Investing in Community

Who We Are      

Behavioral Health System Baltimore plays a central role in expanding access to behavioral health care services in Baltimore and supporting mental health and wellness across the region. As we begin our second decade serving Baltimore, we are proud to share highlights of our work in 2025.

Mission

We work to develop, implement and align resources, programs and policies that support the behavioral health and wellness of individuals, families, and communities. 

Vision

We envision a city where people thrive in communities that promote and support behavioral health and wellness.

Values

Our work embodies these core values: Integrity, Equity, Innovation, Collaboration, Quality

Investing in Our Community for a Healthier City

Behavioral Health System Baltimore is committed to investing deeply in our community to support positive emotional health and wellness for all.  

We make strategic investments along many paths. We contribute our staff skills, expertise and time to plan and build out new programs and advance policy reforms that strengthen behavioral health care. We fund a range of prevention, early intervention and recovery support services so that people in Baltimore can get care in their community. Finally, we invest in our relationships with community partners because we know that we need connections and meaningful collaboration to do our work and create sustainable change together.

BHSB believes these community investments are foundational and necessary for us to fulfill our mission. As we reflect on our past work and look ahead, we will continue to ensure that our commitment to investing in our community remains strong and unwavering.

Crista M. Taylor
President & CEO

Strengthening the System of Care 

As the Local Behavioral Health Authority, we are charged with overseeing and strengthening the public behavioral health system in Baltimore City – to ensure it effectively meets the needs of our residents. 

BHSB partners closely with Baltimore City and the State of Maryland to build an efficient and responsive system that comprehensively addresses mental illness and substance use and meets the needs of the whole person. BHSB serves as an “on the ground” expert, working and we structure the system’s resources to meet the unique needs of our communities. And we are the entity that has connections to other local systems, such as law enforcement, schools, social services, and courts, to ensure there is broad access to behavioral health services across systems and in communities. 

Our work includes making grants to organizations serving Baltimore residents; ensuring programs are accountable and offer the quality of care; and advocating for stronger policies that will improve the behavioral health system. A key goal in all our work is to strengthen our organizational processes to make sure we are giving behavioral health organizations the tools and support they need to serve our residents and improve the citywide system.

Our work to strengthen Baltimore’s public behavioral health system involves many approaches. Some examples:  

• BHSB collaborates with the Baltimore City Public School System to manage the Expanded School Behavioral Health (ESBH) program, which provides mental health support to students inside our schools. Therapists and behavioral health specialists work withf our young people to promote school readiness, address barriers to learning, use of educational programs more effectively and foster positive interpersonal relationships. In Fiscal Year 2025, the ESBH program provided direct behavioral health support to 4,651 students in 45 schools, reflecting a broader reach and responsiveness to student needs. [maybe a stock photo of a middle or high school student talking closely to an adult – as in a counseling session; or possibly an illustration?]

• BHSB is embracing storytelling to gather information about the needs of different communities in Baltimore City, collaborating with partners such as Morgan State University. We continue to expand the use of qualitative data about members of our community to help us organize information and resources to meet their needs. [Call-out: “Humanizing data is valuable. Stories can reveal personal barriers that can be invisible in traditional data sets but critical for understanding behavioral health outcomes.” – Storytelling initiative participant]  
• Through the Transitional Age Youth (TAY) project, we provide support services to young people aging out of child welfare and juvenile justice systems – one of the most vulnerable yet often invisible people in our community as they are deemed too old for children’s services yet are unprepared to navigate adult systems. The program offers access to housing, entitlements and funded benefits, training, education, employment and treatment services to provide the stability and care participants need. In 2025, we expanded the project to include Peer-to-Peer services facilitated by peers, young adults with lived behavioral health recovery experience who are also certified peer recovery specialists.

