Healthy Families, Safe at Home

Bergen's Promise, the designated Care Management Organization (CMO) for Bergen County NJ, is a 501(c)(3) non-profit organization dedicated to meeting the complex mental health and wellness needs of children up to age 21 with identified emotional and behavioral challenges, substance use issues, and intellectual and developmental disabilities.

A vital component of the NJ Children's System of Care, the CMO embraces a Wraparound Approach to care management - enhanced by integrated Behavioral Health Home services for medical care coordination for youth with co-occurring behavioral and medical health issues – which strengthens the child's and family's ability to meet life's challenges, and fosters resiliency and hope for a better future. Learn more about us and the way we work with families!

PerformCare is the single point of entry to access services for mental and/or behavioral health issues, developmental disabilities and/or substance misuse available publicly through the New Jersey's Children's System of Care for youth up to age 21.

Parents or legal guardians call PerformCare at 1-877-652-7624 to access services, 24 hours a day, 7 days a week.

Do not hesitate to ask a trusted school representative to assist you in making the call to PerformCare.

PerformCare will conduct an assessment and link the youth and family with the services they need in the most appropriate setting. These services may include: care management, mobile response and stabilization services, a more extensive needs assessment, outpatient services, among other options. PerformCare may authorize Children's 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. In Bergen County, these services are contracted with CarePlusNJ.

There are many guides and brochures available in multiple languages on the Children's System of Care website to help you understand the services available. PeformCare also has a 3 minute video available with Spanish subtitles. There is a new Spanish-language mini-site integrated on the PerformCare website, available at www.performcarenj.org/espanol

These services are provided at no cost to families regardless of income, insurance and immigration status, however families will be asked to provide insurance information if they have it. View additional details about how these services are covered for families. (available in Spanish, Mandarin, Korean and Portuguese).

In case of emergency, call 911.

Bergen's Promise does not charge your family a fee. Services are available to the family in a cost effective manner and without regard to income level, insurance status, languages spoken, immigration status, or involvement with other systems. Your Care Manager will work with your Child and Family Team to maximize the use of low cost, in-network and free sustainable resources. 

The "Wraparound" approach is a unique model of care for youth experiencing serious mental health or behavioral challenges that is able to keep children in their homes and communities, producing better outcomes at lower cost. Wraparound puts the child or youth and family at the center. With support from a team of professionals and natural supports, the family's ideas and perspectives on what they need and what will be helpful drive all of the work in Wraparound.

The young person and their family members work with a Wraparound facilitator to build their Wraparound team, which can include the family's friends and people from the wider community, as well as providers of services and supports. With the help of the Wraparound team, the family and young person take the lead in deciding team vision and goals, and in developing a plan of care that incorporates a combination of services, informal supports and community based resources that will help them achieve their goals and vision, as well as a plan for graduation. Team members work together to put the plan into action, monitor how well it's working, and make changes as needed.  Person-centered language is used in the Wraparound Approach as our choice of words matter in creating a stigma-free environment for youth and families.

Based on our extensive experience working with families since 2002, the most important ingredient to success is the development of the Child and Family Team. This wrapping of services around families helps them cope with issues in their everyday lives, and/or better manage the emotional, behavioral, substance, developmental or intellectual condition they are living with.

The Behavioral Health Home (BHH) provides our children and families with integrated care oftheir chronic behavioral and medical health needs. Behavioral Health Home services utilize a holistic philosophy to integrate physical and behavioral health care management in order to build a person-centered system of care. Youth will receive the traditional Wraparound care management services for emotional/behavioral health, intellectual/developmental disabilities, or substance abuse issues with the addition of an enhanced health care management component.

Eligible youth must have NJ Medicaid/NJ Family Care, a behavioral health challenge and a specific chronic medical condition.

Here's a short video introduction to our BHH program from one of our Health & Wellness Educators and Youth (For Non-English speakers, click the CC button at the bottom of the video)

If your child is presently receiving Care Management supports from Bergen's Promise and you would like to see if your child is eligible for the integrated medical care coordination through our Behavioral Health Home,take one minute to click and complete the eligibility form.

If you are eligible for BHH, a highly trained Nurse or Wellness Educator will be added to the youth's Child and Family Team with the goal of ensuring the youth:

• Retains a primary care provider and attend regular well-child visits
• Receives early periodic screening, diagnosis and treatment for chronic conditions
• Assists youth/family with hospitalization and follow-up post discharge
• Obtains appropriate metabolic monitoring for psychotropic medications
• Receives coordination of services between medical and behavioral health providers