It’s a noteworthy fact that teen births in Baltimore City have dropped by 30% over the last three years. And while that’s certainly great news and something to get excited about, we can, and we must, do better.

Baltimore still has one of the highest teen birth rates of any major city in the United States. Approximately 1 in 6 births in Baltimore occurs to teen mothers—less than 20% of which are planned.

We can, and we must, do better.

Teen pregnancy, like many of our city’s pressing health challenges, is complicated by factors involving where we live, work, learn and play – the social determinants of health. Teen pregnancy rates remain highest in communities and neighborhoods with higher rates of poverty, unemployment and crime. And we know that historically, teen pregnancy disproportionally impacts minority communities, particularly African American and Latinos.

This is important because teen moms are less likely to graduate high school, and education is strongly associated with financial stability and security. So improving the health of our neighborhoods will be is critical to our success in reducing teen births.

We must sustain our recent gains if we are to meet our Healthy Baltimore 2015 goal of reducing the teen birth rate by 20%. That’s why this morning I had the privilege of joining Mayor Stephanie Rawlings-Blake in announcing a new campaign to prevent teen and unintended births.

Know What U Want removes several barriers teens face with getting accurate information about abstinence and birth control as options to avoid pregnancy. With this campaign, we are encouraging teens to consider the importance of family planning when making important life choices. The Mayor noted, “Know What U Want will help teens accomplish their personal goals and improve our birth outcomes by keeping our teens in school and on paths to being highly productive city residents.”

Know What U Want is founded upon the belief that teens and young adults are best equipped to make decisions when they have access to health information that is real, relevant, and resourceful.

We extremely thankful for the financial support we received from The Abell Foundation, The Straus Foundation, The David and Barbara B. Hirschhorn Foundation, and the Henry and Ruth Blaustine Rosenberg Foundation.

It’s our hope that www.KnowWhatUWant.org will become a one-stop-shop where Baltimore teens and young adults can anonymously learn about abstinence, family planning, and available clinical services from a trustworthy source.

The Website also lists upcoming events. The fun starts in earnest next Saturday when city teens will spread “Know What You Want” through messages on Facebook, YouTube, and “tagging” public sidewalks with our U choose logo.

The chalk spray eventually will wash away with the rain. But we hope the message it imparts will last a lifetime. And that message is: Know what you want, and choose what’s right for you.

Show Your Heart Some Love This Month

Today starts American Heart Month.  It’s an annual ritual that reminds us to take stock of our heart health by knowing our numbers, blood pressure, cholesterol and glucose, as well as eating right and exercising.

National Wear Red Day is Friday, Feb. 3.

On my way to a meeting this morning I almost had a fender bender because of reading while driving. No, I wasn’t texting or looking at my GPS. I was horrified by the new billboard on I-83 North. Cute little Suzie Utz is pandering to our comfort food weaknesses when she says, “The way to this city’s heart is through its stomach.” I guess my outrage meter was already a little elevated because I had just seen a television commercial where Dunkin' Donuts is marketing heart-shaped donuts as a way to let our loved ones know how much we care about them.

There are physiologic effects to eating foods high in salt and sugar that include the release of certain “pleasure” hormones _ the same hormones the body releases during sex. The big food conglomerates are fully aware of this, and they bombard us with messages that mislead us into thinking that high fat and calorie foods are synonymous with love. Don’t be misled – this is not the same joy we derive from eating ‘comfort foods’ that remind us of our grandmothers.

If you really love someone, have the courage to take away the potato chips and donuts. Spend time outdoors together enjoying the health benefits that nature has to offer. Talk about supporting each other in living a healthier life.

I don’t believe the long-term picture is as bleak as some would paint it. But Baltimore City Mayor Stephanie Rawlings-Blake was correct earlier today when she said government alone cannot fix the obesity crisis. We all play a role, and it starts with modeling good heart health behaviors for our children.

So what steps will you take this month to improve your heart health? For information about upcoming screenings and quitting smoking, a good place to start is our Website, www.baltimorehealth.org. There you’ll also find a video of the Mayor’s remarks from City Hall today.

Take care, B’more.

Join Us For A Community Meeting, Discussion of Health In Your Neighborhood

As part of our Neighborhood Health initiative, this evening Baltimore City Health Department will hold its first ever community meeting presenting the 2011 Neighborhood Health Profiles. There will be 13 others, one in each council district, which will follow over the course of the next several weeks.