The Value of Peer-to-Peer Support

People who have experienced behavioral health challenges are often best placed to meet and support others where they are. BHSB is committed to expanding and strengthening the role of these peers in the public behavioral health system. We host free peer-to-peer training workshops for peer recovery specialists and certified peer recovery specialists (CPRS) in the behavioral health treatment and recovery field. These training programs offer continuing education units which can be applied towards the certification and/or recertification of individuals who are obtaining their CPRS credentials. [call-out quote from Angela – to be pulled from the final video]

Angela Ransom, BHSB’s Associate Director of Recovery Support Services, oversees the peer-to-peer training program. Watch a video where Angela describes the work and the value it brings to Baltimore residents. [Link to Angela’s video]

Improving Crisis Response    

BHSB has been at the center of efforts to improve how Baltimore and other jurisdictions provide services to people who are experiencing behavioral health crises by reducing unnecessary emergency room visits and interactions with law enforcement. A five-year initiative that recently concluded, the Greater Baltimore Regional Integrated Crisis System (GBRICS) Partnership, focused on expanding and strengthening the area’s crisis response system. Administered by BHSB, the project brought together 17 hospitals, four Local Behavioral Health Authorities,  as well as behavioral health experts and community leaders from across four local jurisdictions (Baltimore City and Baltimore, Howard and Carroll counties).   

The partnership focused on creating a coordinated regional helpline, expanding the capacity of mobile response services to provide 24/7 care, expanding same-day virtual and walk-in services to immediately address the needs of people in crisis, and increasing awareness and use of the 988 Helpline and related services through the CALL 988 public education campaign. 

The project, which ended on December 31, significantly strengthened crisis response services in the Greater Baltimore region. 

We also launched a public 988 dashboard to demonstrate the impact of the helpline and highlight how we are using data to strengthen the crisis response system. {image from dashboard}

[ADD: data on volume of calls and growth over time, reach of mobile teams, awareness/perception of 988] 

Erin Schurmann, Associate Director of Strategic Initiatives at the Maryland Health Services Cost Review Commission, helped manage the grant that funded the GBRICS Partnership’s work in Greater Baltimores. [Link to Erin’s video|

Expanding Awareness of 988 Helpline 

Our work to educate the public about the national 988 Helpline continued and awareness in the Greater Baltimore area has grown since the helpline launched  in 2022. Some examples:

• We provided underwriting support for “Real Stories of Addiction and Hope,” a Maryland Public Television documentary produced in cooperation with Obie Productions. Information about the helpline was featured during the broadcast, as well as a 15-second spot. To continue the conversation, BHSB and the Maryland Peer Advisory Council hosted a screening of the documentary and a panel discussion on available options and resources for recovery across the city.   [please grab an image or two from the documentary here]
• We partnered with the CFG Bank Arena to promote behavioral health awareness and distribute 988 materials during major performances, including Disney on Ice, Blake Shelton and Mary J. Blige.    
• BHSB launched Talk, Feel, Heal, a limited-series podcast on emotional health featuring practitioners and advocates working in Baltimore City. In addition, we worked with local barbershops, beauty parlors and bars across the city to distribute information to their clients and temporarily installed purple telephone booths in community markets to encourage Baltimore residents to seek support. [images for this section are here]

In the advocacy arena, our team continues to lead the Maryland 988 Campaign, a coalition that worked with lawmakers in 2024 to establish a 25-cent telecom fee to pay for 988 helpline and crisis response services across the state. During the 2025 legislative session, we mobilized through media outreach, advertising and lobby day visits by concerned Marylanders to prevent cuts to the crisis response budget𐌌—ensuring that we can continue to meet the need of all Marylanders. [photo from the press conference here]

Working in Community  

One key way we invest in communities is by engaging directly with Baltimore residents to support emotional health and wellness. Our community engagement team works tirelessly – at neighborhood events, health fairs and a range of other gatherings – providing information to residents on the resources and services they may need. Over time, we have built durable and effective partnerships and collaborations to expand our engagement and impact.

