Public health saved your life today. You just didn’t know it,” is a saying of Dr. Leana Wen, the Baltimore City health commissioner.

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Baltimore will soon open a new center for people who need short-term drug and alcohol treatment. The center will provide basic services such as first aid, withdrawal management and it will refer people who have a substance use disorder to receive further drug and alcohol treatment in a long-term facility. 

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When public health is invisible, we only end up talking about it when things go wrong; people tend to think about public health agencies as entities that respond to infectious disease outbreaks or shut down a restaurant due to health code violations. We frequently think about health as healthcare, but what determines how long and how well we live is less about what happens in the doctor’s office and more about where we live, the air we breathe, and the availability of other resources in our communities. At the Baltimore City Health Department (BCHD), we believe that all issues – education, housing, employment, public safety, and beyond – can and should be tied back to health. We are committed to making the progress earned through public health visible, and to make the case for incorporating health-in-all policies across the City.

Read the full blog by Commissioner Dr. Wen and Special Assistant to the CommissionerNarintohn Luangrath here.

City officials announced Wednesday plans for a stabilization center in Baltimore, Maryland, as part of the city’s efforts to combat the opioid crisis. The stabilization center would be the first in the state and would serve as a safe place for drug users to receive basic first aid, withdrawal management, and screening and referral to treatment on-site for those with a substance use disorder. 

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Baltimore is trying a new way to treat people who are under the influence of drugs or alcohol, opening up a unique facility that will offer a safe, short-term place for them to recover and connect with other services.

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Our view: With its first-ever “stabilization center,” Baltimore tries a new approach to steering drug and alcohol users toward the help they need.

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State and local officials have announced plans to open a “stabilization” center in Baltimore to help people who are under the influence of drugs or alcohol. Baltimore City Health Commissioner Dr. Leana Wen says the center will open in spring 2019.

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After quietly cutting funding for family planning services last year, the U.S. Department of Health and Human Services (HHS) has agreed to reinstate some funding for teen pregnancy prevention, NBC News reports. 

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Lt. Governor Boyd Rutherford today joined Baltimore City Mayor Catherine Pugh, Maryland Department of Health Deputy Secretary for Behavioral Health Dr. Barbara J. Bazron, and Baltimore City Health Commissioner Dr. Leana Wen to announce the opening of Maryland's first crisis stabilization center. The stabilization center will provide basic first aid, withdrawal management, and screening and referral to treatment on-site for individuals with a substance use disorder.

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Baltimore's mayor is making one of her biggest pushes yet to fight the opioid epidemic in the city. 

City officials said the stabilization center is three years in the making, and it will be the first of its kind in Maryland, and one of the first in the country, to help people battling addiction and get them on the right path.

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