Marsi cho, Mr. Speaker. Mr. Speaker, in my Member's statement, I talked about Child and Family Services. I would like to ask the Minister of Health and Social Services questions on that. I would like to ask the Minister if there is a way that he could obtain income information on families with children in care or the families of children who have been apprehended. Thank you.
Masi. Minister of Health and Social Services.
Thank you, Mr. Speaker. Mr. Speaker, a number of years ago, we moved forward with a new approach to providing child and family services here in the Northwest Territories called Building Stronger Families. The premise and the intention behind Building Stronger Families is to move away from an apprehension system to a prevention system to support families. The bottom line is we want to find ways to support families so the children never have to be apprehended. In that model, it includes working with families to identify the challenges they are facing and come up with ways to address those issues, which, in many situations, may include some of the financial challenges that families are under.
We have recently piloted a situation where we worked closely with the Housing Corporation where individuals were looking like they were going to get evicted and we have actually provided them with some financial support to avoid an eviction and then worked with them on the development of a plan to get them back on a positive financial path. We are prepared and we do look at financial situations of individuals on a case-by-case basis. Finances may not always be the reason that engagement with Child and Family Services is necessary. When it is, we are looking at finding ways to provide some supports to them to help families stay united and together and build stronger families as opposed to tearing families apart. Thank you, Mr. Speaker.
I am sort of hearing that the Department of Health and Social Services is sharing information with other social departments. I would like the minister to confirm that. Are the social departments, Housing, Justice, and the Department of Education, sharing information with Health and Social Services on the clients? Those specific clients I am referring to are people who have children in care or children in foster care.
As I indicated, the premise of Building Stronger Families is exactly that, building stronger families. This means, as somebody engages on a voluntary basis or whether we have been asked to engage as a result of concerns about safety, we will work with the family, identify the issues that we need to work on to build that family up so they are in a position to take care of their children in a healthy and safe way. If we do need to engage different departments, we would certainly get consent forms filled out so we can actually work with those departments in a legal way and make sure that the clients are aware that their information is being discussed. In fact, the families should be engaged in that, as well. We won't share information without consent with other departments. Where consent is provided and it is about building that stronger family, we are absolutely prepared to work with those families.
The pilot we did recently with the Housing Corporation showed where that could really make a difference. We were able to find and work with families who were having troubles with rent. We actually came to the table with some finances to help them for the short term. We developed a plan. We had the Housing Corporation engaged to make sure they wouldn't evict them during this process so that we could keep families together rather than tearing them apart.
I think the system has improved a lot. I agree. I would like to ask the Minister if there could be something more active. By that I mean: I know that we are talking about the same people who are losing their children to the foster care system or the children are being apprehended, are using the health system more than the average individuals of the same age group who are in the correction facilities and so on. An active, integrated case-management process for individual families that have children who are apprehended, I am wondering if the Minister could just talk a little bit about that to ensure that we know exactly why the children are in care. If there is anything we can do, we should be doing that. I would like to ask the Minister about that.
I know the Member is passionate about this particular area. The Member and I actually were part of the review that was done of Child and Family Services in the 16th Assembly that came up with 76 recommendations to improve Child and Family Services. I know the Member was also around when the most recent audit was done which actually gave some pretty negative results about the services provided by Child and Family Services. I also know the Member is aware of the recommendations made by Truth and Reconciliation to improve Child and Family Services.
Building Stronger Families builds on all those recommendations, including the recommendations of the TRC. As I said, it is about providing supports to families to keep them together, to keep them united. We are prepared to use the tools and resources that are available to us, which includes integrated case management where appropriate. There are certain criteria that are utilized to determine when integrated case management should be used. We are working with families.
I do want to be clear that we are not where we need to be. We are still a long way from where we need to be on supporting families and keeping them united and keeping them strong. We are on the right path. There is a ways to go. I am committed to continuing this work. I am committed to working with committee. I am committed to finding ways to increase our partnerships with not just other government departments but government organizations to keep our families together rather than tearing them apart.
Masi. Oral questions. Member for Tu Nedhe-Wiilideh.
Thank you, Mr. Speaker. Mr. Speaker, I would like to thank the Minister for that. Financial support, I think, is something that the families need. It appears as though, when individuals are on income support or if they are having trouble with the justice system, that is not quite enough money to be able to provide all of the things you need to provide for children. At the end of the day, one thing leads to another. I don't think it is coincidental that the poorest people are the ones who have their children apprehended. That is not always the case, but that is often the case. I am wondering if the Minister could talk about or tell me what type of financial supports exist in all of the social departments to keep that family together. Thank you.
There are a variety of supports across the Government of the Northwest Territories that are available to all residents of the Northwest Territories in times of need. We have income support. We have housing that provides a number of different supports to residents of the Northwest Territories. I don't think we have enough time to list all of the things that they do, but I will say that part of the process of building stronger families is helping families connect with those resources that exist and helping identify the resources that will be appropriate for the times. Once again, I do want to say, we are halfway through implementation of Building Stronger Families. The first couple of years have really been focused on fixing the foundation, fixing the core, and we are starting to do some of these tests like we did with the Housing Corporation to explore these new ideas and new ways of doing business.
I will say, and I think it's good news, we have seen an increase in the number of Child and Family Services files over the last number of years, but what we have also seen is a larger increase of voluntary interactions with us rather than apprehension based activities, and more children staying with their families through voluntary service agreements and trying to find these creative ways to access programs. We still have children who are being apprehended. We want to see that number go down. We have seen that number going down in the last couple of years. We’ve seen the number of mediations rather than court activities start to take off. It didn't exist a couple of years ago. We have families that are providing supports through a foster program. We found a way to expedite the process for families so that they can get some resources. Things are going in the right direction. We have a long way to go. In my mind, one of the largest challenges we have is the fact that we have a lot of staff out there. We have been doing certain things in a certain way for a long time. It is hard to change attitudes, beliefs, and we are working to make those improvements, and I ask you to work with us as we continue to make these changes to keep families together rather than tearing them apart. Thank you, Mr. Speaker.
