Glen Abernethy
Statements in Debates
I've already directed the department to reach out to youth and partners like Education, Culture and Employment to figure out how best to get that information, and this is consistent with what we heard from youth when we held Back to the Trail, which helped our Youth Mental Health and Addictions Action Plan, but another thing that I've learned from talking to young people is they don't want old people like me telling them how to use technology or how to get that information. They want to tell us how they want to access that information. So I think, in addition to working with our partners at...
Thank you, Mr. Speaker. The Member is correct, we rolled out a Youth Mental Health and Addictions Action Plan last fiscal year. It's a four-year plan, including rolling out travelling youth counsellors, who are the professionals the Member is highlighting throughout the Northwest Territories, 49 positions over four years. We're in year two. We staffed up in the Tlicho and the Deh Cho last fiscal year. This year, we are staffing up in the Beaufort-Delta and the Sahtu region. Next fiscal year, we will be staffing up in Yellowknife, and the fourth year, we will be staffing up in the South Slave...
Stanton is an acute care facility, so often, by the time an individual has shown up at Stanton, there is already a health issue under way, but we want to make sure that we're respectful. We want to make sure that we're supporting. To do that within Stanton itself, recognizing that it is an acute care facility, they have recently introduced the behavioural health work model, which is actually replacing the old standard security model in the psychiatric unit. A behaviour health worker is a non-professional staff member who has received focussed, job-specific training, and they are both intended...
I'm certainly not waiting for the RFP to be issued before we actually make progress on a Good Neighbour Agreement. I think we need to have a Good Neighbour Agreement now. I've given the department the direction to work with a facilitator to see if our neighbours are interested in working with a facilitator to come to an agreement on a Good Neighbour Agreement.
Having said that, yes, we will be issuing a new RFP. I have asked the department to reach out to the current proponent, other interested proponents, the public, and others on types of things we need to do to strengthen those services, to...
In the absence of a Good Neighbour Agreement, we have already made a commitment to working with our partners in bringing them together on a regular basis to receive their input and feedback on how things are going. I do appreciate the Member's description of an organization or committee that might be struck. I am prepared to have that discussion, but I would hate to presuppose what a facilitated Good Neighbour Agreement is going to look like. I think we need to leave it in the hands of the individuals, those who are going to be the signatories, to come up with a plan that meets their needs as...
The department works to always find a place for a young person in need of our services. This could be through placements at foster homes as the Member has identified, group homes, specialized treatment which may be outside of the Northwest Territories. As I have already indicated, we try really hard to keep our children with extended family if that is possible. In some situations, we will approach friends and make sure that we can keep them in community, in families.
The Foster Family Coalition is a significant stakeholder, and they provide leadership in the recruitment of foster homes across the Northwest Territories through the year. The Foster Family Coalition and the department have developed a foster care recruitment video. You can go online and see it. It is "We Need You." This launched in March 2019, and as a result of this video, the Foster Family Coalition has indicated that they have already started seeing increase in the number of individuals coming forward, expressing an interest to be in foster families. That is good news. This video was...
The Department of Health has an amazing division called Indigenous Health and Community Wellness that actually helps facilitate Back to the Trail, which is exactly the type of thing the Member is talking about. We brought youth from every community in the Northwest Territories to talk about this very important issue and make recommendations on how to improve youth mental health and addictions issues here in the Northwest Territories. I am not going to commit to forming an advisory committee. I am sure people are tired of hearing this: we have three months of life left in this Assembly.
It is...
I had an opportunity to sit in the gallery and listen to the youth parliamentarians during their debate, and it was great to be there, it was great to hear everything they had to say. I have to say, one of the things that I found unfortunate is many of the things they were talking about, including the ability to have some supports online and using tools that are useful to them, they didn't seem to recognize that they existed, which means we have failed to do our job to help get that information out to them.
What I can tell you is we have a significant number of supports that are available...
This is an incredibly important area. I don't think there's a Member from a small community throughout the Northwest Territories, an MLA, who has not raised traditional foods as an issue. The designer of Stanton, the Health and Social Services Authority, has recognized the value in that, and we have taken steps to make sure that we can provide traditional foods in Stanton, and from there we can learn and develop opportunities to look at other locations.
Having said that, they're not serving traditional food today. The targeted rollout date of the availability of traditional foods, as I said...