It is a cold, wet, dreary Saturday morning on the first day of October. It's the kind of morning most people would rather spend stretched out in bed, or maybe sipping a cup of coffee and daydreaming about nothing much in particular. But at 9 a.m., inside the Baltimore War Memorial, Baltimore City Health Commissioner Leana Wen is addressing a crowd of about 50 people at something called "Solutions Summit: Behavioral Health Forum." Organized by the nonprofit Open Society Institute, the event is a way for citizens to come together and work toward solutions to the city's lingering structural problems.

This morning, she's talking about addiction deaths, and how they have increased in part due to fentanyl, an opioid that can be added to any number of drugs. According to the Drug Enforcement Administration, fentanyl is up to 100 times more powerful than morphine and 30 to 50 times more powerful than heroin.

Wen speaks with passion and authority, and the room is silent as she makes her case about the urgency of this situation.

"The number of people dying…has increased by tenfold—not 10 percent—10 times in the last two years because this medication fentanyl has gotten mixed with heroin, with cocaine, and people don't know that it's there," Wen says. "There is so much work ahead of us but now we have to focus on saving lives."

Last night, the Baltimore City Health Department's (BCHD) Office of Youth Violence Prevention's (OYVP) Dating Matters program joined the Baltimore City Police Department and other organizations focused on preventing domestic violence at the Shake and Bake Family Fun Center to promote awareness during Domestic Violence Awareness Month. The event themed, "Shining a Light on Healthy Relationships" featured speakers William Kellibrew IV, director of OYVP, BCHD; Aisha Burgess, director of Dating Matters, (BCHD) Marilyn Mosby, Office of the State's Attorney for Baltimore City; Lyn Twyman, Baltimore City Police Department's Community Collaboration Division; and representatives from many other domestic violence organizations as far away as Greensboro, North Carolina.

Working long hours and multiple shifts, Baltimore City's Animal Control officers and staff respond to the health and safety of some of Baltimore's most vulnerable residents -- animals. As the Baltimore City Health Department advances its mission to pursue health equity for all citizens and residents of Baltimore, the department has facilitated and supported trauma-informed trainings across multiple systems and settings. Adopting a trauma-informed approach means taking into account the prevalence of trauma in populations, recognizing and understanding the role that trauma plays in the lives of the individuals being served and engaged, responding by putting knowledge into practice and resisting re-traumatization. 

On Monday afternoon, Dr. Wen joined Karen DeSalvo, Acting Assistant Secretary for Health in the U.S. Department of Health and Human Services, John Auerbach, Director of Policy at the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention, and health directors across the country in Washington, DC at the Public Health 3.0 conference.