How Care Works Here
Behavioral health care can feel like a maze of unfamiliar words and systems, especially when you are already worried about someone you love. This page explains how it works in plain language, with no jargon and nothing to sign. Our goal is for you to leave understanding your options, whether you choose Mercedes Health or not.
Care for How You Think, Feel, and Cope
Behavioral health is a broad term for support with mental health and emotional wellbeing. It includes therapy for anxiety or depression, help for a child struggling with behavior at school, support after something traumatic, and family counseling during a hard season. If something is affecting how you or someone in your family thinks, feels, behaves, or copes from day to day, that falls under behavioral health.
You do not need a diagnosis, and you do not need to be in crisis, to benefit from it. Many people reach out simply because something feels harder than it should, and that is reason enough.
Two Questions:
How Much Care and What Kind
From the first conversation, we make the path forward clear.
How much support do you need?
How much support do you need? Weekly outpatient, in-home visits several times a week, or a structured intensive program and it can change over time, without leaving the people who know you.
What kind of care do you need?
What kind of care fits your circumstanced? Trauma, anxiety and depression, youth, family, or behavioral support? Most people need one specialty at one level. We’ll help you find what’s best.
Tell us what is going on. There is no wrong way to begin, and no question is too small to ask.
How New Jersey's System of Care Works
If you are seeking care for a child or adolescent in New Jersey, you may come across the Children's System of Care. It is the state's network for connecting young people and families with behavioral health support, and it is built so families do not have to navigate it alone. The entry point is an organization called PerformCare. PerformCare helps determine what a young person is eligible for and connects the family with services, sometimes through a local Care Management Organization, or CMO, that coordinates care over time.
Here is the part that matters most. You can call PerformCare yourself.
You do not need a referral from a doctor to start. If this feels like
a lot, you do not have to do it alone. When you reach out to us, we
help you understand where you fit and coordinate with PerformCare on your behalf.
Available 24 hours a day, seven days a week.
How New Jersey's System of Care Works
How care is paid for depends on the kind of care. In-home support for children and adolescents is provided through New Jersey's Children's System of Care, which serves young people up to age 21 and is accessed through PerformCare. Outpatient care, for children and adults alike, works like most healthcare: we accept NJ FamilyCare and New Jersey Medicaid, we are expanding commercial coverage, and a sliding scale is available for those without insurance.
Whatever your situation, here are three questions worth asking any provider before you begin. Do you accept my insurance or funding source? What will this cost me out of pocket? What happens if my coverage changes during treatment? You deserve clear answers before your first session.
You Should Never Have to Navigate This Alone
From the first conversation, we make the path forward clear.
Get in touch with us.
Tell us what is going on. There is no wrong way to begin, and no question is too small to ask.
We confirm coverage and fit.
We verify your insurance, answer what it will cost, and help you understand which kind of care fits.
We connect you with a clinician.
We match you on specialty, approach, and language, then help you schedule that first session.
You Deserve to Understand Your Options
Whether you choose Mercedes Health or another provider, you deserve care that feels made for you, from people who explain things clearly and treat you with respect. We hope this guide helped. If you have questions, or you are ready to begin, we are here.
If you or someone you know is experiencing a mental health emergency, call or text 988, the Suicide and Crisis Lifeline, or go to your nearest emergency room.
