Bill > A2490

Introduced Session

This bill establishes the New Jersey Mental Health Residential Reform Treatment Act. The New Jersey Mental Health Residential Reform Treatment Act addresses the critical gap in the State's mental health care system by establishing a licensure pathway for non-hospital based inpatient residential mental health treatment facilities for adolescents and adults, coupled with initiatives to address the shortage of mental health professionals. These facilities will provide mid-to-long-term, 45 to 120 day treatment, including medication management, skill based therapies, and holistic, trauma-based, personalized and somatically derived services; unlike hospital based services that focus solely on short-term psychiatric stabilization. By addressing the mental health professional shortage, which impacts about 40,000 residents, and the strain on hospital capacity, this act will improve access to comprehensive care, reduce long-term costs associated with untreated mental illness, and align New Jersey with states like Pennsylvania and Florida that have successfully implemented such services. Rigorous licensing requirements ensure patient safety and high quality care, fostering a new model of mental health treatment in the State.

AI Summary

Committee Categories

Tennille McCoy (D)*,  Linda Carter (D), 

Introduced, Referred to Assembly Health Committee (on 01/13/2026)

Official Document