Recently, members of the OSI-funded BRIDGES Coalition were featured on WMAR to advocate for keeping treatment clinics in Baltimore City. Members of the coalition, responding to Mayor Pugh’s suggestion earlier this summer that treatment centers are the source of neighborhood violence, argue that taking treatment centers out of the neighborhoods that need them most would do more harm and increase the stigma associated with substance use disorders.
In July, OSI announced a $200,000 grant to support the Baltimore City Health Department (BCHD) to combat overdose deaths and reduce the stigma surrounding addiction by funding a rapid response team to help target outreach in real time when overdoses are reported in the city. It will also be used to develop a public education campaign to fight the stigma of addiction by encouraging people to think of addiction as a public health issue rather than a criminal one.
