Okay, um I'm gonna call to order this meeting of the Assembly Public Health and Safety Committee.

Uh welcome everyone.

It is Wednesday, October 1st uh at 11 a.m.

Um we are noticeed uh to being here until 1230.

Uh we can um go around uh and do the role.

So with that, um is that job?

Yeah, Silvers?

Cameron Verizard and Mr.

Gecker, you're on the phone.

Yep, I'm here.

Okay, great.

All right.

Um, we've got a full agenda today, so let's jump right in.

Uh, we're gonna start with uh the mayor's office.

Let's start, thanks.

Thank you, Chair.

Um Thea Agnew Ben Special Assistant to the Mayor.

Um, so I'm here with Ben and Brendan from the IT, and we've been working on a project that we've kind of mentioned to you a few times, and we want to give you the first draft presentation on it.

Um so this is related to our crisis response system here at the Muni, and we've been working to develop a dashboard of metrics that you can then be regularly updated on.

So that's what I'm gonna start off with an overview and then hand it over to Ben to walk you through the work that we've done so far.

So, as you know, the mayor has a public safety strategy called Safe Anchorage.

Um it's really working across many different departments.

Uh we have four main goals.

First is a robust public safety workforce, second is less crime or accountability, third is the one that we'll be talking about today, which is more people access crisis care, and then the fourth is the roads, parks, and trails are safe for everyone every day.

Um our main outcome from those four goals is really that we maintain a safe and welcoming community for everyone here.

So let's talk about the third goal.

More people get access to crisis here.

Uh as you all know, the MUNI has really been a leader in this uh area for quite a long time.

Uh we are working towards developing a full crisis continuum, and this is part of both a statewide effort and a national effort.

So this is uh work that's going on all around the country.

Uh this diagram really shows you the different uh points in the continuum, and this is following what's called the crisis now framework.

So that's a nationally adopted best practice for improving response to people who are experiencing a behavioral health crisis.

So the first step in the system is that people have someone to call in a crisis, and nationally about 80% of incidents can be resolved through the phone.

Uh the second one is someone to respond, so that's someone to actually come to you where you are, and that's again the kind of remaining 20% of calls require a mobile response, and about 80% of those get resolved where the person is without them having to be taken to another location.

And then for that remaining 20% of the 20%, um, there's a place to go, which is uh generally thought of as kind of two layers.

The first is a location where people can go where their crisis can probably be resolved within a 24-hour day, so without requiring an overnight or bed stay.

So in those locations, people are served in recliners and they get very rapid um access to a whole array of services to stabilize the crisis.

If they need further support, they can then go into what's called short-term stabilization or or crisis residential, is what we call it here in Alaska, and that can be up to seven days stay.

And sometimes people might be in that level of care under an emergency detention, and they can be evaluated for an involuntary commitment.

So that can be both a voluntary or an involuntary uh stay.

I just have to brief question.

The um the the stabilization, I've always thought of that as being a sort of a uh primarily a mental health destabilization, like some sort of sort of mental health crisis.

Is it also true of somebody who is experiencing a crisis because of drugs?

Yep.

Is that does that is that the same kind of stabilization that they would be stabilized because they're having a crisis due to drug overdose or drugs?

Yeah, generally in a crisis, um, just in the same way that when you go into the emergency room, you don't always know what exactly is wrong with you.

So in a crisis, you're experiencing a crisis that's defined really by the person.

So there could be a whole array of symptoms a person's experiencing.

And then when they go to the stabilization center, well, actually, at any point alignments continuum, that's really part of the process trying to understand what's going on and help the person resolve it.

But at the stabilization center, that is why you have both medical staff, you have behavioral health staff, you have peers, and you really provide that kind of multidisciplinary assessment to understand what's going on.

Sometimes people can get medications, sometimes they need other support, so that's that sort of full range is addresser.

And that's why we use the term behavioral health because that really refers to both psychiatric crises, substance-related crises, could even have other origins.

Good question.

Okay, so back in December, we formed the crisis response work group.

So this brings together the health department, the police department, the fire department, the I team, the meeting manager is part of this, and the mayor's office.

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, and really our goal is to get the right response to the right to every person wherever they are.

So that's like a pretty big goal, but that's what we're trying to do.

Right now we're really focused on those first two steps of someone to call and someone to respond, partly because we're kind of waiting for crisis stabilization centers to open next year.

South Central Foundation should open theirs in June.

And then we just got word that Providence is back under construction again, so we're hoping that could be open by the fall.