Anchorage rolls out crisis-response dashboard, highlights growing mobile crisis capacity and new stabilization centers

Thea Agnu Benben of the mayor’s office and Ben Mat of the municipal innovation team presented a crisis-response metrics dashboard that maps calls, responses and places to go in Anchorage’s behavioral-health crisis continuum. "Our goal is that we get the right response to each person in crisis when and where they need it," Agnu Benben said, describing four mayoral goals: a robust public-safety workforce, reduced crime with accountability, increased access to crisis care, and safe, welcoming public spaces.

On the 'call' side, the presentation described efforts to transfer appropriate calls from 911/311 to the Alaska Care line; Ben Mat said the municipality transferred about 350 calls to the Alaska Care line in 2025 and is ahead of last year’s pace in early 2026. On the response side, the municipality now fields several specialized teams: the police mobile-intervention team (MIT), a fire-department mobile-crisis team (MCT), the Anchorage Safety Patrol and youth rapid-response by Volunteers of America.

Panelists said MCT outreach expanded last summer and that MCT now commonly sees 250–400 unique individuals per month while MIT encounters about 120–180 monthly; year-to-date MCT unique individuals were already reported at roughly 1,200. Officials emphasized that MIT is intentionally reserved for the highest-safety-risk calls, while MCT and safety-patrol resources increase community outreach capacity.

Discussants also described nascent clinical interventions in the field: the municipality is piloting on-scene sublingual buprenorphine (to reduce withdrawal/overdose risk immediately after an event) and is purchasing monthly injectable medication (Sublocade) for targeted use. Health-department staff said Narcan distribution is available through multiple partners, kits and machines at shelters, and that the health department will work with community partners to site additional machines and resupply them.

Thea said several new treatment and stabilization resources will raise placement capacity: South Central Foundation plans to open a facility (presented as "Yesesh Yeshua") in early fall with more than 130 jobs, and Providence — with municipal capital and workforce investments — expects to open by the end of 2026 with 14 crisis-stabilization chairs and 12 crisis-residential beds plus a walk-in behavioral-health clinic.

Officials acknowledged data gaps tied to a mandated records-system migration to Hexagon, which disrupted some dashboards. They said improvements to client records, health-information exchange connections, and billing infrastructure are a priority — the municipality is preparing a Rural Health Transformation grant proposal due June 22 that would fund client-record integration and administrative work to support billing and coordinated care.

Committee members and the public pressed for more detail on how the Anchorage Safety Center (already in operation) and the new sites will coordinate intake and referrals, how Narcan distribution is tracked, and how follow-up will be provided to people who decline transport after an overdose. Presenters said they are building follow-up capacity with a core team and will provide additional data and reporting to the committee.