Mental health professionals will now be able to provide services to people in emergency homeless shelters throughout the state after a bill seeking to allow the practice was signed into law last week. “It’s a great first step,” said Connie Mercer, the chief executive officer of the New Jersey Coalition to End Homelessness.

The law allows psychiatrists, psychologists, clinical social workers and marriage and family therapists to help people in emergency shelters on a part-time or a full-time basis, in addition to providing treatment during emergency situations.?The behavioral health care services will not be mandatory for people and they must take place in a part of the shelter that offers privacy. But as advocates welcomed the new law, they remained concerned about how it will be put into practice.

Critical elements
“We all know that there is a great shortage in the world of behavioral health workforce, which puts pressure on all of these systems,” said Mary Gay Abbott-Young, the president of the Rescue Mission of Trenton. “In this particular case, the question is not only how do we find the workforce to provide those services, but how do we fund that within the shelters,” she said.

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