It wasn’t an easy sell at first — opening a stabilization center in West Baltimore where doctors could send those who showed up to emergency rooms inebriated or high on drugs to sober up. Residents didn’t want a drug clinic in their neighborhood, and securing funding for a new approach to addressing the opioid epidemic took some convincing. Only a handful of cities around the country have such centers, so there was no long-term evidence about their success.
But a year after the center opened on a pilot basis, the agencies behind the idea, the Baltimore Health Department and Behavioral Health System Baltimore, a non-profit that oversees mental health and substance use treatment in the city, have convincing early evidence that such a set up works in getting people off the street and on the path to recovery.
The pilot center, which has been operating at Tuerk House in the Greater Rosemount community, has served 343 people, with 391 visits. Key to the model is that peer counselors try to connect clients to treatment and other wrap-around services, and it seems to be effective. Most of those who have gone to the center, about 62 percent, have entered treatment for addiction. Even better, nearly 40 percent remained in that treatment after 30 days.
Now the city has begun renovations next door on the Hebrew Orphan Asylum building so they can expand the center, with plans for completion next spring, and potentially reach even more people. Emergency rooms in Baltimore get more than 16,000 visits a year resulting in a diagnosis related to alcohol or drug abuse. The expanded facility, which will operate 24 hours a day, will be able to serve 35 people at a time, more than double the capacity of the pilot program.