Answering the Call: New Center Supports People In Distress

When someone is in crisis, every second matters — and knowing who to call can make all the difference.

On December 1, 2025, we launched the Rockland Behavioral Health Call Center (BHCC) on behalf of the Rockland County Department of Mental Health. Since opening, the center has responded to more than 600 calls from community members seeking help for themselves or their loved ones.

Located at our Orangeburg facility, the BHCC is staffed by a bilingual team that includes licensed clinicians and certified peers trained in crisis counseling. When someone calls, our team listens, assesses what’s needed, dispatches the county’s mobile response teams when in-person support is required, and connects individuals and families to ongoing mental health or substance use services.

What makes this call center even better is its integration with our Intensive Crisis Stabilization Center (ICSC), which is slated to open in the same building this summer. The ICSC will be able to serve at any time up to 25 children and adults who need short-term, high-level stabilization. Together, the BHCC and ICSC will create a seamless continuum of care grounded in compassion and dignity and focused on long-term recovery.

In moments of crisis, no one should feel alone. Our Rockland BHCC ensures that help is just a phone call away.

Bringing Warmth and Hope: Sub-Zero Weather Doesn't Stop Outreach Teams

This winter has brought a two-week stretch of sub-zero degree weather, but that hasn’t stopped our Peer Alliance Recovery Center (PARC) outreach teams from hitting the streets to engage people who are struggling.

During the coldest days, our outreach teams adjust where and when they go and what they do, all in an effort to stay true to the most important goal: showing up for people who need their support. This ongoing engagement builds relationships and trust that help people move off the streets and into care.

During the bitter cold, our outreach workers hand out hats, gloves, socks, and hand warmers, in addition to Narcan and fentanyl test strips, toiletries, and meals. And with each interaction, they offer people the opportunity to come inside the Queens or Bronx PARC offices to warm up.

Once people step inside our office, we offer even deeper support, including various workshops and peer-led groups, vocational assistance, access to paid peer internships, and individual and family support.

This strategy of always showing up for people works: Last year, PARC served 4,009 individuals, distributed over 3,000 Narcan kits and fentanyl test strips, and provided more than 6,000 meals.