Funding secured to open stabilization center for drug and alcohol users in Baltimore (Baltimore Sun)

Tuesday Mar 27th, 2018

City and state officials plan to announce Wednesday that they’ve secured funding for a stabilization center in Baltimore that would serve as a safe place where drug users can go when they are intoxicated to get medical treatment and links to other social services.

The center, the first in Maryland, would primarily serve the city, which has the state’s highest rate of overdoses. It will open next spring in the old Hebrew Orphan Asylum in the Mosher neighborhood, though a pilot center will open nearby on Monday.

Baltimore Health Commissioner Dr. Leana S. Wen described the stabilization center as a 24/7 emergency room for addiction and mental health.

“We are in the middle of a national epidemic for opioid addiction and overdose and yet we are still treating people with the disease of addiction different than anyone with any other disease,” Wen said. “The stabilization center is one step in the direction of on-demand, evidence-based and compassionate treatment for people with the disease of addiction.”

Read the entire story.

Related Stories

Lead poisoning cases fell 19 percent in Baltimore last year, even as more children tested for exposure (Baltimore Sun)

The number of Baltimore children with lead poisoning fell 19 percent in 2017, even as more children were tested for exposure to the powerful neurotoxin.

Statewide, the number of Maryland children found to have elevated levels of lead in their blood held steady even as the number of children tested increased by 10 percent, according to a Maryland Department of the Environment report released Tuesday.

Read the entire story.

Azar Unveils Plan to Help Pregnant Patients Quit Opioids (MedPage Today)

States will get help from the federal government integrating services for pregnant and postpartum Medicaid patients with opioid use disorder under a pilot program announced Tuesday by Health and Hu

Trump declared an emergency over opioids. A new report finds it led to very little. (Vox)

To much fanfare last year, President Donald Trump ordered his administration to declare a public health emergency over the opioid epidemic. “As Americans, we cannot allow this to continue,” Trump said at the time. “It is time to liberate our communities from this scourge of drug addiction.”

When I’ve asked experts about these approaches, it’s not that any of them are bad. It’s that they fall short. For instance, Leana Wen, the former health commissioner of Baltimore (and soon-to-be president of Planned Parenthood), said that the Support for Patients and Communities Act “is simply tinkering around the edges.”

Read the entire story.

Visit the Newsroom