News Coverage

Addressing trauma in Baltimore (Baltimore Sun)

When I first came to Baltimore, I had a series of "listening tours." One of the most poignant experiences was with a group of youth — some no more than 8 years old. I asked them to share the single biggest issue on their minds. Their answers shocked and saddened me; the biggest problem these children saw was mental health.

They didn't say those words, but what they spoke about was trauma — trauma of watching people they loved being shot and killed; trauma of not knowing whether they would have a bed to sleep in or dinner that night; trauma of being the only person in the household who gets up in the morning because everyone else is addicted to drugs.

Going to the street to arm anti-heroin 'first responders' (Cincinati Enquirer)

The third in a four-part series.

BALTIMORE - The streets are barren in this East Baltimore neighborhood, save for one active stretch that abuts a few boarded up, brick buildings.

This is a hub of open drug sales. A car pulls up, a hand comes out, there's a trade-off, a bag of something for cash.

A crushed box of the heroin overdose reversal drug naloxone is stuffed under a cracked cement step outside a building.

Someone overdosed here, says Nathan Fields, a Baltimore opioid overdose response prevention trainer. Someone tried to reverse the overdose with naloxone.

Just feet from the drug hand-offs and small social circles, the Behavioral Health System of Baltimore crew sets up a table and piles on naloxone kits.

Reducing the dying by embracing needle exchange (Cincinati Enquirer)

BALTIMORE - They walk up to a van that's marked with the seal of Baltimore Health Department, and they're greeted warmly.

In this case, "they" are injection drug users who get clean needles and other supplies to help ensure they won't get infected with HIV or hepatitis C. It's nothing new.

Needle exchange is a priority in Baltimore, and national Harm Reduction Coalition experts say the program there is among models for others across the nation.

ChangeMakers: Baltimore Receives $5 Million Dollar 'Trauma' Grant (NBC)

Over the years, Tyesha Harrell has heard the staccato pop of gunshots, seen the blood-stained sidewalks, and too often heard the wails of grief-stricken mothers whose sons and daughters have succumbed to violence.

"We lost six people yesterday," said the resident of Gilmor Homes, a public housing project in West Baltimore where Freddie Gray was arrested in April 2015, before later dying in police custody.

Yet amid the pain, Harrell, an activist with the citizen's advocacy group, Communities United, is determined to help change conditions for the better. And recently, she heard some good news.

Baltimore, joined by seven other municipalities nationwide, will receive nearly $10 million dollars from the Obama Administration to promote community healing.

"I know I'm not Wonder Woman, but it makes me feel like Wonder Woman," said Harrell.

Five things Baltimore can teach us about fighting heroin (Cincinati Enquirer)

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Dr. Wen Cincinati Enquirer Video "Five things Baltimore can teach us about fighting heroin"

Lessons from Baltimore: The first in a four-part series.

BALTIMORE - This city is under an official public health emergency, and overdoses and drug use are the reasons. An epidemiologist has calculated 19,000 or 3 percent of its residents are addicted to heroin – important because here, officials just guess. Officials fight the epidemic with a multi-pronged, science-based approach that has specialists across the nation watching – and hoping.

33-year-old doctor leads Baltimore's anti-heroin war (Cincinati Enquirer)

The second in a four-part series.

BALTIMORE - Dr. Leana Wen is famous among addiction experts across the nation for taking the helm against heroin.

"Nobody wants to be an addict," she says flatly.

The Baltimore health commissioner has an estimated 19,000 residents addicted to heroin in her city of 620,000. This city knows its numbers, figured by an epidemiologist, so that it can better understand and react to the heroin threat.

She's known nationally for her efforts to fight the heroin crisis in her city. "You need a commitment from public health leadership to prioritize this," said Daniel Raymond, policy director for the national Harm Reduction Coalition in New York City.

Wen, 33, who was appointed Baltimore health commissioner in January 2015, says that anyone who sees addiction as a moral failing is wrong. "Science is clear that addiction is a brain disease," she said.

Finding answers to heroin deaths a key to prevention (Cincinati Enquirer)

BALTIMORE - Once a month, a team of high-level officials looks at every overdose fatality and the path that each individual took that led to death.

The Baltimore Overdose Fatality Review Team's goal: Identify missed opportunities for prevention, gaps in the system and areas for increased collaboration.

"We have high-level representatives from police, fire, health, behavioral health, SUD (substance use disorders) providers, the coroner's office parole and probation, hospital emergency departments, social services, pharmacy, office of the public defender, states attorney’s office, Maryland Poison Control, and our chief medical officer," said Adrienne Breidenstine, spokeswoman for Behavioral Health System Baltimore.

Ending Health Care Discrimination (Fusion)

File Ending Health Care Discrimination

Fusion, a multi-platform media network, recently published a new video highlighting Baltimore City Health Commissioner Dr. Leana Wen and her ongoing efforts to change the way we view health in our city.

Narcan Prices Are Skyrocketing and Cities Are Begging for Help to Buy It (The Daily Beast)

PHILADEPHIA — If it were possible to put a dollar value on human life, few would argue that $37.50 is too high.

But that’s all it cost to purchase the drug that saved Michael C. Meeney’s life when he overdosed on heroin earlier this year on a crowded bus in suburban Philadelphia.

A Healthy Baltimore for 2020 (WJZ)

BALTIMORE (WJZ) — Charm City is launching a strategic plan to improve the wellness and reduce violence in our community.

Tracey Leong outlines this new effort.

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