Mayor Sheila Dixon wants help tackling Baltimore’s public health ills, calling on researchers at the city’s hospitals and institutions to better coordinate with city health officials.
“It’s valuable information that can change and help enhance a person’s life,” Dixon said of the numerous studies and research on Baltimore’s health issues.
Speaking Monday at the Johns Hopkins Bloomberg School of Public Health, Dixon said she planned to reach out to health officials to ask for their plans to encourage and reward collaboration between faculty and city officials.
School of Public Health Dean Michael Klag said the students and faculty welcome Dixon’s challenge.
“She’s asking for leverage,” he said.
The catch, he said, was developing a system that recognizes the work in the community as a path to promotion, where traditionally academic studies and research offers a basis for promotion.
“We’re moving in that direction,” he said.
Baltimore City Health Department officials have been working with Bloomberg faculty on a health assessment of 55 areas in the city, detailing the basic health statistics and challenges of each area.
The report, scheduled to be released next week, will be the most comprehensive look at each community’s health, which will help officials identify needs and specific services, Dixon said.
“We’ll be able to use this as a base and a foundation,” she said.
Health Commissioner Joshua Sharfstein said the assessments would be a “start,” adding, “In general, communities don’t know what their health needs are.”
The cause of Baltimore’s health problems, Dixon said, are no mystery: poverty, poor access to health care, drug addiction, smoking. The list continues.
“The list is daunting, but there are no shortcuts,” Dixon said.
Violence is also a public health concern, she said, and through the Safe Streets program, Health Department officials are relying on community outreach workers to intervene in conflicts and promote a safer alternative.
Baltimore’s 11 hospitals also can help curb the city’s violence by working with shooting victims to stop the spread of violence and provide support to “get into a different life path,” Sharfstein said.
“We must do more than treat violence as a law enforcement challenge,” Dixon said. “We need to change behavior.”
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