Mental Health Care in Waterford Township and Atco, 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. 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: 856-428-4357 (856-428-HELP), 24 hours a day. Our crisis page has more numbers.

Waterford Township sits at the southeastern edge of Camden County, and the state's Pinelands Commission lists all of its land, and all of neighboring Chesilhurst's, inside the state-designated Pinelands Area. That is good country for quiet and hard country for getting to an appointment. The clinics, crisis screening site and adult urgent care we could confirm on their own websites are all in other towns, most in Cherry Hill. Private therapists who list Atco offices in online directories were not checked for this guide. So this guide starts with help that comes to you, by phone, by video or at the door, then covers the trips worth making.

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. If someone may be a danger to themselves or others but is not in immediate danger, call Camden County's crisis screening line at 856-428-4357, 24 hours a day. The same number is how a family member asks Oaks Integrated Care to send its Adult Mobile Outreach team to an adult who will not or cannot come in. For a child or teen in crisis who is not in immediate danger, call PerformCare at 1-877-652-7624, any hour. For ongoing counseling, the Oaks Access Center, 1-800-963-3377, weekdays 9 a.m. to 8 p.m., handles intake, and Oaks bills Medicaid, Medicare, some private insurance and a sliding fee.

What can reach you at home?

For an adult. Oaks runs Camden County's crisis screening, and its crisis page describes Adult Mobile Outreach for adults with worsening mental health symptoms. Anyone can request it, including family members, friends, employers or a doctor. Oaks says its clinicians meet people in the community who are unwilling or unable to come to one of its hospital-based crisis units. The request goes through the 24-hour line, 856-428-4357. If at any point someone is at imminent risk of harm, Oaks says to call 911.

For a child or teen. Call PerformCare at 1-877-652-7624, New Jersey's Children's System of Care line, 24 hours a day. For a life-threatening emergency, PerformCare says to always dial 911. Otherwise, PerformCare may authorize a mobile response team to reach your home within one hour. Here the team comes from Oaks, whose Children's Mobile Response covers ages 5 to 21. Its list of reasons to call includes anxiety, depression, suicidal thoughts and refusal to attend school, and Oaks says it will send a trained professional to the home that same day. Stabilization can continue for up to eight weeks.

By video. Oaks says its adult Mental Health Urgent Care offers telehealth as well as on-site visits during its hours. Oaks' outpatient program also says it counsels children, adults and families at home, work, school and in the community. Ask about both. Our guide to online therapy explains how video therapy works, what to check about a therapist's license, and how insurance treats it.

By phone, when the problem is loneliness. The state lists a Peer Recovery Warmline, 877-292-5588, answered by trained people with their own experience of mental illness. It is open weekdays 8 a.m. to 10 p.m., weekends 5 to 10 p.m. and holidays 3 to 10 p.m. It is not crisis care. For help choosing a provider, NJMentalHealthCares, 1-866-202-4357, is open 8 a.m. to 8 p.m. every day, and the state describes its support as free and confidential. It is not a crisis line either.

Places to go when you can make the trip

Mental Health Urgent Care, 2051 Springdale Road, Cherry Hill, 856-254-3800. Oaks runs it for Camden County adults 18 and older who are having a hard time but do not need a hospital. Hours are Monday to Friday, 9 a.m. to 8 p.m., and Saturday, 9 a.m. to 5 p.m.; no Sunday hours are listed. Oaks takes walk-ins during those hours and says to call the urgent care first, before going to a screening center or an emergency room. It bills self-pay, insurance, Medicaid and a sliding fee based on income. After hours, call 911 for an emergency, or the crisis line, 856-428-4357.

The county's crisis screening site, Jefferson Cherry Hill Hospital, 2201 Chapel Avenue, Cherry Hill. Oaks screens adults and youth in a psychiatric emergency there, around the clock. Call 856-428-4357 before you go.

Oaks outpatient counseling. Oaks' outpatient page lists billing as Medicaid, Medicare, some private insurance and self-pay on a sliding scale. The same page gives weekday hours of 9 a.m. to 9 p.m., with some weekend availability. Its locations page lists Camden County offices including 557 Williamstown Road, Sicklerville, 856-740-0589, and two in Cherry Hill, at 19 East Ormond Avenue, 856-428-1300, and 1409 North Kings Highway, 856-482-8747. The way in is the Access Center, 1-800-963-3377, weekdays 9 a.m. to 8 p.m. It is not a 24-hour line. Say you live in Waterford or Chesilhurst and ask which office, or which video slot, can see you soonest.

CAMcare Clementon, 121 White Horse Pike, Clementon, 856-583-2400. This community health center says no one is denied care because they cannot pay, and it offers a sliding fee based on income and family size. Its behavioral health page lists licensed clinical social workers and psychiatric nurse practitioners on the team, but CAMcare does not say which sites offer behavioral health, so ask whether Clementon can see you for mental health. Hours are weekdays 8 a.m. to 5 p.m. and the first Saturday of the month, 9 a.m. to 1 p.m.; one listing on the page adds Tuesday evenings to 8 p.m.