This event marks a distinct change in direction for the health department. It’s a direction that is more neighborhood-focused. They say all politics is local. The same can be said just as loudly for health. Since the release of Healthy Baltimore 2015 in May of 2011, we have been focusing more on the social determinants of health – things such as transportation, housing, employment and education that together influence community health outcomes to a greater degree than direct medical services. The Profiles paint a picture of health that includes the dimensions of our built environment for each of our neighborhoods. While that in and of itself is more than most large cities have done, it is not enough.

All too often public health data sits in the ethosphere with missed opportunities zipping by. These community meetings signify our intent to create a different way of engaging with communities. It’s the beginning of a process by which we more fully collaborate with communities to identify common areas where we can take action.

The health issues facing many parts of our city, at first glance, can appear overwhelming. A closer inspection, as offered by the Profiles, makes clear that a process of prioritizing and directing broad-based coordinated efforts to targeted areas will be a winning strategy for the city as a whole.

Don’t be a spectator – we all need to have some skin in the game if we’re to realize a Baltimore where all residents realize their full health potential.

Check out our schedule of events and take the first step.

Safe Streets Baltimore: New Study Shows Program Is An Effective Public Health Approach To Reducing Gun Violence

Over the past ten years, Baltimore has made significant progress reducing violence. Homicide is at its lowest level since 1978, and juvenile homicides and shootings are down nearly 70% from 2001.

The Health Department’s Safe Streets Baltimore initiative is an important component of Mayor Stephanie Rawlings-Blake’s strategy to reduce homicide and shooting rates. Launched in 2007, Safe Streets is an evidence-based, public health initiative that intervenes in crises, mediates disputes between individuals, and intercedes on group disputes to prevent violent events.

Safe Streets currently operates in Cherry Hill and McElderry Park, but today, I joined Mayor Rawlings-Blake in announcing the expansion of this vital program. Safe Streets Baltimore will be expanding to additional communities as a result of a $2.2 million dollar award from the Office of Juvenile Justice and Delinquency Prevention.  The funding will also be used to expand the initiative to two additional communities that are disproportionately impacted by violence. Interested community groups can review the RFP at http://baltimorehealth.org/rfp.html.

Our expansion of Safe Streets is supported by the release of a new study today by researchers at the Johns Hopkins Bloomberg School of Public Health demonstrating the program’s effectiveness. As noted in the Robert Wood Johnson Foundation’s New Public Health blog, this study demonstrates clearly that a public health intervention can be a successful means for reducing youth violence. Violence is a learned behavior, and as a learned behavior, it can be prevented using the same methods we use to stop the spread of disease.

Some of the key findings of this study include:

•         In all four neighborhoods (McElderry Park, Ellwood Park, Madison-Eastend, and Cherry Hill) the program was associated with a statistically significant decline in either homicides or nonfatal shootings, or both.

•         Overall, researchers estimated the program prevented at least 5 homicide incidents and 35 nonfatal shooting incidents.

•         In Cherry Hill, the program was associated with a 56 percent decline in homicides and a 34 percent decline in nonfatal shootings.

•         The program was associated with a 34 percent drop in nonfatal shootings in Elwood Park.

•         Researchers estimated that Safe Streets Baltimore was responsible for a 26 percent reduction in homicides in McElderry Park over the nearly three and a half years the program was in place. This site did not experience a homicide during the first 23 months of program implementation.

I would like to thank those who have invested in Safe Streets and urge local foundations and the business and faith communities to continue to step up and invest in this initiative – which has been proven to save lives.

We can be a safe city, but we must continue to support those programs which are contributing to our success. While the Health Department has been awarded funds for expansion of Safe Streets, additional funding is needed to sustain the existing two sites past this fiscal year.  The Health Department will use these positive evaluation results to seek additional funding for Cherry Hill and McElderry Park. I join the Mayor in urging local faith, non-profit, and businesses to lend their support to this vital initiative.

To view the full report on the effectiveness of our Safe Streets program, or for more information or to find out how to apply to become a Safe Streets site, please visit the Health Department’s Website, www.baltimorehealth.org/safestreets.

Take Care, B’more!

