🏥 New Jersey is investing $16.4 million to build crisis receiving and stabilization centers designed to help people in mental health and substance use crises. 📍 Centers are planned for Essex, Bergen, Morris, Monmouth and Camden counties, with Essex expected to open by the end of September. 📞 NJ’s 988 hotline handled calls from 143,000 people during state fiscal year 2026, with thousands more using text and chat services.
TRENTON — The New Jersey Department of Human Services has announced $16.4 million to build crisis receiving and stabilization center connected to the 988 Suicide and Crisis Hotline.
The hotline received roughly $28 million of the $60.7 billion budget for the fiscal year that started on July 1, 2026, but, at that time, no money was set aside for the crisis stabilization centers.
Until now.
New Jersey crisis centers aim to ease pressure on hospital ERs
These centers are so important because when people experience a mental health crisis or a substance use disorder, many don’t know where to go for help, so they wind up crowding hospital emergency rooms in the state, said Deputy Commissioner for Health Services Valerie Mielke…