Emergency Services
Life-threatening emergencies
For a life-threatening emergency, always dial 911.
An emergency is considered to be any serious and sudden medical, emotional, or behavioral health situation that, if not given immediate professional attention, could lead to your child being severely harmed or possibly harming someone else.
If you have an emergency situation involving your child that is life-threatening, seek help immediately by dialing 911.
Urgent situations
If your situation is not immediately life-threatening, contact PerformCare at 1-877-652-7624 and follow the menu prompts provided for an urgent situation. We will ask you a series of questions to determine how we can help.
If we find that your child should be evaluated for hospitalization, we will refer you to a local screening center.
The NJ Department of Human Services offers a list of crisis/screening centers by county (PDF).
Mobile response stabilization services (MRSS)
PerformCare may authorize mobile response stabilization services (MRSS) to come your home within one hour of notification to provide face-to-face crisis services. The goal is to stabilize behavior and keep your child at home.
Mobile response is available 24 hours a day, seven days a week, and can offer up to eight weeks of stabilization services.
Additional help
- Suicide & Crisis Lifeline: 988.
The Lifeline provides 24/7 free and confidential support for people during emergencies. The Lifeline also helps specific groups, such as youth, loss survivors, veterans, LGBTQ+, and more, cope with suicidal thoughts. - NJ Hopeline: 1-855-654-6735.
The NJ Hopeline has specialists available 24/7 who offer counseling and support over the phone. - 2nd Floor Youth Helpline: 1-888-222-2228 (call or text).
2NDFLOOR is a confidential helpline for New Jersey’s youth that helps find solutions to problems they face at home, at school, or at play.
The New Jersey Children's System of Care defines an emergency as any serious medical, emotional or behavioral health condition with a sudden onset that, if not dealt with right away, is severe enough that a prudent layperson who possesses an average knowledge of medicine and health could reasonably expect the absence of immediate attention to result in jeopardy to the life or health of the child, youth or young adult, or harm to another person by the child, youth or young adult.