How Baltimore Is "Moving Forward" on HIV/AIDS

Today we mark a monumental achievement in our ongoing fight against the scourge of HIV/AIDS. For three decades now, HIV has been a long-standing and significant health problem in Baltimore, with terrible consequences. Countless people from all walks of life have died from HIV/AIDS. More than 13,000 people—two percent of the City’s population—are living with HIV.

In addition to the physical and emotional tolls the virus takes on its victims, the costs to our society are staggering. Everyone reading this, I’m sure, has been touched by this epidemic in some form or fashion. Through various programs and initiatives—the City has made tremendous progress in getting more people tested for HIV, getting more HIV positive people into care, and helping those with HIV live longer, healthier lives.

Now, on the eve of World AIDS Day, I’m pleased to report Baltimore has a new, aggressive plan to dramatically reduce new HIV infections, expand treatment, better coordinate services and make a significant improvement to the status of the HIV/AIDS crisis in Baltimore. On Tuesday, Mayor Stephanie Rawlings-Blake unveiled our new strategic report on HIV, “Moving Forward”. The strategy will help us better engage non-profit and community partners in our efforts educate residents and improve the lives of those who are HIV-positive.

The report was prepared by the Baltimore City Commission on HIV/AIDS.  It adopts specific, measurable goals in four key areas and outlines a variety of strategic initiatives to achieve those goals in an accelerated timeframe.

1.      Reduce new HIV infections by 25% in Baltimore City by 2015

2.      Increase access and improve health outcomes by facilitating earlier, more continuous, and more comprehensive care

3.      Reduce HIV-related health disparities by focusing resources and coordinated services on the most at-risk populations

4.      Achieve a more collaborative City response by creating effective linkages between services providers, advocacy organizations, and community-based models

The measurable goals and specific strategic initiatives outlined for each of the key goals are designed to drive aggressive and fundamental changes, yet are calibrated to be realistically achievable by 2015. I’m especially pleased that our vision aligns with the new National HIV/AIDS Strategy, as well as the ambitious goals we’ve set for improving the health of Baltimore residents through our Healthy Baltimore 2015 agenda.

Reducing HIV disparities is of particular concern in Baltimore. Eighty-seven percent of new HIV infections are among African-Americans, who only represent 64% of Baltimore’s population. This is one of the City’s most glaring health disparities. As referenced in the Strategy, 44 percent of the city population from 10 zip codes represented 60% of new HIV cases. These same zip codes have high rates of STDs, poverty and crime, along with higher rates of other poverty-related health problems, like cardiovascular disease and diabetes.

The Health Department, working in concert with our partners at the state and in the community, is working hard to address these needs. We provided more than 45,000 HIV tests in calendar year 2010. Through these efforts we identified 283 people who were previously unaware of their positive HIV status. Additionally, we operate two STD clinics that provide in excess of 30,000 patient visits per year, and offer HIV testing to all patients who register. Lastly, we are preparing a social marketing campaign in collaboration with Maryland Institute College of Art aimed at increasing awareness and testing among African-American MSM, the group that is currently experiencing the highest rate of HIV transmission.

Our focus is to ensure that patients who test positive make it all the way from receiving their results, through notification of their sex and needle-sharing partners, to being linked to HIV primary care.  As leaders of these efforts, we have a responsibility to hold ourselves and each other accountable to achieving measurable results

It is important to realize that the report provides critical guidelines for dramatically reducing HIV/AIDS in Baltimore, but reaching the target goals that have been established cannot be achieved unless communities and individuals also make effective prevention and treatment of HIV/AIDS a priority.

This strategy is our path forward. I’m counting on all of you to help us put this strategy into action. Let’s show the world that Baltimore is aware, that Baltimore cares, and that Baltimore is committed to stopping the spread of HIV.

BCHD’s Healthy Homes Bureau receives $100,000 EPA Grant

In urban centers such as Baltimore, environmental conditions that can lead to poor health for our children are widespread. These include lead due to peeling paint, mold, pests and pesticides, carbon monoxide, and tobacco smoke.

Here in Baltimore, we understand that we must work collaboratively to build stronger, healthier neighborhoods and schools for our children—places where our children can learn and thrive. 

