Skip to Content List

  • Skip to primary content
  • Skip to footer content

Site Navigation Lists

  • Fellowship Application
  • Grantmaking Process
  • Contact Us
  • About
    • Mission and Vision
    • Staff
    • Board
    • Leadership Council
    • Impact Reports
    • Impact Photo Series
  • Programs and Impact
    • Our Programs and Impact
    • Education and Youth Development
    • Criminal and Juvenile Justice
    • Addiction and Health Equity
    • Community Fellowships
  • Grantees and Fellows
    • Grantee Database
    • Grantmaking Process
    • Community Fellows
    • How to Apply
  • News and Reports
    • Baltimore Justice Report
    • Newsletters
    • Reports
    • Impact Reports
    • Blueprint for Baltimore
    • OSI in the News
  • Events
    • Upcoming Events
    • Past Events
    • 20th Anniversary Speaker Series
    • Talking About Race Series
    • Talking About Addiction Series
  • Privacy
  • Cookie Policy
  • Community Guidelines
  • Terms & Conditions
Open Society Institute – Baltimore

Open Society Institute – Baltimore

Open Society Institute (OSI) – Baltimore : Audacious Thinking For Lasting Change

  • Fellowship Application
  • Grantmaking Process
  • Contact Us
  • EN
    • EN
    • ES
  • About
    • Mission and Vision
    • Staff
    • Board
    • Leadership Council
    • Impact Reports
    • Impact Photo Series
  • Programs and Impact
    • Our Programs and Impact
    • Education and Youth Development
    • Criminal and Juvenile Justice
    • Addiction and Health Equity
    • Community Fellowships
  • Grantees and Fellows
    • Grantee Database
    • Grantmaking Process
    • Community Fellows
    • How to Apply
  • News and Reports
    • Baltimore Justice Report
    • Newsletters
    • Reports
    • Impact Reports
    • Blueprint for Baltimore
    • OSI in the News
  • Events
    • Upcoming Events
    • Past Events
    • 20th Anniversary Speaker Series
    • Talking About Race Series
    • Talking About Addiction Series
OSI and Health Department Release Brief on Baltimore’s Response to Overdose Epidemic

Featured in
News

Next Article
Solutions Summit registration now open

News

OSI and Health Department Release Brief on Baltimore’s Response to Overdose Epidemic

Content Social Share Links

  • Share on Facebook
  • Share on Twitter

OSI-Baltimore and Baltimore Health Department Announce Release of a New Brief, “Baltimore’s Response to the Overdose Epidemic”

August 31, 2016

Media Advisory
Evan Serpick, OSI-Baltimore
Evan.Serpick@opensocietyfoundations.org
410-234-1091

Michelle Mendes, Baltimore City Health Department
Michelle.Mendes@baltimorecity.gov
443-862-0891

As we mark International Overdose Awareness Day (overdoseday.com), Open Society Institute-Baltimore and the Baltimore City Health Department are proud to announce the release of “Baltimore’s Response to the Overdose Epidemic: An Open Society Institute-Baltimore Brief.”

This brief, with an introduction by Baltimore City Health Commissioner Dr. Leana Wen, describes the rise in overdose deaths in recent years and details the city’s response, beginning in 2000 when OSI worked with the health department to establish an overdose prevention program to train opioid users, who are at the greatest risk for an overdose, to administer naloxone, the life-saving opioid antidote medication.

It goes on to describe subsequent efforts, including the creation of an infrastructure for treating addiction as a public health matter rather than a criminal one, the “Staying Alive” and “Don’t Die” public education campaigns, and the Baltimore Buprenorphine Initiative. As a result of these efforts and others, opioid overdose deaths in Maryland declined for several years and hit a low of 504 in 2010. But as opioid prescriptions increased along with the use of the much more deadly Fentanyl as a cutting agent, overdose deaths began to rise again in 2011 and have continued to rise, especially in predominantly white populations. This expansion has attracted new media attention to overdoses.

“The new media attention to overdoses, while tragically absent when opioid addiction affected predominantly minority communities, nevertheless now offers a window of opportunity to enact public health policies and campaigns to change outcomes for all people suffering from addiction,” Dr. Wen writes in her introduction. “Baltimore stands at the cutting edge among cities across the country in implementing such policies and campaigns.”

Scott Nolen, director of OSI-Baltimore’s Drug Addiction Treatment program, hopes the brief can offer a blueprint for other cities to respond to the overdose epidemic. “By establishing an overdose prevention program 16 years ago and responding to shifting dynamics on the ground ever since, we hope that we have provided a model and set of experiences that other cities can learn from,” he says.

The brief will be distributed to health departments, advocates, and service providers around the country and will be available online at osibaltimore.org and health.baltimorecity.gov.

###

Related Content

A Call For Applicants: 2014 Baltimore Community Fellowships

The Open Society Institute-Baltimore launched the Community Fellowships program in 1998. It is now a corps of social innovato…

Read More

Post navigation

Previous Article Previous OSI-Baltimore co-sponsors premier of documentary about Mexican “guest” workers in Maryland fair industry
Next Article Next Article Today is International Overdose Awareness Day
  • Facebook
  • Instagram
  • Twitter
  • Youtube

Subscribe to our mailing list

OSI Logo

Open Society Institute-Baltimore
Bold Thinking, Strategic Action, Justice for All.

© 2025 Open Society Institute-Baltimore
  • Privacy
  • Cookie Policy
  • Community Guidelines
  • Terms & Conditions

OSI-Baltimore has permanently closed. It has been our honor and privilege to partner with and serve the Baltimore community for the past 25 years.

This website is available for historical purposes.  It is no longer being updated.

Skip to top of page