Municipality starts three-month mobile crisis outreach pilot, allows longer voluntary stays at safety center

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…