Today I joined Mayor Stephanie Rawlings-Blake, Environmental Protection Agency Administrator Shawn Garvin, and Congressman John Sarbanes to celebrate Children’s Health Month and to accept a $100,000 grant to fund the Healthy Environments for City Kids Initiative. Healthy Environments for City Kids (HECK) will help us improve child health outcomes by addressing a wide variety of environmental risks in the places children spend most of their time – at home, in school, and in childcare.

BCHD was one of 13 organizations selected from 263 applicants across the country to receive a grant from EPA’s Office of Children’s Health Protection to reduce children’s exposures to environmental hazards.  The Health Department will receive funds over 18 months to promote and support healthy childcare and school environments - places where our children learn and play – to make them safer and healthier.

This grant will enable us to build the capacity of community-based partners – our home visitors, school staff, and childcare providers – to recognize and address environmental hazards. We will engage city residents through innovative strategies such as community-based Healthy Homes meetings, where they will obtain the knowledge and tools needed to reduce environmental health risks in their own homes. By doing so, we are empowering Baltimore city families to take control of their own health, and the health of their communities.

The work neatly dovetails with our Healthy Baltimore 2015 goals to promote children’s health, and create healthy and growing neighborhoods. We know that healthy children learn better, so it makes sense to ensure that the environments in which children live support their health. We are grateful for the support of the EPA and excited to join their efforts to promote healthy environments for our children.

Baltimore City Kicks Off Youth Violence Prevention Week

This afternoon, I joined Mayor Stephanie Rawlings-Blake, City Council President Bernard C. “Jack” Young, Minister Cleo Walker, and many of our community partners in kicking off Baltimore’s celebration of Youth Violence Prevention Week. From March 21 – 27, 2011, activities and events will be held nationwide to spotlight the issue of youth violence, to identify strategies to combat this epidemic, and to promote the positive role youth may have in making their communities and schools safer. 

Youth violence is no stranger to Baltimore. While homicide was only the 15^th leading cause of death nationwide in 2009, it was the 4^th leading cause of death among Baltimore residents and the leading cause among Baltimore City residents aged 15-24 years. A report released in 2009 by the Health Department documented the trajectory of youth violence in Baltimore by looking at both victims of violence and perpetrators of violence. The study showed that 99 percent of the youth victims and perpetrators of violence interacted with one or more child-serving administrative agency in the time period preceding the violent episode. It concluded that greater agency cooperation is critical to formulating early interventions capable of effectively reducing youth violence.  

In a review of Baltimore juvenile non-fatal shootings that occurred between January 1, 2001 and March 12, 2007, 7%, or 22 of 319 victims, were either murdered or shot again non-fatally within 18 months of their initial shooting. In an effort to address this issue, the City’s Safety Protocol for Juvenile Non-fatal Shooting Victims was developed approximately three years ago. This protocol was created in an effort to prevent shooting victims from being re-victimized and /or from retaliating by assessing their safety and developing and implementing safety plans. Partners involved in this collaborative effort are the Mayor’s Office on Criminal Justice (MOCJ), the Baltimore City Health Department (BCHD), Department of Juvenile Services (DJS), the Baltimore City Police Department (BPD), and the State’s Attorney’s Office (SAO).  

Recognizing violence as an important public health issue, the Health Department created the Office of Youth Violence Prevention (OYVP) in 2002. OYVP is dedicated to combating the epidemic of violence affecting our city’s young people through innovative public health programming and policy initiatives. The Office works closely with community stakeholders, state and local agencies, and public health experts on programming and citywide anti-violence initiatives to prevent youth from becoming victims or perpetrators of violence.  

The Baltimore City Health Department’s Office of Youth Violence Prevention, in collaboration with city agencies and community-based organizations, is using this week to kick-off a series of events, workshops and open houses to spotlight this issue, the work being done here in Baltimore, and encourage everyone to Stand Up and Speak Out against and provide our youth with the tools they need to be successful. There are more than 70 events planned for this year’s YVP Week, including an airing of the documentary, “Concrete Steel and Paint” on Wednesday, a recognition ceremony for adults and youth making efforts to end violence in their communities, the 3^rd Annual Playing for Peace Basketball tournament on Friday and a production of the play “Where Y’all At?” on Saturday.

For more information, contact the Office of Youth Violence Prevention at BmoreYVP@baltimorecity.gov or (443) 984-3566. You can also like us on Facebook at www.facebook.com/BmoreYVP.