Riding the Atlantic City line from Atco

If no one in the house drives, NJ Transit lists Atco station on the Atlantic City Rail Line and marks it as an accessible station with no-fee parking. The same line stops at Lindenwold, where you can change to PATCO, and at Cherry Hill station, which NJ Transit places at the Garden State Racetrack site on Route 70. Before you ride, ask how to get from the station to the office, or whether a video visit would work instead.

Children and teens: a resource map in town, a high school in another county

Waterford Township's school district runs prekindergarten through 6th grade. After that, the state and the district say, students go to Hammonton public schools, in Atlantic County, under a send-receive agreement. That split shapes where a parent should look.

Through 6th grade, the Waterford district publishes a mental health resource map. Inside its three schools it lists school counselors, a school psychologist, a school social worker, a child study team and a behavior threat assessment team for concerns about violence or self-harm. Students can refer themselves to a counselor, and parents can refer a child. The district's main number is 856-767-8293. The map's outside resources include PerformCare's children's mobile response at 1-877-652-7624 and the Oaks crisis screening line at 856-428-4357.

At Hammonton High School, 609-567-7000, the counseling department describes its work as future planning, further education, career awareness and problem solving. For ongoing, intensive personal support, the school's student supports page sends families to outside agencies, among them 2NDFLOOR, a youth helpline at 1-888-222-2228 that the state lists as open 24 hours a day. That page also lists the Atlantic Cape Family Support Organization, which the school describes as serving families in Atlantic and Cape May Counties. A Waterford family lives in Camden County. The parent-run group for this county is the Camden County Family Support Organization, 1030 Kings Highway North, Suite 210, Cherry Hill, 856-662-2600. Its parent advocates can attend IEP and Child-Family Team meetings with you.

In Chesilhurst, start with your child's school counselor. Our parent's guide covers warning signs and how to raise the subject with a teen.

Veterans: counseling that does not require the drive

For counseling, the VA's South Jersey Vet Center is at 2900 Fire Road, Suite 101, Egg Harbor Township, open weekdays 8 a.m. to 4:30 p.m. It offers counseling for depression, PTSD and military sexual trauma, plus couples and family counseling, at no cost. The VA says you do not need to be enrolled in VA health care or have a disability rating, that it offers phone and video appointments, and that anyone in crisis will be seen the same day. The VA lists its call center, 877-927-8387, as open 24/7.

For a veteran in crisis, call 911 if anyone is in immediate danger. Otherwise, the Veterans Crisis Line is 988, then press 1, or text 838255, any hour, and you do not need to be enrolled in VA benefits. New Jersey's own Vet2Vet peer line, 866-838-7654, is listed by the state as open 24/7.

Older adults and people living alone

The township lists the Atco Senior Citizens of Waterford Township at 474 East Atlantic Avenue, Atco. Township pages list more than one phone number for it, so ask Town Hall, 856-768-2300, weekdays 8:30 a.m. to 4:30 p.m., which one is current. For in-home help, meals or caregiver support, the state lists the Camden County Division of Senior & Disabled Services at 856-858-3220, and also gives a toll-free aging and disability number, 1-877-222-3737.

The Waterford and Chesilhurst police websites both point to the Camden County Prosecutor's Office Public Safety A.I.D. Program, a voluntary, no-cost registry. It is open to anyone with a physical or mental impairment that substantially limits a major life activity, and an authorized caregiver can file the profile. The prosecutor's office says it is shared with first responders only during an emergency, a police contact or emergency planning, and that dispatchers can be made aware that someone at the address has a disability. For non-emergency police calls, both departments' websites list dispatch at 856-783-4900; the Chesilhurst police station's own number is 856-767-2768.

When someone will not leave the house

Each of these situations has a different first call.

Danger right now. A weapon, an overdose, an attempt in progress, someone unconscious or not breathing normally, or a threat to hurt someone: call 911. Do not try to drive them anywhere yourself. Tell the dispatcher it is a mental health emergency and give your house number clearly. Waterford's website reminds residents that hard-to-see house numbers slow emergency crews down, so make sure yours can be read from the street.

Getting worse, but no one is in danger tonight. For an adult, call 856-428-4357 and ask for Adult Mobile Outreach. Before you call, write down what you have seen and when: sleep, eating, missed work, what they have said. For a child or teen, call PerformCare at 1-877-652-7624, and say plainly if the problem is that your child will not go to school.

Stuck, and refusing everything. Lower the ask. A video visit from the couch is a smaller step than a car ride to Cherry Hill. Offer to set up the laptop, sit nearby, and leave the room once the call starts. Our guide to when someone you love will not get help covers what tends to work, what backfires, and where New Jersey law draws the line on involuntary treatment.

Then look after yourself. The NAMI New Jersey helpline, 866-626-4664, weekdays 9 a.m. to 4 p.m., is a peer-support service for family members and caregivers as well as for people living with a mental health condition. You can also call or text 988 yourself to talk through what to do next.