New Jersey A 4702: Requires Commissioner of Human Services to establish 24-hour, toll-free Mental Illness Resource Hotline and develop hotline connection system to ensure that callers are connected to other appropriate hotlines when needed.

Bill Text

A4702 

ASSEMBLY, No. 4702 

STATE OF NEW JERSEY

222nd LEGISLATURE

� 

INTRODUCED MARCH 16, 2026

Sponsored by:

Assemblywoman� SHANIQUE SPEIGHT

District 29 (Essex and Hudson)

Co-Sponsored by:

Assemblyman Stanley and Assemblywoman Morales

SYNOPSIS

���� Requires Commissioner of Human Services to establish 
24-hour, toll-free Mental Illness Resource Hotline and develop hotline 
connection system to ensure that callers are connected to other appropriate 
hotlines when needed. 

CURRENT VERSION OF TEXT 

���� As introduced.

�� 

An Act concerning the establishment of a Mental Illness 
Resource Hotline and the connection of callers to other appropriate State-run 
hotlines, and supplementing Title 30 of the Revised Statutes.

���� Be It 
Enacted by the Senate and General Assembly of 
the State of New Jersey:

���� 1.��� a.�� The Commissioner of 
Human Services, in consultation with the Commissioners of Health, Community 
Affairs, and Children and Families, shall establish and maintain, on a 24 hour 
a day basis, a toll-free Mental Illness Resource telephone hotline service.� The 
hotline service shall receive and respond to calls from persons who are experiencing, 
or are seeking help for another individual who is experiencing, a non-emergency 
mental health issue or non-emergency mental health crisis.� 

���� (1)� Upon the receipt of a 
non-emergency call pursuant to this section, hotline staff shall promptly identify, 
and either refer or directly connect� the caller to, appropriate State and 
local programs, services, health care and mental health care professionals, and 
other resources that can be accessed by the caller and used to address, mitigate, 
and potentially eliminate the 
non-emergency mental health issue or crisis, as the case may 
be.� To the extent practicable, the caller shall be referred to or 
connected with programs, services, professionals, and other appropriate 
resources that are available in the same county or region of the State in which 
the person experiencing the mental health issue or crisis is a resident.� 
Service referrals and connections made pursuant to this paragraph may be 
facilitated through the use of telephone or digital communications, such as 
text message, electronic mail, or Internet chat.� 

���� (2)�� If a caller to the 
Mental Illness Resource Hotline provides any information indicating that 
suicide may result from the mental health issue or crisis that is the subject 
of the call, hotline staff shall deem the call to be of an urgent and emergency 
nature, and shall not provide the caller with referrals to resources, as 
provided in this subsection.� Instead, hotline staff shall effectuate a warm 
hand-off of the caller to staff at the New Jersey Suicide Prevention Hopeline 
in order to ensure that the caller is provided with direct mental health 
assistance on an emergency basis.� A warm hand-off performed under this 
paragraph shall involve the use of phone conferencing technology.� The staff 
member transferring the call shall:� (a) remain on the line and accessible to 
the caller during the transfer of the call; (b) formally introduce the caller 
to the staff member at the Suicide Prevention Hopeline who receives the 
transferred call; and (c) summarize, for the receiving staff member, the 
information that necessitated the transfer of the caller to the Suicide 
Prevention Hopeline.� At no time during a warm hand-off conducted pursuant to 
this paragraph shall a caller be placed on hold.��� 

���� b.��� The Mental Illness 
Resource Hotline, established pursuant to this section, shall be staffed by 
licensed professional counselors, psychologists, psychoanalysts, and social 
workers who have particular training and knowledge in the institutional and 
community-based programs, services, and resources that are available throughout 
the State to assist persons who are experiencing a non-emergency mental health issue 
or crisis, and their families.� The commissioner shall ensure that the hotline 
is staffed by persons with diverse ethnic backgrounds and includes persons who 
speak both English and Spanish.� The commissioner shall further ensure that the 
hotline either employs or contracts with translators and bi- or multi-lingual mental 
health care professionals who can be made available to assist callers, upon 
request, or when needed.

���� c.���� Notwithstanding the 
provisions of section 1 of P.L.1991, c.524 (C.30:1-1.1), and any other law, 
rule, or regulation to the contrary, the resource hotline established pursuant 
to this section shall be operated separately and apart from the social services 
information hotline established pursuant to subsection a. of section 1 of 
P.L.1991, c.524 (C.30:1-1.1), the mental health and developmental disabilities 
services hotline established pursuant to subsection c. of section 1 of 
P.L.1991, c.524 (C.30:1-1.1), and any community-based suicide hotlines 
established pursuant to section 2 of P.L.1985, c.195 (C.30: