Back in 1977, NewBridge tripled in size. Its part-time Day Treatment Center went full time, emergency psychiatric services were added and counseling for at-risk clients increased. That same year, NewBridge became one of the first mental health agencies in New Jersey to create a Youth Services Bureau to focus on the needs of children and adolescents with mental illness.
In 1980, when the state was still heavily reliant on boarding homes for people released from psychiatric hospitals, NewBridge created a state-funded, long-term community residence for older adults who had been hospitalized five years or more – the first of its kind in New Jersey.