Baltimore agencies unveil needs assessment and draft strategic plan to guide $restitution funding for overdose response

Baltimore City officials on Tuesday released a citywide needs assessment and a draft strategic plan to guide spending of opioid restitution funds and to coordinate the city's response to the opioid and overdose crisis.

The plan, presented by the mayor's office of overdose response and the Baltimore City Health Department, lays out five priorities: reducing racial disparities in overdose deaths, dismantling service silos, reducing stigma and barriers to care, expanding low-barrier services citywide, and improving the quality of substance-use services. The draft strategic plan and the needs assessment are open for public comment through August, city officials said.

The assessment compiles quantitative and qualitative data from more than a dozen sources and interviews with people with lived experience, providers and city agencies. "We must target our interventions based on those inequities," said Dr. Leticia Gerasa, deputy mayor for Health and Human Services, noting rising overdose mortality among Black residents in recent years. "This is public work meant to be shaped by residents, advocates, providers, and system leaders alike," Gerasa added.

City officials described steps already under way that the plan would coordinate. Sarah Whaley,…