Donald Parker, President of Behavioral Health Care Transformation Services at Hackensack Meridian Health, Honored by Mental Health Association-New Jersey

Hackensack Meridian Health is proud to announce that Donald J. Parker, LCSW, President of Behavioral Health Care Transformation Services for the network, was recently honored by the Mental Health Association in New Jersey at its 23rd Annual Evening of Excellence..

The association honored Mr. Parker at a ceremony at the Park Savoy Estate in Florham Park, citing his “pioneering work in behavioral health care, including developing innovative approaches and modeling integration of care.”

“Donald Parker stands out as a behavioral health leader in New Jersey,” said Carolyn Beauchamp, President and CEO of the MHANJ. “He has developed pathways to care that have changed the lives of many.”

“Don Parker has been a tremendous leader in Hackensack Meridian Health’s mission to integrate behavioral health and addiction treatment into our network’s overall system of care,” said Robert C. Garrett, chief executive officer of Hackensack Meridian Health. “His long record of commitment to innovative, best-in-class ways to treat behavioral health so that more people have easier access to care has made an important difference in the lives of countless patients. It’s wonderful to see Don Parker’s leadership in behavioral health recognized.”

Donald Parker said, “I am thrilled by my selection as an honoree of the Mental Health

Association of New Jersey.  Anytime you are selected by your colleagues in Behavioral Health

and you get to follow your mentors, like Carolyn Beauchamp and Jim Lape did for me, it is a special honor.”

Mr. Parker was President and Chief Executive Officer of the Carrier Clinic from 2013 until 2021, when he transferred to his present role, in which he has led the integration and expansion of behavioral health and addiction treatment services across Hackensack Meridian Health.

He was a pivotal figure in the 2019 merger of Hackensack Meridian Health and the Carrier Clinic, and has a vast and deep record of innovation in his more than 50 years of work in behavioral health.

“Congratulations to Don for receiving this award,” said Kenneth Esser, Senior Vice President, Behavioral Health and Special Advisor to the CEO.  “It's a well-deserved recognition of his incredible work to advance behavioral health care for HMH and New Jersey. His vision and leadership have helped to establish high quality  behavioral health services as an important pillar within our health care system.”

As far back as two decades ago, Mr. Parker was shaking up health care, believing the industry could do better. About 21 years ago, he led the opening of an urgent care center in Egg Harbor Township and the state’s first retail health clinic, called “Healthrite,” inside a Shoprite in Somers Point.

While leading Carrier, he presided over integrating creative therapies to treat mental health. Those included art and music therapy and animal therapy–where patients interact with horses, donkeys and sheep in the barn on the Carrier campus. And he led the establishment of a behavioral health urgent care facility at Jersey Shore University Medical Center in Neptune, believed to be the first of its kind in the United States.

As President of Behavioral Health Care Transformation Services at Hackensack Meridian Health, Mr. Parker has led an expansion of behavioral health services across the Hackensack Meridian Health network, working on increasing access to care through such platforms as telehealth, bridge clinics and planned additional beds for children under 12 years old  and adolescents at the Carrier Clinic. This fall, Raritan Bay Medical Center in Perth Amboy unveiled an expanded behavioral health unit that took the number of beds to 81 from 24, adding specialized and in demand  dual diagnosis and geriatric units

“Don Parker consistently has been a top leader in the field of behavioral health and substance use disorder treatment,” said Patricia Toole, President and Chief Hospital Executive

of the Carrier Clinic. “He is an empowering, innovative and visionary servant leader for the Carrier Clinic campus.  It was a true pleasure to see Don win this prestigious award and to be able to participate in honoring him.”

Mr. Parker also played a pivotal role bringing about a new initiative, announced in September, that addresses the increasing number of children coming to emergency departments in the midst of a mental health crisis. This initiative–the first of its kind in New Jersey–will meet an acute need for specialized skills in identifying and treating children who come to hospitals at risk of suicide. In partnership with the Morgan Stanley Alliance for Children's Mental Health and The Society for the Prevention of Teen Suicide (SPTS), Hackensack Meridian Health will train non-behavioral-health nurses to assess, evaluate, and treat or refer to the appropriate mental health specialist suicidal pediatric patients with whom they come into contact.