Masi, Mr. Speaker. Following up to my Member's statement regarding the problems of alcoholism in our communities, this is also affecting many of our youth and young men. Can the Minister commit to an alcohol education or alcohol awareness program in our schools, including Aurora campuses? Mahsi.
Thank you, Member for Deh Cho. Minister of Health and Social Services.
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 campaign is going to focus on six key areas, and they include things such as looking after our land, sexual health, suicide, healthy relationships, healthy coping skills, mental health, and substance use. It covers many of the areas that the Member is concerned about. As I say, this is currently in the redevelopment stage, but it is expected to be ready for use by schools, if they wish, and Aurora College, if they wish, by the next semester. Thank you.
Mahsi to the Minister for that answer. I wouldn't even give them a choice. Force it upon them. Mr. Speaker, one of the priorities of the department is to focus on mental health and addictions by ensuring that services are delivered locally with culturally appropriate methods. Can the Minister provide an update as to actions taken by the department related to this priority?
Thank you for that question. Our primary focus in this area is on-the-land healing program. This is a community-based program where Indigenous government organizations apply to the department to obtain funding in order to deliver their own culturally relevant land-based mental health and addictions programming.
This fund is very flexible. It can be used to attract people to treatment. It can be used for family treatment. It can be used for after-care. It can be used for treatment itself. This is a community-based program, and it puts communities in charge of what this program is about and makes sure that it reflects the values of the people whose community it is.
There are also two new funds that the government is coming out with that are community-based. One is suicide prevention, and that was just launched about 10 days ago. There has been quite a bit of interest in applications for suicide prevention. The other community-based program is peer support. This is for addictions after-care, and it provides funding to support people who want to set up AA groups or Wellbriety groups. It would give them money for a place to rent and some refreshments and that kind of thing. We have three and, particularly, on-the-land programming, which is based on community-driven mental health support.
Mahsi to the Minister for providing all the services related to addictions. I look forward to those funding sources. One of the key positions missing in our communities is an alcohol and drug counsellor. Most alcoholics need someone they can confide in, someone they can trust, someone that they know. Can the Minister commit to providing our communities with an alcohol and drug counsellor position run by a non-government organization?
The Department of Health and Social Services and, more particularly, the Northwest Territories Health and Social Services Authority, Tlicho Community Services Agency, and Hay River Health and Social Services Authority are the operational arm that provide these services. Non-government organizations are pretty thin on the ground outside of the major centres. That's why the government is delivering this.
The Community Counselling Program, which I spoke about earlier, is available to NWT residents of all ages on all topics. There is a mental health and addictions worker located in Fort Providence as well as a child and youth care counsellor. There is a community wellness worker position that is currently vacant, but the standard offering in Fort Providence is to have these three wellness workers working with local individuals to provide them with the help they need.
Thank you, Minister. Final supplementary. Member for Deh Cho.
Mahsi, Mr. Speaker. Mahsi to the Minister for that. Can the Minister commit to the training of our local people to be alcohol and drug counsellors? Mahsi.
This is an area the department is very interested in. For the last two years, the department has provided support to the Dene Wellness Warriors, who have been working in partnership with the Rhodes Wellness College to deliver the Northern Indigenous Counselling Program, and it's my understanding that the first graduates of this program will be coming out next year. We see a unique opportunity here to hire these NWT residents who have this specialized counselling training and to bring them into our communities in the different roles that we have available there. Thank you.
Thank you, Minister. Oral questions. Member for Great Slave.
