Local agencies are coming up with new solutions since Alluvion Health stopped providing mobile response team services in November.

Alluvion has said in September that they were cutting their MRT after hours services but were maintaining the program during business hours.

In mid-November, Alluvion ceased proving MRT services altogether, according to the Great Falls Police Department.

Maia LaSalle, spokeswoman for Alluvion, told The Electric that they were “pleased to support crisis response in our community through the mobile response team,” but funding is no longer available to Alluvion to continue the program.

In the MRT model, team members who are counselors or otherwise trained in mental health or crisis intervention respond with law enforcement to assist or identify when a person is in crisis.

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In September, Trista Besich, Alluvion’s CEO, told The Electric that the program was funded through a state grant, but that the contract had been sitting on a desk at the state awaiting a signature and without the funds, they couldn’t provide the services.

In the fall, Alluvion cut some staffing and the Adlera Lab, and furloughed employees due to funding shortfalls with the Medicaid claims processing. Alluvion sold the office space they had north of Fire Pizza downtown.

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The Rocky Mountain Building project remains on hold due to funding. LaSalle said that there are no current updates on the project and statements made in a recent Downtown Safety Alliance meeting that the construction would restart in February were inaccurate.

Capt. John Schaffer of GFPD said that at first, MRT seemed like a nice thing to have, but it “became a need to have thing and we really miss it right now. Just having somebody with mental health skills on calls has improved outcomes for a lot of people.”

Schaffer said that for the last report he received from Alluvion with MRT data for August 2023, MRT had responded in person 22 times.

Alluvion closes Adlera Lab

Of those, 15 were resolved on scene, four were taken to the hospital and three were discharged into the community, Schaffer said.

Over the long term, Schaffer said they were close to 90 percent jail diversion and about 65 percent hospital diversion.

“It was really impressive,” Schaffer said.

He said GFPD is still addressing mental health related calls as law enforcement, but they’re not the trained professionals on dealing with that type of crisis.

“We’re going to do our best to get you stabilized,” he said.

Alluvion cutting, furloughing staff due to Medicaid claims backlog

Schaffer said they had more options when MRT responded with them in terms of what they could provide and coordinate through healthcare agencies.

“If my loved one is in mental health crisis, why am I calling the government,” he said.

Schaffer said he’s meeting with Many Rivers Whole Health again this week to continue work on a plan for contracting MRT services in some way. He said there are funds available through two local grants to provide at least some stop gap funding to contract services when needed as they work out a longer term solution.

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He said it costs about $500,000 annually to run a full MRT program, but it’s beneficial to the community, particularly in terms of the costs of sending people in mental health crisis to the emergency room or jail.

MRT is primarily for mental health calls, but often a mental health crisis is co-occurring with other issues such as addiction.

Schaffer said he had testified at the state level in recent years about the need for funding for crisis intervention teams and some sort of stabilization facility.

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Sydney Blair, director of Many Rivers, said they’ve been discussing the issue of a crisis response with GFPD and Great Falls Fire Rescue, and other community partners.

She said they’re in discussion about a potential co-responder model for mobile crisis response with the city.

“Our goal is to build a system of care that is 24 hours a day, 7 days a week rather than limited hours of operation. There are other important layers of this continuum of care for those in crisis. We are hoping to address more than just the mobile team but a full continuum of care,” Blair said.

She said they are still awaiting decisions from the state on funding for MRT.

Mental health, crime focus of multiple agencies [2021]

In May 2023, Gov. Greg Gianforte signed HB 872, which established a committee to address the state’s behavioral health and developmental disabilities service systems.

The committee is conducting meetings to prioritize potential investments and it hasn’t yet been determined how the $300 million tied to the legislation will be invested, according to Montana Department of Public Health and Human Services.

The committee last met Jan. 11-12.

Many Rivers is working with DPHHS and its contractor Guidehouse to become a certified community behavioral health clinic within the region, Blair said. The model allows the provider to build in the cost of crisis services to include a mobile crisis team within it’s structure, she said. They’re expecting that model to be operational in the fall.

Gaps still exist for funding such a model in the community, she said.

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Blair said Many Rivers is planning to work with community agencies to identify available resources, funding and the operational model that best suits the community for crisis response.

LaSalle said that Alluvion would support community partners in their efforts to develop a crisis response program.