Behavioral Health & Crisis Response Services
Dedicated licensed professionals helping youth and adults prepare for their best life.
Northern Rivers offers a network of NYS Office of Mental Health-licensed community-based social work and psychiatric services throughout the Capital Region and beyond to support the emotional, social, and developmental needs of children, adults, and families. Our skilled and dedicated team of social workers, mental health counselors, and medical professionals provide programs tailored to different mental health needs, serving thousands of people every year through individual, group, and family psychotherapy; psychiatric assessments; medication management; and complex care management.
The Northern Rivers Difference
Our behavioral health services are provided by a multidisciplinary team of highly-trained, compassionate professionals who provide trauma-informed, culturally-competent, person-centered care to help clients find success on their own terms. With convenient office locations and the flexibility to deliver many services right in the community, we make it easy to access services. Our continuum of services means that we have the right level of service for many situations, and our strength as an organization means clients have access to an unmatched network of community resources.
Behavioral Health Services
Behavioral Health Centers
We have three conveniently located outpatient mental health centers:
- 401 New Karner Road, Albany, NY 12205, 518.431.1650
- 2452 U.S. Route 9, Suite 206, Malta, NY 12020, 518.292.5433
- 530 Franklin Street, Schenectady, NY 12305, 518.381.8911
Our centers provide help to children and adults with challenges including anxiety, depression, mood disorders, trauma, school behavior difficulty, coping with loss, bullying, and suicidality. Our mental health counselors and social workers have a wide variety of areas of expertise, and we work to ensure that every client gets the help he or she needs.
OnTrackNY
This innovative, intensive program provides comprehensive support and services to adolescents and young adults who have recently experienced a first episode of psychosis. Our goal is to provide client-driven services including treatment, educational and vocational support, medication management, and other clinical assistance to help individuals manage their symptoms and achieve life goals.
School-Based Behavioral Health
School districts throughout the region engage Northern Rivers to provide our Behavioral Health Center services in their schools. Rather than having to travel to a center, students may be seen by a Northern Rivers behavioral health professional right in their own school, saving time and reducing stigma. Additionally, some districts implement a more robust, integrated model that allows Northern Rivers professionals to work directly with school staff to enhance student success.
Crisis Response Services
Assertive Community Treatment
Assertive Community Treatment (ACT) is an intensive and highly integrated approach for community mental health service delivery serving adults whose symptoms of mental illness lead to serious functioning difficulties in several major areas of life, often including work, social relationships, residential independence, money management, and physical health and wellness. The ACT team is on call 24/7/365 to help with crises. We support recovery through an individualized, stigma-free approach that gives clients the tools to manage their recovery and set and reach meaningful goals.
Home-Based Crisis Intervention
Home-Based Crisis Intervention (HBCI) is an intensive 4- to 6-week in-home service available to families in Saratoga, Warren, and Washington counties. HBCI therapists are on call 24/7 to help families manage crisis and provide support. The program is committed to strengthening relationships while empowering and educating children and families to enhance problem-solving skills. The goal of the program is to maintain healthy family functioning in a safe environment.
Mobile Crisis Teams
Our multidisciplinary rapid-response teams are dispatched to homes, schools, and community locations to aid children and adults experiencing behavioral health crises over a 6-county area: Albany (children and adolescent services only), Rensselaer, Saratoga, Schenectady, Warren, and Washington Counties. Our goal is to safely divert clients from emergency room visits or hospital placements and to help connect clients to community resources to chart a course to future success.
Short-Term Crisis Stabilization
Northern Rivers Family of Services offers short-term overnight therapeutic programs for youth ages 5–17 experiencing a period of acute stress, mental health issues, or psychiatric crisis that requires a 24/7 staff-secured (nonhospital) setting. These family-centered programs are designed to equip families and youth with a plan for success at home, in school, and in the community.
Healy House: Support for families that includes programming for children ages 5–12. We provide customized supervision, clinical support, nursing care, and tutoring, focusing on helping children stabilize through a consistent, nurturing structure combined with behavior modification. Our primary goal is to stabilize a crisis situation to prevent the unnecessary use of a hospital emergency room or hospital admission.
North Star: Support for families that includes programming for youth ages 12–17. Our primary goal is to stabilize a crisis situation to prevent the unnecessary use of a hospital emergency room or a hospital admission. As a youth’s crisis stabilizes, the program develops a plan of care to address underlying difficulties that led to the crisis, including making referrals for needed treatment supports and services for both the youth and the family.
Youth ACT (Assertive Community Treatment)
Youth ACT is an intensive and highly integrated approach for community mental health service delivery serving outpatient youth ages 10-21 in Albany and Schenectady Counties whose symptoms of mental illness lead to serious functioning difficulties in several major areas of life, often including work, social relationships, residential independence, money management, and physical health and wellness.