BHSB sponsors or takes part in a range of events each year, including:

• BHSB ’s Community Safety Day, where residents can safely dispose of unneeded medications and medical sharps, while also receiving health resources. In 2025, we engaged with over XXX450 community members and collected more than 30 pounds of medications and 10 pounds of sharps. [Safety Day photos here]
• Our 9th annual Recovery Month event, held this past year at Lexington Market, to celebrate the recovery journeys of individuals and families and to share information about recovery support and other behavioral health resources. [folder with photos]
• For National Prevention Week, where BHSB hosted over 800 middle and high school Baltimore City Public School students at Main Event Columbia. Students enjoyed presentations on making healthy choices and explored resources on prevention, harm reduction and emotional health provided by community organizations.  {images of the ad campaign]

• The Mayor’s Youth Summit at the Baltimore Convention Center, where over 200 young women from across Baltimore City engaged in breakout sessions, a Q&A panel discussion and a resource fair to inspire and equip the next generation of women leaders in Baltimore. [Photos from various events linked here; use some of the first 3 – not the KOD photo here]]

In all, we increased the number of community events and people served by roughly 40 percent in 2025.

Psalms Cotterino, Director of Community Resilience at BHSB, leads our community engagement efforts across Baltimore. Watch a video where Psalms discusses the work. [Link to Psalms’ video.] 

Other key community initiatives include Kids Off Drugs, an exciting partnership of BHSB, the Baltimore City Health Department and Catalyst of Change, that uses art and music to educate students (middle school through college)about substance use in Baltimore and how to cope with  challenges related to drugs and alcohol. In Fiscal Year 2025, we reached offered nine KOD presentations, a major increase from 2024, and presented the KOD program to more than 1,000 young people. [KOD photo here; please grab an image(s) from one of the videos on the KOD Baltimore website]. Through our 

Mental Health First Aid program – run in collaboration with the National Council of Mental Wellbeing – we teach community residents and staff at organizations like the Enoch Pratt Free Library and Goodwill Industries how to identify, understand and respond to signs of mental health and substance use challenges among their peers.  [Maybe some kind of icon graphic that evokes ‘first aid’?]

Our Impact in the Community

Behavioral Health System Baltimore oversees the public behavioral health system in Baltimore City.

• # People who received mental health services (Fiscal Year 2025)

• # People who received substance use services (Fiscal Year 2025)   

Greater Baltimore Crisis Response (Calendar Year 2025)

• # 988 calls/texts
• # mobile crisis services
• % outcomes of calls/mobile visits 

Financial Information (Fiscal Year 2024)

• Grants awarded: $ and # 
• Programs: $49,479,026
• Management and General: $4,985,381

• TOTAL EXPENDITURES: $54,464,407

Our Board of Directors

Our highly committed Board of Directors guide our work to strengthen Baltimore’s behavioral health system.

Michelle Taylor, MD, DrPH, MPA, Chair

Commissioner, Baltimore City Health Department 

Miriam Brown Hutchins, JD, Vice Chair
Associate Judge, District Court of Maryland, District 1, Baltimore City (Ret.)

Jeffery D. Crook, BA, Secretary

Clean Ambassador, Midtown Baltimore 

Malcolm Haynes, Treasurer

Chief Financial and Operating Officer, Friends School of Baltimore

Curtis Adams, MD
Assistant Professor, Department of Psychiatry, University of Maryland School of Medicine, Psychiatrist, University of Maryland Medical Center 

Margot Anthony

Student, University of Maryland, Baltimore County, Major in Social Work

Casey Brent

Six South Consulting Group

Aniah Brewer

Student, Coppin State University, Major in Social Work

Terri Collins-Green

Director of Social Work, Maryland Office of the Public Defender

Bishop Kevin Daniels, PhD
Professor, Morgan State University

Kirsten Gettys Downs

Director of Systemic Reform, Maryland Office of the Public Defender

Samuel O. Inuyomi, MPH (expected)
Public Health Researcher

Monica Guerrero Vazquez

Executive Director, Centro SOL, Johns Hopkins School of Medicine, Pediatrics 

Executive Team

Crista M. Taylor
President and CEO

Denise Wheatley-Rowe
Vice President, Accountability 

Steve Johnson
Vice President, Programs

Adrienne Breidenstine
Vice President, Policy and Communications

Kathi Ruffin
Chief Financial Officer and Vice President, Finance

Lynn Mumma
Chief Operating Officer and Vice President, Operations

Ayelet Gincel
Director, Human Resources

Meet Our Team

We offer our deep thanks to our many partners who help us fulfill our mission.