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Municipality unveils crisis-response dashboard as part of Safe Anchorage plan
Summary
Anchorage officials presented a draft crisis-response metrics dashboard and updates on the Safe Anchorage crisis continuum, including expanded mobile teams, coordination with upcoming stabilization centers, and plans to standardize definitions for monthly reporting.
Thea, special assistant to the mayor, told the Assembly Public Health and Safety Committee on Oct. 1 that the mayor—s Safe Anchorage public-safety strategy includes a goal to increase "more equal access" to crisis care and that the municipality is developing a crisis continuum covering "someone to call, someone to respond, [and] a place to go."
The administration and the innovation team said the city has prioritized immediate steps to divert appropriate calls to the care line, expand mobile crisis teams and improve places for short-term stabilization while larger crisis-stabilization centers come online next year.
"Our goal is really to improve and optimize our response to people in behavioral health crisis, so that we can reduce community impacts, we can sustain services," Thea said.
Ben Matheson, a data analyst on the mayor—s innovation team, and Brandon Babble, the municipality—s chief innovation officer, presented a first draft of an internal dashboard designed to give department leaders a monthly snapshot of crisis-related activity across dispatch, mobile teams and the Anchorage Safety Center.
The dashboard currently tracks calls-for-service to 911 and 311, officer-initiated contacts, mobile crisis-team encounters and unique individuals served; a basic housing-status field for encounters; dispositions (stayed in community, EMS transport, law-enforcement transport); Narcan administrations; and safety-center admissions and daily census.
Matheson said the team—s immediate focus is on outputs — encounters, transports and services rendered — while later phases will aim for outcome measures. "We're starting with the new Crisis Response theory of change," Matheson said. "We try to bring a 30,000-foot view into how all the work aligns with the theory of change."
Committee members pressed for definitions. Members noted it was unclear whether trends represented increased community need, improved labeling, or increased outreach that generated more encounters. The innovation team acknowledged coding changes and improved labeling by analysts may account for some measured increases and said standardizing definitions is a priority.
The dashboard showed recent increases in mobile crisis-team encounters over summer months, growth in unique individuals served by the MCT and MIT teams, and an upward trend in AFD—s reported Narcan administrations since 2020; presenters said duplication is possible when multiple responders administer Narcan to the same person.
Thea and Matheson emphasized coordination with community partners: South Central Foundation and Providence are expected to open stabilization centers next year, and municipal projects include locating a consolidated outreach hub for the HOPE team. The Health Department has an RFP out to secure a community behavioral-health provider that would operate recovery residences and treatment services at municipal facilities.
The innovation team said next steps include automating data feeds, expanding related metrics and moving toward phase-2 outcome metrics once definitions and sources are standardized.
Committee members and presenters agreed the dashboard is a work in progress and requested follow-ups on housing-status coding, Narcan deduplication and counts of repeat Safety Center users.
