Baltimore Set To Begin Implementing Trauma-Responsive Care Legislation
BALTIMORE (WJZ) -- Baltimore City is starting to implement its trauma care legislation that was signed last year.
It will begin by training top city officials on how to help those who have experienced trauma.
Many Baltimore residents are all too familiar with trauma. The city had 335 homicides in 2020, affecting thousands more.
"I've seen random people be shot, I've seen people I grew up around engaged in violence," A'niya Taylor, a Baltimore City College student, said.
Taylor has experienced it firsthand.
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"In a city like Baltimore, it wasn't surprising that I grew up around the things I grew up around," she said. "Gang violence, neighborhood violence."
Now, a law passed last February is beginning to be implemented to train city agency heads to effectively respond to and treat trauma.
"The trauma that we see in our schools, neighborhoods and homes is unparalleled," Baltimore City Councilman Zeke Cohen said.
Cohen sponsored the bill and named it the Elijah Cummings Healing City Act to honor the late congressman and his efforts on addressing childhood trauma.
It will train each employee to understand the brain science of trauma, effective responses for it and create a city-wide task force to reduce it.
"Building a safer city will require us to fundamentally transform how we operate across our city agencies," Baltimore Mayor Brandon Scott said. "Implementing the Elijah Cummings Healing City Act is a core part of that strategy."
Taylor is glad to see the act now training city officials to help them understand more about trauma.
"I definitely think that this is the first step and that it's very important that we do this," she said.
Cohen said he will introduce a resolution to also get council members this training next Monday. There is also an effort to pass a similar law statewide.
