Mental Health Care in Woodbridge Township, NJ: A Local Guide

Your mail may say Iselin, Colonia, Avenel, Fords, Sewaren, Port Reading, Hopelawn or Keasbey. For local government, though, all of those sections are Woodbridge Township, and that matters when you look for help. The township runs its own addiction services division, with a phone line you can call directly. For mental health care, Woodbridge residents use the same county network as the rest of Middlesex: a Rutgers screening center, a hospital emergency service in Perth Amboy, and Rutgers outpatient clinics in nearby towns.

So the first decision is which problem you are calling about. If it is drinking or drug use, the township line is the place to start. If it is depression, anxiety or another mental health condition, start with Rutgers or the state referral line. If anyone may be in danger, the numbers in the next section come before either.

Who to call when it is urgent

Call 911 first if anyone is in immediate danger. That includes an overdose, a suicide attempt, or someone threatening to hurt another person.

If the danger is not immediate but you are worried, call or text 988, the Suicide & Crisis Lifeline. It is free, confidential and open 24 hours a day, and you can call it about someone else.

Sometimes the question is whether a person needs a hospital evaluation, and nobody is in immediate danger. For that, Middlesex County has two screening services on the state's list (updated September 14, 2026):

• Rutgers University Behavioral Health Care, 671 Hoes Lane, Piscataway: 732-235-5700. This is the county's designated screening center.
• Raritan Bay Medical Center Affiliated Emergency Service, 530 New Brunswick Avenue, Perth Amboy: 732-324-5289.

For a child or teen in a mental health crisis at home, call PerformCare at 1-877-652-7624. It is New Jersey's Children's System of Care line, open 24/7. PerformCare says it may send a mobile response team to your home within one hour, and that the team can provide up to eight weeks of follow-up stabilization. The goal is to keep the child safely at home.

Our crisis page explains how these lines fit together.

The township's own addiction line

Woodbridge Township's Department of Health and Human Services has an Addiction Services Division. The township describes it as covering prevention, intervention, treatment and recovery support. There are two numbers:

• 732-596-4199. The township's intervention page tells residents to call this number for help with a substance use disorder, whether the help is for you or for a friend or relative. Edison Township's addiction services page lists the same number as a 24/7 confidential addiction support hotline.
• 732-855-0600, extension 5008. This is the division's general line on the township's main addiction services page.

The township's intervention page describes an opioid overdose recovery program it set up at the local level: after an overdose is reversed with naloxone (Narcan), police call for a peer recovery specialist to meet the patient in the emergency room. These specialists are in recovery themselves, or have been through addiction with someone they love. Their job is to help the person start treatment before they are sent home.

The township's page about this program is not dated. If you or a relative has just survived an overdose, do not wait for a specialist to show up. Call 732-596-4199 yourself, from the hospital if you can.

Peer support in Port Reading

The township's recovery support page describes W.A.R.M. (Woodbridge Addiction Recovery Mentors). It is a group of people in recovery, and family members of people with addiction, who meet at the Sycamore Senior Center, 290 Old Road in Port Reading. The page lists meetings on Wednesday and Friday nights from 7 to 11 p.m. and a SMART Recovery meeting on Wednesdays from 6:30 to 7:30 p.m. It also says township officials and recovery coaches attend.

That page is undated too, so call extension 5008 to check the current schedule before you go.

Therapy, psychiatry and medication

The township's division is built around substance use. If you need therapy, a psychiatric evaluation or medication for a mental health condition, start with one of these two lines.

Rutgers UBHC Access Center: 1-800-969-5300. Rutgers University Behavioral Health Care runs outpatient care across the county. It lists its Edison, Monmouth Junction and New Brunswick sites as a Certified Community Behavioral Health Clinic (CCBHC). Rutgers does not publish street addresses for these offices, so the Access Center tells you which site to go to.

If you are uninsured or your deductible is high, that label is worth knowing about. SAMHSA's 2023 certification criteria bar a CCBHC from denying anyone behavioral health care because they cannot pay, and require it to reduce or waive fees when needed and to publish a sliding fee discount schedule. Ask on the first call where you fall on that schedule. Our Edison guide has more on the Edison clinic.

NJMentalHealthCares: 1-866-202-4357. This is the state's free information and referral line. Staff offer emotional support and help you find services. It is open 8 a.m. to 8 p.m., seven days a week. It is not a crisis line. Outside those hours, or if things are getting worse, use 988.

If you have insurance and want a hospital-based clinic with evening hours, the same Edison guide covers the JFK outpatient clinic on James Street. Other Middlesex programs, including partial hospital programs and training clinics, are on our Middlesex County resource page. For other ways to pay, see therapy without insurance in NJ and NJ FamilyCare mental health coverage.

Finding a licensed treatment program yourself

If you would rather compare addiction programs on your own, the state keeps a searchable directory of licensed addiction treatment providers, and the township's site links to it. You can filter by county, by distance, and by type of care: medication-assisted treatment, outpatient, inpatient, or withdrawal management. Some inpatient programs also show whether beds are open.

The directory says available beds do not guarantee that a person will meet a program's admission criteria, so call the provider first. If you cannot find an opening, the state's ReachNJ line, 1-844-732-2465, is answered 24/7 by trained staff who can connect you to a local treatment provider.

When drinking or drug use and a mental health condition show up together, tell every program you call about both. A program that treats only one may not be the right first stop. Our guide to levels of mental health care explains the difference between outpatient, intensive outpatient and partial hospital programs.

If the person struggling is your child

Start with your child's school counselor. Ask what the school itself offers and whether staff can refer you to providers outside school. For anything urgent, PerformCare's line above is the one built for children and teens. Our guide to teen and child mental health help in NJ explains how the state's children's system works, including services you can get without a crisis.

What to have ready when you call

Whichever number you choose, the first call goes faster if you have three things written down:

1. Where you live and what coverage you have. Say that you live in Woodbridge Township, even if your mail says Iselin or Fords. Give your insurance plan name and member ID, or say that you are uninsured.
2. What has changed and when. For example: "not sleeping for three weeks," "drinking every day since the layoff," "panic attacks at work." Concrete changes help staff decide what level of care fits.
3. One question about cost and timing. Ask about the sliding fee at Rutgers, or ask the township line how soon someone can be seen.

If the first place has a wait, keep your spot and ask how long it usually runs. Then call NJMentalHealthCares, which helps people find services, and ask what else is open while you wait. For a step-by-step walk through the search, see how to find a therapist in Middlesex or Camden County.