Julie Green

The current mental wellness and addictions recovery plan expires next month, so there is no point, at this point, to try to bring new actions into it. Instead, what we're doing at this point is we are looking at other ways to capture information and trends, as I mentioned before, and bring those into the everyday operation of the department. The Member referenced the social indicators that were produced for the first three months of the pandemic. It's my understanding that the department is getting ready to produce another of those reports. The thing about that first report is that it only...

Thank you, Mr. Speaker. There is no question, as the Member says, that alcohol is a great hardship for many of our residents and in many of our communities. With respect to an education program, that is something that would be led by the Department of Education, Culture and Employment, and we would certainly be interested in working with them if they wanted to develop a curriculum on this topic.

What we do offer now is an awareness program called My Voice, My Choice. That's been around for a number of years, and it's now being revamped and will be relaunched later in this calendar year. The...

Yes, thank you, Mr. Speaker. I will take that as a comment.

In our most recent Mental Wellness and Addictions Recovery Action Plan, we talked about the reform that we were planning to undertake in the Community Counselling Program, which is now largely complete. What we have taken on is a methodology called "stepped care." How this works is people are seen in person, often on the same day. There is no wait list. There are no appointments necessary. It is, in fact, possible to walk into one of the 19 Community Counselling Program offices across the NWT and see a counsellor right away, with no wait times and same-day appointment availability. In those...

It's my understanding that, in fact, these wellness workers do work with communities on actions and priorities with the community and then set up with supports needed to realize them. I realize that information may not be available online, but this is an ongoing and iterative program of supporting communities to realize their own goals that they have set in their wellness plans.

Thank you, Mr. Speaker. What we hope to get from the addictions survey is to learn about what is working with the addictions recovery services that we currently offer at the Department of Health and Social Services and what changes would make those services more effective. We are particularly interested in hearing from people who have lived experience, who have actually used these services themselves or who have close family members who have done that. That survey is available online, and hard copies are available at health centres and other places where mental health services and addiction...

There is kind of a two-part answer here. The specific commitment is to reduce the number of hospitalizations resulting primarily from alcohol use. That is something that is collected by the hospital and healthcare system, and that is ongoing. With respect to the Spruce Bough, the department is working with them to develop reporting and data-monitoring tools that could talk to us in more detail about the kind of services that have been provided connected to the outcomes of those services, so how those two things connect. This information is being collected now, and it will continue to be...

Thank you, Mr. Speaker. I can't say I'm surprised by that question. I knew, as soon as that news release came out, the Delta crowd would want to know about getting to the Yukon. What I can say is that those discussions are not happening at my level. I am aware that the people in the Delta would like to be able to travel to and from the Yukon without the two-week isolation, and I am also aware that the situation is different now because Yukon has its own isolation protocol. It doesn't have the open border that it had before Christmas. What I can commit is that I will raise it with the CPHO at...

As I say, the department has been funding the NWT Seniors' Society to provide these workshops, and those are ongoing. I have to tell you that elder abuse is like intimate partner violence in that the victims are often shamed, not willing to come forward to say that they have been taken advantage of. It can be difficult to have victims of violence come forward and say that they are, in fact, victims of violence, let alone to then reach out for help. One of the things that we've been doing with our health staff is to train them to look for signs of elder abuse and to support seniors and elders...

Thank you, Mr. Speaker. Elder abuse is a real and frightening problem in our territory. We are very concerned about it; all of us are concerned about it. What to do about it is not as easy as putting money into a program. It is a set of attitudes that people have towards elders, in which they are neglected and exploited, as the Member said in his statement. We have been having discussions about whether we could strengthen our regulatory environment around elder abuse so there are real consequences for failing to protect elders and for taking advantage of them. At the moment, what we're doing...