When & Where to Seek Help

If you are experiencing a mental health emergency, call 911 or go directly to your local emergency room.

If you do not require emergency help, the MSPP INTERFACE Referral Service maintains a mental health and wellness referral help line Monday through Friday, 9 am-5 pm, at 617-332-3666 x 1411. This is a free confidential referral service for participating communities. Callers are matched from our extensive data base of licensed mental health providers. Each referral meets the location, insurance, and specialty needs of the caller. For more information about the service and terms of confidentiality, please click here.

Sources of help in urgent mental health situations

Emergency Services Program (ESP) Directory, 877-382-1609

There are 21 ESPs, covering every city and town across the Commonwealth, which provide community-based behavioral health crisis assessment, intervention, and stabilization services, 24 hours a day, 7 days a week, 365 days a year.

Riverside Emergency Services, 1-800-529-5077

Riverside provides 24-hour emergency mental health assistance to families in many parts of Massachusetts. They help families identify the appropriate steps and services for dealing with mental health crises and provide psychiatric evaluations for children and adults.

Child At-Risk Hotline, 617-232-4882

The trained staff at this statewide emergency response system directed by Judge Baker Children's Center, answers emergency calls, 24 hours a day, 7 days a week. The Hotline works under the auspices of the Massachusetts Department of Children and Families (DCF) and in situations where children are at imminent risk, an emergency response is initiated, with DCF field staff launching the investigations.

B.E.S.T., 1-800-981-HELP (1-800-981-4357)

This toll-free number can be used 24 hours a day, seven days a week. The Boston Emergency Services Team, under the leadership of Boston Medical Center and with the support of the Massachusetts Behavioral Health Partnership and the Massachusetts Department of Mental Health, provides 24-hour service for adults and children in need of immediate psychiatric intervention. A caller is assisted in dealing with psychiatric crisis support, information and referrals. The caller may be directed to a B.E.S.T. Urgent Care Center, a Designated Emergency Department, or a crisis intervention mobile team may be dispatched to the site of the crisis.

Health Helpline, 800-272-4232

Health Care For All’s Helpline is free and available to everyone to answer your questions about healthcare in Massachusetts. We can help you with everything from general insurance questions to specific information you need about a personal health issue. Other issues you might have include questions on co-payments, health insurance rules, directions, whether you’re eligible for a program, or more. You can contact us via phone or online at www.hcfama.org. Health Care For All is dedicated to making quality, affordable health care accessible to everyone, regardless of income, social or economic status. We seek to empower Massachusetts consumers to know more about our health care system and to become involved in changing it.

Advice for less urgent mental health situations

Children and adolescents will often behave in a problematic way at some point along the road to adulthood. Sometimes, the problematic behavior is brief, or only occurs every now and then. Other times, the behavior may last for weeks, or may occur frequently.

When and Where to Seek Help

First Steps for Getting Help

If a child has behavioral or emotional problems, they may appear at home or they may surface in other settings, such as school or within the general community. It is important to identify a mental health concern early, so that the child can receive proper care if he or she needs it.

First, it is important to recognize whether an ongoing problem exists that is affecting the child’s life. Keep notes about when specific behaviors occur. Try to answer the following questions as best you can:

• Is the child’s behavior similar to the behavior of other children in his or her age group?
• How often does the child behave in a way that troubles you?
• How severe or extreme does the child’s behavior seem to you?
• How long does each episode of the troubling behavior last?
• Where does the child’s troubling behavior occur?

Parents are sometimes reluctant to contact a mental health professional when they suspect their child may have a mental health issue. They may worry about what other people will think about them or their child, or they may worry that they will have difficulty understanding the mental health professional’s recommendations. Many also worry that they will lose control over their child’s treatment and/or that the treatment will be very expensive. These concerns are very real, but mental health professionals work very hard to minimize any possible issues, and always welcome a parent's questions and involvement in their child's treatment.

If you believe a problem does exist, you need to know how and where to find professional help. The initial contact should usually be with the child's pediatrician.

• Click for a guide to Working with Your Pediatrician.

The next contact should be someone at the child’s school. It could be an administrator, a teacher, or a mental health professional. It is important to remember that if a child has a mental health issue, a variety of people will work together as a team to provide help. The team approach allows the people working with a child to collect and discuss the widest possible variety of important information. This approach is also a way of providing a child with as many services as possible. The team approach also gives parents an opportunity to hear different points of view, learn more about their child’s situation and gain a better understanding of other mental health services and options available.

For an excellent general introduction to mental health care for children in Massachusetts, see The Parents' How-to Guide to Children's Mental Health Services in Massachusetts from the Boston Bar Association and Children's Hospital.

In addition, the following resources may be helpful:

• Types of Mental Health Care Providers
• How to Choose a Mental Health Care Professional
• Accessing Services from the Massachusetts Department of Mental Health
• Massachusetts General Hospital's School Psychiatry Program, a web site that offers a wide range of information about mental health issues.