Mets owners' foundation donates $10M to Carrier Clinic to support adolescent mental health
MONTGOMERY – The foundation of New York Mets owners Steven and Alexandra Cohen has donated $10 million to Hackensack Meridian Health to support the $29 million expansion of Carrier Clinic's adolescent mental health program.
Earlier this month the township Planning Board approved Carrier Clinic's proposal to build a 45,000-square-foot addition to its adolescent treatment unit on its 87-acre campus on County Route 601 and East Mountain Road.
The one-story addition will allow the facility to separate adolescent and adult patients, according to documents filed with the township. The addition would include 52 beds for adolescents.
The expansion will allow the facility to accept patients as young as 7-8 years old.
In 2022, the state awarded a $10 million grant for the facility's child and adolescent inpatient program. The grant will help fund the expansion.
“Every child should have access to safe, approachable care for their mental and physical wellbeing,” said Alex Cohen, president of the Steven & Alexandra Cohen Foundation, in a press release. “We are proud to partner with Hackensack Meridian Healthas they enhance adolescent behavioral health services and help create a brighter, healthier future for our youth.”
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The expansion will improve access to patients requiring inpatient treatment who are waiting in emergency departments, crisis centers, partner hospitals and county screening centers across the state and further reduce the number of patients who are turned away, according to Hackensack Meridian Health.
The state-of-the-art facility will feature clinical features designed specifically for the safety of patients and clinicians and include a family resource and training center. The unit will have the latest technology, such as the use of multi-sensory rooms and interactive equipment.
“We believe integrative therapy plays an important role in the holistic approach to helping children and adolescents in the healing process,” said Dr. Eric Alcera, vice president and chief medical officer of Carrier Clinic and assistant professor and founding vice chair, Department of Psychiatry and Behavioral Health, Hackensack Meridian School of Medicine. “To support the needs of our anticipated expanded adolescent population, we will strengthen our efforts to boost equine therapy, art therapy, music therapy and horticultural therapy, which are the most appealing for our younger patients. A heartwarming thanks to the Steven & Alexandra Cohen Foundation for this significant gift in support of our patients.”
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“This extraordinary gift from the Steven & Alexandra Cohen Foundation will help us transform our response to this adolescent mental health crisis, " said Robert C. Garrett, CEO, Hackensack Meridian Health. "We are in the midst of an ambitious, state-of-the-art behavioral health expansion project at Hackensack Meridian Carrier Clinic, our flagship behavioral health hospital, which will increase access to much-needed behavioral health services and care for our youth. We thank our friends at the Steven & Alexandra Cohen Foundation for their confidence and transformational support.”
Carrier Clinic, more than a century old, merged with Edison-based Hackensack Meridian Health in 2019. At that time, Hackensack Meridian Health announced it would make a $25 million investment in Carrier facilities.
In February 2023, Hackensack Meridian Health announced it was expanding the Carrier brand to Raritan Bay Medical Center in Perth Amboy, becoming Carrier Behavioral Health.
Email: mdeak@mycentraljersey.com
Mike Deak is a reporter for mycentraljersey.com. To get unlimited access to his articles on Somerset and Hunterdon counties, please subscribe or activate your digital account today.
This article originally appeared on MyCentralJersey.com: NY Mets owner Steve Cohen's foundation donates $10M to Carrier Clinic
