Impact Report 2024 Content

A Focus on Harm Reduction

Providing Harm Reduction Training to Partners 

BHSB has long embraced harm reduction as a central part of our work and we encourage providers to adopt the same approach, with the goal of meeting people who use drugs where they are and keeping them safe. 

A component of this strategy is BHSB’s Maryland Harm Reduction Training Institute (MaHRTI) team. Managed by BHSB, MaHRTI is a training and technical assistance partner of the Center for Harm Reduction Services (CHRS) at the Maryland Department of Health. Uniquely among training entities nationwide, MaHRTI focuses solely on proactive training, technical assistance, and capacity-building for a statewide harm reduction workforce. Today, it is increasingly recognized as a key resource to improve the health and wellness of people who use drugs in Maryland.

One project, the Black, Indigenous, and People of Color Overdose Prevention and Leadership Development (BOLD) initiative provides customized harm reduction support to people of color. A second project managed by CHRS, Regrounding Our Response, offers multi-disciplinary training in five areas related to addressing stigma around substance use, including adverse childhood experiences and the social determinants of health.

MaHRTI has conducted dozens of training sessions for more than 2,500 people, including a session called Envisioning Health Systems to Support Drug User Health to prepare frontline harm reduction and recovery organization staff. (PHOTO)

“We take a holistic approach to a person’s health. The concept of harm reduction is treating the whole person and their community. Their drug use may be a resulting factor of all the other things that happened in the community that were never addressed. If you’re attacking only the behaviors and not the other factors in the ecosystem, it isn’t working. We do it with unwavering love and compassion. And that’s just beautiful to me.” – Miera Corey, MaHRTI associate director 

Equipping Staff to Help Residents of Affordable Housing 

Among its projects, MaHRTI is leading a long-term training effort for resident support services staff at Enterprise Residential, one of the largest property management companies in the affordable housing space. Many of Enterprise’s properties have residents in need of the public behavioral health system and harm reduction services. [Photos from Enterprise: see the Enterprise subfolders in this folder]

[Video: Interview with Daniel Atzmon, Enterprise Residential]

Caption for video: Daniel Atzmon discusses how his organization, Enterprise Residential, is partnering with BHSB to expand access to behavioral health and harm reduction services to residents of affordable housing units.

Expanding Community Outreach

Bmore POWER, a BHSB team with lived experience with substance use, continues to be a critical on-the-ground arm of Baltimore City’s response to the overdose crisis. In 2024, it restructured its work to strengthen its engagement with the community and expand its impact. The restructuring has led to steady increases in the number of service encounters and the quantity of harm reduction supplies distributed, including naloxone to reverse opioid overdoses. The team also re-initiated neighborhood-level rapid overdose cluster response by outreach workers in partnership with the Baltimore City Health Department. (PHOTO)

Charting a Renewed Opioid Response

BHSB was named to the Restitution Advisory Board advising Baltimore City on allocating funds obtained through litigation from pharmaceutical companies that flooded the city with opioids. This broad-based board will support a forward-looking strategy to expand the city’s efforts to stem overdoses and expand access to treatment and harm reduction services. In addition, new funding for Bmore POWER and 988 Helpline outreach will provide BHSB with new resources to strengthen and expand programming. 

Strengthening the Crisis Response System 

Securing Long-Term Funding for 988 Crisis Services

BHSB served as the backbone for the Fund Maryland 988 campaign, a statewide coalition that launched a broad advocacy campaign with the General Assembly to fund the 988 crisis response system. The Campaign proposed legislation to create a 25 cents per month 988 telecom fee that would provide more than $25 million in dedicated funding each year for the 988 Trust Fund. The coalition managed strong bill hearings, submitted dozens of letters in support, and leveraged advocacy grant dollars for paid digital and grassroots advocacy efforts. The legislation passed the General Assembly with bipartisan support. The 988 telecom fee, along with Medicaid reimbursement for mobile crisis teams, will ensure sustainable funding for the Central Maryland Crisis Response System. (Photos in this folder)

Building Out the Crisis Network

With state 988 funding secured, the Central Maryland Regional Crisis System has continued to mature to better meet the region’s needs. Mobile crisis response teams have expanded and can now travel across county and city lines to handle crisis situations in person. This triage matrix shows how calls to 988 are handled – with responses that include telephone support, in-person crisis response support or emergency service help.

