Baltimore city schools respond to crisis with behavioral health programs

Almost immediately after starting her job in 2015 as Baltimore’s health commissioner, Leana Wen took a series of walking tours around the city, listening to residents’ concerns.

Much of what she heard was expected, but what she was told by public school students surprised her.

“I thought they’d ask about smoking or STDs,” Wen recalled. “But what every single one of them talked about was mental health.

“They talked about what it was like to grow up in a house where they were the only one to get up in the morning. Everyone else was on drugs.

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