. Call 856-428-4357 before you go anywhere. Oaks asks people to call before visiting the screening center, and from Voorhees the call is also how you find out whether to drive to urgent care, go to screening, or have someone come to you.

That same number reaches Adult Mobile Outreach. Family, friends, coworkers, employers or medical professionals can request it for an adult whose symptoms are getting worse and who will not or cannot come in.

Weekly therapy with an office in Voorhees

Urgent care lasts up to 30 days, so weekly therapy has to come from somewhere else. Two programs have Voorhees offices, and only one of them is open to anyone who calls.

Center for Family Services. This nonprofit lists Voorhees among its outpatient behavioral health locations. It treats children, teens, adults, couples and families for problems that include anxiety, ADHD, PTSD, mood disorders, postpartum depression, and co-occurring mental health and substance use issues. Psychiatric services are offered together with therapy, and virtual visits are available when they fit. It does not publish clinic addresses. Every appointment starts with its ACCESS Department at 1-877-922-2377. The program is open referral, so you can call for yourself without a doctor sending you.

Virtua Behavioral Health, 1605 Evesham Road, Suite 200A. Phone 856-355-7118. This office is for Virtua Primary Care patients who are referred by their Virtua doctor. Licensed clinical social workers and psychiatrists there treat anxiety, depression, grief, mood disorders and bipolar disorder. The focus is short-term individual therapy, along with psychiatry and medication management. Appointments are in person or by telehealth. The office opens weekdays between 8 and 9 a.m. and closes at 5 p.m. Monday through Thursday, 3 p.m. on Friday. If you are a Virtua patient, ask your primary care doctor for a behavioral health referral. If you are not, call Virtua's behavioral health team at 888-847-8823 and ask whether any service there is open to you.

A private therapist is the other common route. Our guide to finding a therapist in Camden County covers how to check a license. If you are not sure whether you need weekly therapy or something more structured, see levels of mental health care.

Kids and teens

Voorhees Middle School students move on to Eastern Regional High School, run by the Eastern Camden County Regional School District. Eastern's guidance department lists social-emotional support among its services, alongside college planning and academic monitoring. If you are worried about your teenager, the guidance counselor is a reasonable first call. For a younger child, start with the counselor at your child's school.

Eastern's Board of Education also has a written policy for when a student shows warning signs of suicide, and parents rarely see it until the day it applies. Under Policy 5350:

• The principal contacts the parents right away, and the student is referred to the Child Study Team or a Suicide Intervention Team for a preliminary assessment.
• The principal then meets with the parents to go over the assessment. Parents may be required to get medical or psychiatric care for the student.
• If parents object or will not cooperate, the policy says the principal will contact the state Division of Child Protection and Permanency.
• Before returning, the student needs written clearance from a licensed medical professional the parents choose and the superintendent approves. The policy says the district will not make parents pay for the psychiatric clearance.

For a crisis at home that is not life-threatening, call PerformCare at 1-877-652-7624. In Camden County, Oaks runs Children's Mobile Response for ages 5 to 21, 24 hours a day, for problems like suicidal thoughts, school refusal and oppositional or defiant behavior. A team comes to your home, works out a plan with your child and family, and can arrange short-term stabilization for up to eight weeks.

For more structure than weekly therapy, Virtua's CASTLE program is based in Camden, and Virtua says it also offers services in Berlin and Willingboro. The Camden site lists full-day partial hospitalization for ages 5 to 14 and after-school intensive outpatient for ages 5 to 13. Virtua's pages disagree on the upper age for its outpatient care, so confirm eligibility, and which site your child would attend, when you call 856-246-3013.

Our parent's guide to youth mental health care covers warning signs and how to start the conversation.

If the person you are worried about is an adult who will not accept help, read when someone you love won't get help, and remember Adult Mobile Outreach, above.

Bridging the wait for a first appointment

Reaching an intake line and getting a first appointment are separate steps, and the second can take longer than someone in a bad stretch can comfortably wait. Book the appointment anyway. The gap in between can be covered.

Start with the intake line that fits: Center for Family Services ACCESS at 1-877-922-2377, or your Virtua doctor if you are a Virtua Primary Care patient. Take the first open date and ask to be called if an earlier one opens.

For an adult who gets worse before that date, Oaks Mental Health Urgent Care (856-254-3800) can work with you for up to 30 days. Tell them which program you are already waiting on. For a child in a crisis that is not life-threatening, the bridge is PerformCare (1-877-652-7624) for Children's Mobile Response, plus a call to the school counselor so someone there knows what is happening.

If it becomes an emergency, call 911. For anything short of that, call or text 988, or call 856-428-4357.

If cost is what is holding you up, read our guides to therapy without insurance and NJ FamilyCare coverage.