Englewood Health Opens New Behavioral Health Center

Englewood Health opened a dedicated behavioral health center this week, adding 24 inpatient psychiatric beds and an expanded outpatient crisis stabilization program aimed at serving Bergen County residents who previously had to seek psychiatric care outside the county.

The new center includes a walk-in crisis stabilization unit designed to divert patients experiencing a mental health crisis away from the general emergency department, which hospital officials say has struggled to appropriately serve psychiatric patients given its layout and staffing model. Patients in crisis can now be evaluated and stabilized in a dedicated space with staff specifically trained in behavioral health emergencies.

"A traditional emergency room is a loud, bright, chaotic environment, which is close to the worst possible setting for someone in a mental health crisis," said Englewood Health Chief of Behavioral Health Dr. Priya Ramaswami. "This center gives us a calmer, more appropriate space, and it frees up general emergency department capacity at the same time."

Bergen County has historically had fewer inpatient psychiatric beds per capita than several neighboring counties, according to state health department data, forcing some patients to be transferred out of county during crisis episodes. Englewood Health says the new beds should reduce, though not eliminate, the need for such transfers.

The health system says the center's outpatient programming will also include group therapy sessions and a dedicated adolescent mental health track, responding to a rise in teen behavioral health referrals reported across North Jersey school districts.