Tom Beaulieu

I’ll talk a little bit about the original process. The original process was quite a long delay, where an individual had to be clean and sober and follow up with some community counselling, and then wait for the next intake into a treatment centre to go. Now, with the contracts that we have in the South that have continuous intake, I don’t think it’s every day but I think the intake is on a weekly basis, so every week new people wanting treatment come into the facility.

Our idea is once an individual comes into the system and requests treatment, that we try to bring them into the next intake at...

Thank you, Mr. Speaker. I was referring to medical detox possibility at the hospitals. My understanding is that earlier on, during questioning on medical detoxification at the hospital, we agreed we could provide beds in the hospital; but to keep a bed vacant in hospitals all year long on standby for that would not be appropriate. So any bed in acute care can be used for an individual to detoxify.

I don’t think the health centres in the small communities would be set up for that, but they could possibly do it. With the right nursing staff in place, they could possibly do something like that if...

Yes, I do think it’s the responsibility of the board or the public administrator of the health authority to do a press release. The timing I guess is something that has to be sorted out. Obviously, it has caused some issue with the timing of the release. In the future when there are other CEOs that are being contemplated or hired in the various authorities, we can find a way added into the process to advise the MLAs, all MLAs or the Assembly. Usually that’s what we try to do. As I said, it’s just an unfortunate thing that had occurred. Thank you.

Thank you, Mr. Speaker. The current process right now as it stands is that various health and social services authorities and the one agency is responsible for releasing information on hiring of the CEO for their authorities. Thank you.

What’s available are the contracts that we obtained or signed with southern institutions in Alberta and British Columbia. So if individuals are suffering from addictions, whether it be crack cocaine, prescription drugs, alcohol, marijuana, or anything else that they may be addicted to, there are options for them to go to the four southern treatment facilities that we have contracts with now. Thank you.

Thank you, Mr. Speaker. The Minister’s forum didn’t exactly advise us to close Nats’ejee K’eh. What it says was that we need to find alternatives for treatment such as on-the-land treatment, mobile treatment, treatment targeted for youth, so we’re moving in that direction. This also pertains to what was happening in Nats’ejee K’eh. The closure of Nats’ejee K’eh was largely to do with what was happening within Nats’ejee K’eh at the time of the closure, or the elimination of the contract. Thank you.

I’m certainly willing to complete the tour and even go back to the communities that the MLA and I travelled to already. Also, I agreed recently to start a bit of dialogue with the deputy minister to have a consultation with chiefs, the public administrator, the MLAs, and anybody else that would be impacted on any decisions that we make pertaining to Deh Cho Health and Social Services.

Thank you. The plan is to do consultation with the communities in the Deh Cho. One of the things that may have been misconstrued was the intent to try to provide better medical service to three of the communities in the Deh Cho by providing that medical service out of Hay River. The social services side of all of the Deh Cho, including the Hay River Reserve, Fort Providence and Kakisa where we are contemplating providing medical services out of Hay River as opposed to out of Fort Simpson, will all remain with the Deh Cho communities. So social services side of it, there will be no change in...

Mr. Speaker, the target for finalization of the legislative proposal for the Mental Health Act review is for the winter of 2014. I’m hoping that’s early winter and not late winter 2014. If that’s not the case, then I will report back to the Member. My understanding is it’s early winter 2014. Thank you.

Mr. Speaker, I’m not a health professional. That responsibility for placing an individual in one of the acute care beds for going through medical detoxification would be made by a physician. Thank you.