Anchorage officials on June 11 announced a three-month pilot to expand mobile crisis outreach and changes to the Safety Center intended to increase voluntary engagement with treatment and case management.

The pilot, which the administration said begins Sunday, June 16, will add a second day-shift Mobile Crisis Team (MCT) vehicle focused on assertive outreach in identified hot-spot areas, officials said. The Safety Center will also accept more voluntary residents for longer stays and provide onsite case-management navigation to treatment and other services.

The project aims to reach people in public places who might be in crisis but are not calling 911 and therefore do not receive a dispatched response. Theo, a representative from the Mayor's Office, said the mobile outreach team will “use our data to kind of inform where and when they'll be engaging with folks” and that increasing assertive outreach is intended to get “the right response to each person where and when they need it.”

Assistant Chief Ben Lewis of the Anchorage Fire Department said the added MCT vehicle — described in briefing materials as “MCT 2” — will target hot spots identified with input from the mayor’s office and department data. Lewis said the vehicle will perform outreach to people who appear “to be suffering very, very close to an emergency before a 911 call happens.” The pilot will run for three months; the department temporarily reduced night MCT coverage to reassign clinicians to the daytime pilot until additional clinicians can be hired.

Fire Chief Doug Shroggy and other presenters said the Safety Center already operates 24/7, but the change lowers the threshold for voluntary admission and permits longer stays for people who are not involuntarily held. The Safety Center’s contractor provides a case-management subcontractor to help people leaving the center connect to detox, treatment, shelter or other resources. Theo described the change this way: allowing people to “be there voluntarily, allow them to be there longer, and then providing more case management to help them get into, other treatment and other options.”

Officials provided examples of how the pilot’s success will be measured. The administration and service providers said they expect to track (1) an increase in documented encounters in target areas, (2) how many people accept transport or other immediate supports, and (3) connections to longer-term care (for example, referrals to the Safety Center, Third Avenue Navigation Center, the health-department clinic, neighborhood health providers, and Southcentral Foundation). The team also plans qualitative reporting: clinicians will record outreach encounters and observations in the department charting platform to inform evaluation.

The administration said the pilot is meant to be iterative. If the outreach team does not meet its objectives, officials said they will revise operations; if it does meet goals, they may expand to nights and pursue continual staffing to provide 24/7 coverage. Officials said a Bloomberg-supported data dashboard is in development and a beta is expected in July to present early outcome measures.

Officials cautioned that increased voluntary stays at the Safety Center are operationally manageable because Safety Center admissions have declined over recent years and the center is not routinely at capacity. Assistant Chief Lewis said the program will emphasize trauma-informed, voluntary engagement and collaboration with existing providers; he said the coalition that manages shelter and navigation providers is a partner in outreach planning.

The pilot reassigns some existing clinician capacity from night coverage in the short term; Lewis said staffing will be increased with additional hires so the department can resume night coverage if the pilot proves successful. The administration emphasized data collection and said it would share regular updates with the committee.

Ending: The pilot and Safety Center changes are administrative actions rather than formal ordinances. Committee members asked for periodic updates and for data that show whether outreach encounters lead to sustainable connections to care; officials said they will provide ongoing reporting and a dashboard view as data become available.