BHSB has been working with our mobile crisis providers to support sustainability through Maryland’s new fee-for-service system that launched at the end of 2024.  BHSB secured additional grant funding to help our mobile providers with this transition and continues to coordinate with the Behavioral Health Administration to provide technical assistance support. 

[Video: Tiffany Spaulding Wrona, Regional Director of Crisis Services, Affiliated Sante]

Caption: Tiffany Spaulding Wrona, Regional Director of Crisis Services for Affiliated Sante, discusses its work providing 988 and crisis response services to residents in Baltimore City, and Baltimore, Carroll, and Howard counties as part of the Central Maryland Regional Crisis System.)

BHSB has also helped develop a network of more than 40 clinics through the Open Access program, that are committed to providing immediate behavioral health support for people in need. This online directory lists participating clinics that can offer same-day or next-day appointments, which can be crucial to someone experiencing a behavioral health issue.

“The great value of the open access project is in meeting people where they are in the community, with the least restrictive interventions, and reducing overreliance on hospital referrals,” said John Crouch, BHSB Associate Director of Crisis Services. 

[Call-out] “When somebody is in a state of urgency, they might be more receptive to a follow-up and feel like their needs are being heard. If there’s a wait before getting to see someone, it could feel like they were ignored or the urgency may be passed, making them more resistant to care.” – Mary Rimi, Outpatient Mental Health Director for Leading By Example, a behavioral health provider part of the Open Access program [headshot of Mary]

Educating the Public about 988

BHSB continues to use community partnerships to promote 988 and ensure the public knows about this valuable resource. Our team of 988 Community Ambassadors have been instrumental in continuing our community partnerships with veterans organizations, faith-based organizations, behavioral health facilities, libraries, and neighborhood associations. Our ambassadors are leaders in their communities and share information about 988 across the city. BHSB also continues to lead 988 marketing efforts to increase awareness of the helpline. (images from ads?) (988 videos as well)

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Facilitating ongoing care for people in need

BHSB also helped 988 service providers develop a process to connect CareFirst members who call the 988 helpline directly to a CareFirst behavioral health care manager, which will help them receive appropriate ongoing support services. BHSB will explore similar partnerships with other insurers moving forward.

Supporting Older Adults

Older adults in the community who are diagnosed with a severe mental illness and require some assistance managing their daily living activities often struggle to receive services to help them stay healthy. To help address that, BHSB launched the Behavioral Health Assisted Living project to work with assisted living facilities to develop behavioral health wraparound services to prevent unnecessary institutionalization and avoid health crises in the community. The project now partners with two homes in Baltimore. Most of the residents being served transitioned into the program after living for years in state psychiatric hospitals. The program provides wraparound support services, psychiatric and medical oversight, and medication management. The program gives residents the opportunity to reintegrate into society where they can enjoy a more independent life. 

[Call-out] “Most of our residents are low-income and they often have challenges finding good assisted living situations. The Behavioral Health Assisted Living project ensures we can serve these folks in the least-restrictive environment, with dignity and care.”  – Sundia Gaynor, manager of Affluent Living, a partner in the Behavioral Health Assisted Living Project. PHOTOS in this folder 

[Video of Rachell Chmielewski]

Rachell Chmielewski, Older Adults Coordinator with BHSB, discusses new efforts to ensure residents of assisted living facilities with mental illness receive good care and support. Call-out quote from Rachell to come

Partnering with Institutions to Reach Seniors 

The BHSB team regularly partners with organizations, such as senior centers, to share information with older adults about behavioral health services available in the community. BHSB is also expanding its efforts to connect with senior living facilities and assisted living facilities with a focus on reaching people transitioning from state hospitals. BHSB team members have also established new partnerships with faith-based organizations, including New Psalmist Baptist Church, to share services and resources for older adults within the public behavioral health system. The partnership began when a church leader reached out to BHSB for assistance engaging and educating aging Black men in the church on behavioral health resources. [Photos?]

Our Impact in the Community 

Behavioral Health System Baltimore oversees the public behavioral health system in Baltimore City.

103,478 People served (FY 2024)

33,703 People who received mental health services (FY2024)  

69,775 People who received substance use services (FY2024) 

Central Maryland 988 (calendar year 2024)

• 31,240 calls
• 90.6% of calls resolved on the phone
• 1,966 completed mobile team visits
• 68.7% of mobile team visits resolved on scene 

FY2023 Financial Information

Grants: $52,381,425 awarded through 269 contracts

Programs: $52,450,688 

Management and General: $5,201,538

TOTAL EXPENDITURES: $57,652,226