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, director of the mayor's office of overdose response, described the office's role in implementing the mayor's executive order on restitution funds and convening the 19-member restitution advisory board. The board, sworn in earlier this year, has developed its mission and is preparing to release an RFP for $2 million in community grants, Whaley said.

Health department officials said some funding priorities are already allocated or committed. The administration has set aside $10 million for 988 education and outreach, a $15 million investment for a round-the-clock comprehensive outreach team operated by the Mayor's Office of Homeless Services, and dedicated $20 million for health department infrastructure, officials said. Sarah Whaley and agency aides characterized the sums as part of a broader, multi-year plan tied to the city's opioid settlement money.

Speakers outlined agency programs that the strategic plan would tie together. The Health Department described its syringe services program (mobile services at 12 sites), a "levels of care" hospital certification for treating opioid use disorder, a "staying alive" naloxone training program that distributed more than 13,000 naloxone kits in 2023'24, a harm-reduction vending-machine pilot that has dispensed over 5,500 kits, and nine placed sharps-drop boxes (the first three collected more than 450 pounds of syringes). The department also reported long-term counts: from January 2014 through June 2024 the city's syringe services program logged about 170,000 client visits, more than 13 million syringes distributed and roughly 8 million syringes returned.

Behavioral Health System Baltimore and city leaders described other system-building efforts: embedding clinicians in 911 call centers, expanding 988 capacity, increasing mobile crisis teams (an 80% rise in daily mobile crisis shifts over the past year), and creating an open-access intake approach to offer same- or next-day behavioral health appointments. The city also has been conducting sentinel event reviews'structured, multi-agency case studies after behavioral-health tragedies'to produce system-level recommendations, Ali Smith of the Baltimore Behavioral Health Collaborative said.

The Baltimore Fire Department outlined a population-health unit launched after ambulance supplemental payment funding. Chief James Matts said that unit has had contact with roughly 600 patients and left behind approximately 16,000 naloxone kits (about 32,000 doses), and that the program is associated with a 28'30% reduction in repeated 911 calls for opioid-related incidents.

Officials emphasized next steps and community engagement. The draft plan is presented as a two-year tactical roadmap within a longer funding horizon; the administration's stated goal is a 40% reduction in overdose deaths by 2040, measured against 2023 data, officials said. The city has scheduled listening sessions across neighborhoods and opened a public comment form online.

Council members pressed for rapid, sustained interagency execution and for regular briefings to council offices on overdose data. "We need to connect those dots and utilize the infrastructure of the council's offices along with the mayoral offices and community organizations," Councilwoman Felicia Porter said. Several council members asked the health department and the mayor's office for regular updates and data briefings.

The plan and its recommended investments will be revised after public comment and through the restitution advisory board process, officials said.

Ending: The administration said additional details about program timelines and grant awards will be released at follow-up hearings and through the mayor's office web page; the draft plan remains open for comment through August.