PerformCare and NJ Children's System of Care for Kinship Caregivers

What PerformCare Is

PerformCare is the contracted system administrator for New Jersey's Children's System of Care (CSOC). It is the single statewide entry point for youth behavioral health, emotional, intellectual/developmental disability, and substance use services. If the child in your care is struggling with anxiety, depression, behavioral outbursts, trauma responses, substance use, or developmental challenges, PerformCare is where you start.

The number: 1-877-652-7624, available 24 hours a day, 365 days a year.

You Do Not Need a Court Order

This is the fact that most kinship caregivers do not know. You can call PerformCare as an informal relative caregiver — a grandparent, aunt, uncle, or family friend who has taken in a child — without presenting custody papers, a guardianship order, or a DCP&P case number. PerformCare's intake process is designed to be accessible to whoever is actively caring for the child.

When you call, you will speak with an intake coordinator who gathers basic information about the child and the nature of the concern. They do not ask for proof of legal custody. They ask who the child lives with, what behaviors or symptoms you are observing, and how urgent the situation is.

Crisis vs. Routine Intake

PerformCare operates two tracks:

Crisis (immediate): If the child is in acute emotional or behavioral crisis — threats of self-harm, violent behavior, psychotic symptoms, or a situation that feels unsafe — tell the intake coordinator it is a crisis. PerformCare dispatches Mobile Response and Stabilization Services (MRSS) to your home, typically within one hour. The MRSS team assesses the situation and helps plan next steps. Ask PerformCare what follow-up stabilization services are available for the child's situation.

Routine (scheduled): For non-crisis concerns — ongoing anxiety, school avoidance, behavioral difficulties, grief, adjustment challenges — the intake coordinator schedules a behavioral health assessment. This may involve a phone or in-person evaluation, followed by referrals to outpatient therapy, intensive outpatient programs, or specialized treatment providers. Processing times for routine intake vary by region and caseload.

What Services CSOC Covers

Through PerformCare, the child may access:

• Outpatient therapy — individual, family, or group therapy with a licensed provider
• Intensive in-community services — higher-frequency behavioral support for children who need more than weekly sessions
• Psychiatric evaluation and medication management — for children who may need psychotropic medication (note: if you have a POA, you can consent to routine evaluation, but medication decisions may require the parent's involvement depending on the provider's policies)
• Mobile Response and Stabilization Services — crisis intervention in your home
• Substance use treatment — assessment and referral for adolescents with alcohol or drug concerns
• Care management — a care coordinator who helps connect the child to services across systems

What PerformCare Cannot Do

PerformCare focuses strictly on behavioral health and developmental services. It cannot help with:

• School enrollment disputes (that is a district and Commissioner of Education matter)
• Medical consent for physical health issues (pediatric care, dental, vaccinations)
• Legal representation or custody advice
• Financial assistance for caregiving costs

For those needs, you will want other resources. The Kinship Navigator Program handles financial and general support referrals. For school enrollment and medical consent, the New Jersey School and Medical Consent Guide covers those pathways.

Consent and Confidentiality for Teens

If the child is 16 or older, New Jersey law (N.J.S.A. 9:17A-4) allows them to consent independently to outpatient mental health treatment. This means a 16-year-old can agree to therapy without your authorization. The provider generally cannot disclose records about that self-consented care to a parent or caregiver without the teen's signed written release, but a treating physician may inform a parent or guardian if withholding the information would directly jeopardize the teen's life or health.

For children under 16, treatment consent must come from someone legally authorized to make decisions for the child — such as a parent, a caregiver with a valid POA, or a court-appointed guardian. An informal caregiver can call PerformCare to initiate an intake, but the treatment provider must confirm who can consent to the care.

Preparing for the Call

Before you call PerformCare, gather this information if you can:

• The child's full name, date of birth, and Social Security number (if available)
• Your name and relationship to the child
• The child's current insurance (NJ FamilyCare/Medicaid, private insurance, or none)
• A brief description of the behaviors or symptoms that concern you
• Any prior mental health treatment history
• Current medications
• Whether the child is involved with DCP&P or the school's Child Study Team

You do not need all of this to make the call — they will work with whatever information you have. The most important thing is to call.

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