Glen Abernethy

The Stanton renewal planning work that has been going on has actually identified a piece of land on the property where an Aboriginal wellness centre can go. The next step in planning is actually to develop a more detailed outline of the program requirements, what the Elders Advisory Council would like to see, as well as other Aboriginal government partners. Starting in April, we are going to be developing and consolidating all of that information into a plan that will help us articulate what exactly an Aboriginal wellness centre will be, what standards, what codes, what facilities, what...

Mr. Speaker, each year we celebrate March as National Social Work Month. Social work is a profession for those with a passion to help improve people’s lives. Social workers help individuals, families and communities by providing support and resources and working through challenging and complex circumstances.

Social workers can work directly with individuals to provide counselling services or other supports. They also contribute to the broader improvement of our territory through policy development and helping to improve the way services are provided and delivered at the community level.

Social...

There’s always going to be a high standard required, both medically and legally, to involuntarily commit an individual. Our current act is really vague in this particular area, and the drafting instructions are to look at the other jurisdictions and find ways to enhance that, recognizing that we do have to be incredibly careful so that we don’t infringe on individuals’ human rights.

But there is precedent out there. There is legislation out there. We’re looking at making a complete change to our Mental Health Act.

As I said, barring any unforeseen complications, we’re hoping and anticipating we...

Thank you, Mr. Speaker. The current Mental Health Act is quite old, quite outdated. It’s truly not meeting the needs of the residents of the Northwest Territories. Moving forward with the Mental Health Act, the department released a discussion paper in November 2013 for review by residents of the Northwest Territories. From May to June 2014, the department consulted with key stakeholders on the proposed Mental Health Act as well as the discussion papers. In November we received the LP back from committee which gave us the ability to move forward and develop drafting instructions with the input...

Thank you. The Department of Human Resources actually has cultural competency training that they provide and make available to all residents, or all employees of the GNWT. So in addition to that, the Department of Health and Social Services is currently working on cultural competencies that we can use within the health care system, recognizing that there are a lot of challenges in that area and that’s not just going to be available to social workers. That’s going to be available to doctors, nurses, all allied health professionals as well as social providers.

As far as moving individuals around...

Thank you, Mr. Speaker. I agree, the social workers do incredible work and often they’re dealing with very difficult, traumatic situations. In the Department of Health and Social Services as well as in the eight health and social services authorities that we currently have in place, what happens often, and what is organized, is debriefing after very traumatic situations with other professionals. We also make counsellors, other social workers available should an individual be having some difficulty with a situation that they’re in. The Department of Human Resources also provides the Employee...

It’s certainly an interesting idea. I hadn’t thought of it previously, but it’s something worth consideration. I don’t personally travel to a lot of conferences. Most of my travels are here in the Northwest Territories, into communities. But I do have a number of staff who attend conferences around the country and sometimes internationally, and getting their presentations, and presentations they see could be quite valuable, assuming, as the Member said, we could get the legal rights to do so. But I’ll have the department look at that as well.

Thank you, Mr. Speaker. We have issued 287 name tags at the gathering itself over the three days, and we have had the video link available to residents, and I’m glad the Member did have a chance to go online. I just want to take a second to applaud our staff who have thought really outside of the box on this one and have come up with an opportunity to ensure that everybody has an opportunity to hear these discussions and hear these presentations from these incredible speakers.

Unfortunately, at this time I don’t have those numbers because, frankly, we’re still in the middle of the conference...

An Aboriginal wellness centre was not part of the plan of the Stanton renewal, but is something we have articulated to the qualified proponents and we are hoping to see some interest on their part to move forward. We are also pursuing other partners, Aboriginal organizations, Aboriginal governments who might have an interest in being partners on this important facility that we would like to create here in Yellowknife for all the residents of the Northwest Territories.

We acknowledge fully that this is an important building. It needs to be done. We do need to find a way to make it happen, but...

Thank you, Mr. Speaker. The department and I recognize the importance of culture in health care, and work to incorporate Aboriginal wellness is being done within Stanton and within the health care system here in the Northwest Territories. We have planned for continued delivery of Aboriginal wellness programs through Stanton, but we do acknowledge that not all of the functions or activities that can be done, or should be done, in the Aboriginal wellness centre could actually be done within the infrastructure of a hospital. There are certain codes that we have to adhere to and some of the...