Tom Beaulieu

Thank you. We have heard lots from outside experts, there’s no question about that. This forum has given us an opportunity to hear from the people, from extended families, friends, neighbours, people who live with addictions every day. These are a group of people who have lived a life of addictions, some of them have lived lives of addictions, some of them are involved with the treatment centres, some of them are involved with counselling at their own community level.

The bottom line is, these are a group of people who we felt would be a good group of people to extract a lot of the solutions...

Mahsi cho, Mr. Speaker. The forum was not required to provide an interim report or a verbal report back to the department. They’re working with departmental staff. What we’re hearing unofficially is that they are hearing many good recommendations from the communities, and one of the forum members spoke to me in an unofficial capacity and indicated to me that he thought that they had accumulated at least 10 good recommendations from the communities so far. Thank you.

Yes, thank you. I haven’t heard from the forum that there was any specific indication from the communities that they met, that they felt there should be a treatment centre located in Yellowknife. I’ve heard that earlier, somebody had indicated that somewhere, but specifically, officially from the forum, I haven’t heard that.

As far as youth treatment goes, I think that initially one of the forum members that we put on there had discussed a lot of youth treatment options with the department previously. So we thought putting her on the forum would bring that to the forefront, but again...

I don’t know what the recommendations are. The recommendations that the guy mentioned, as he was indicating to me that they had these recommendations, was he did indicate that the communities thought there should be some treatment on the land, that there should be some sort of detoxification in the system, and then also that they should be able to utilize the treatment centre in a way that would be a good piece to the overall treatment of addictions, sort of people in the Northwest Territories. Those are generally the only things that I recall, off the top of my head. Thank you.

Mahsi cho, Mr. Speaker. I wish to table the following document, entitled GNWT Response to Motion 20-17(3), Mental Health and Addictions Resources. Thank you, Mr. Speaker.

The main function of the community health worker definitely is physical health and the addressing of physical health. Mental health is an issue that sometimes the mental health worker would have limited knowledge of what to do in a situation and would have to draw on regional resources. In some of these communities, however, we have community wellness workers that can also be used to try to address people that are suffering from mental health issues in the communities. It’s very difficult to have all the right resources and all of the right communities to be able to address mental health...

Thank you, Mr. Speaker. The Mental Health Act is something that we, in the Department of Health, recognize we need to have a lot more resources to be able to address every single issue that can be covered under the Mental Health Act. The act allows us to do a few things within the act. Some with the assistance of a nurse, if there is a nurse in the community, with the assistance of a peace officer, RCMP. Individuals who are reported to have some mental health issues could be apprehended by the RCMP, evaluated by a nurse, if that is what is available. In the small communities we use the...

Thank you, Mr. Speaker. In those situations, although I can’t specifically recall receiving any reports from RCMP officers that have apprehended somebody under the Mental Health Act, I do know that we have a director within the system who would maintain a registry of any of these type of encounters or issues that result from an individual that may be apprehended and then the report is provided through the office. The reports don’t come directly to me but should eventually make their way. I don’t believe that 24 hours is a sufficient time in the small communities to allow that report to go...

Previously, in the small communities, we had used lay dispensers to assist us in all of the physical health and mental health aspects. Those positions have been converted into community health workers. In those communities where we don’t have nurses, we have community health workers. Community health workers are used to try to address as many of the mental health issues that may arise in those small communities where there are no nurses.

Mr. Speaker, few social issues are more visible in a community than those that stem from addictions.

Not one community in the entire Northwest Territories can claim to be free from the health and social problems caused by addictive behaviours.

That is why prevention and enhancing established treatment facilities in the NWT are priorities of the 17th Assembly.

Homelessness, poverty, violence and chronic disease all become part of the cycle of addictions that destroy lives and communities.

Our government spends over $9 million annually on counselling and treatment. The department continues to...