Thank you very much, Mr. Speaker. Earlier I spoke about not having a full-time mental health worker in the community of Fort Liard. I would like to ask the Minister of Health and Social Services when will there be a full-time mental health worker in the community of Fort Liard.
Thank you, Mr. Menicoche. The Minister of Health and Social Services, Mr. Beaulieu.
Thank you, Mr. Speaker. There are many vacancies in the Health and Social Services department and health and social services authorities. Specific to the full-time mental health worker in Liard, I don’t have the information on exactly when that individual position would be filled, but we do know that it’s one of the positions we are having difficulties filling. We do have a system that we are trying to employ. The Member referred to Health and Social Services taking over the human resources section to fill the vacant positions. That’s exactly what we’re doing. We’re expecting that we would have a good plan in place in March of this coming year that will give us a better handle on how and when to fill all the vacancies that we have across the North.
I know that with Human Resources we went through great strides of improving our recruitment, including a Regional Recruitment Strategy as well. I would just like to know, just in terms of that, has the Department of Health and Social Services undertaken a parallel type of move, because the real question is the sooner we get mental health workers and social service workers into the community of Fort Liard, the sooner we can establish consistent health and mental wellness approach in that community.
Yes, the Department of Health and Social Services works in partnership with Human Resources and Aurora College to develop some supports that would put a number of initiatives in place that will allow us to recruit and retain positions at all levels throughout our system. Thank you.
Mr. Speaker, has the department, as well, addressed the concern about the high turnover rate in small communities? Are they looking at any type of programming or systems to help these professionals stay in the community longer and thereby provide a better service to the community and residents? Thank you.
Mr. Speaker, as I indicated in my response, we are going through the recruitment aspect of it. Also as important, if not more important, is the retention aspect of the job. We recognize that we have a high vacancy rate. I think we have a vacancy rate of 26 percent in social workers. I do believe that is the highest number of any particular profession in the health and social services system at this time. Therefore, I have actually met with all of the CEOs at the Joint Senior Management Committee. One of the priorities that I have given to them was to develop a recruitment and retention system for our system for both health and social services. Thank you.
Thank you, Mr. Beaulieu. Final, short supplementary, Mr. Menicoche.
Thank you very much, Mr. Speaker. Some of the successes in the Education department in the smaller communities is hiring couples and/or seasoned teachers that are willing to stay in communities. I would just like to know, will the Minister and will the recruitment department as it were, be looking at those kinds of strategies to keep people in the communities for longer and longer stays? Thank you, Mr. Speaker.
Mr. Speaker, I’m not sure we spent a lot of time on tying in other professions going into the community. One of the main things that we’ve discovered, certainly, are that when the RCMP moves into a community, they often come with a spouse that is also a professional, whether a social worker or often a nurse, so we utilize that employee as well at that time. The problem with that is that the RCMP stay two years, or three years if they ask to stay the additional year. Often the partners of the other professionals that are coming into community also end up being short term. Thank you.
Thank you, Mr. Beaulieu. Member for Hay River South, Mrs. Groenewegen.
Thank you, Mr. Speaker. My questions are for the Minister of Health and Social Services. I think it’s safe to say that the Minister doesn’t have a magic wand. This is not a problem with an easy solution and that’s why we highlight it and bring it up here again today. I believe that when we are identifying a problem, if we have any ideas about what some solutions might be, it might also be good to bring those up as well.
We have tried a lot of things. Let’s not say that our government has done nothing to address addictions because we certainly have tried a lot of things. Unfortunately, they have not addressed the problem to the degree that it certainly needs to be addressed.
As a result of the Minister’s Forum on Addictions that went around and did consultation, some health care officials came to Hay River, met with our local Metis government and I was fortunate enough to be invited to that meeting. In that meeting there was discussion of a new model that I have not known of ever being tried in the Northwest Territories before. That is sending professionals, not taking the people out of their communities, but sending professionals or a group of specialists into the community to work with the community to have people receive counselling and treatment in their own community, in their own space.
I would like to ask the Minister what is the status of that idea that was shared with us that night. Thank you.
Thank you, Mrs. Groenewegen. Minister of Health and Social Services, Mr. Beaulieu.
Thank you, Mr. Speaker. A mobile treatment was one of the recommendations of the Minister’s Forum. We think that mobile treatment is certainly a possibility. Mobile treatment has been tried in other jurisdictions. I believe that mobile treatment has also been tried in the Northwest Territories in the past. So far what we’ve done is we’ve recognized that mobile treatment is something that is possible. We are developing a program around what mobile treatment could look like. We’ve talked to Poundmaker’s Lodge, which is a healing lodge in Edmonton, and found out if they have had individuals involved in mobile treatment, to see if they could assist us in developing something for the NWT. Thank you.
I think it’s a good idea. I think if we could harness the efforts of the local people that are involved with people who are dealing with addictions, such as the RCMP, the local nurse, interagency groups in communities like Hay River, if we could involve those people in finding solutions and addressing the problem, not on a one-time basis where a team comes in, but where there could be continuing follow-up and continuing interaction with the community, so that they could monitor and people would have a place to reach out to if people needed counselling or needed an anchor or a sponsor or somebody to talk to about the situation as they progressed down that journey.
I’d like a little bit more detail when the Minister says mobile treatment and we’re all supposed to understand what that means. Could he add a little bit more detail to that as to what that might look like and if that might be something similar to what I’ve described? Thank you.
All indications that we’ve had for mobile treatment are actually what the Member is describing; they are professionals in a certain facility that design their program, their healing program, around going out to the communities rather than bringing people into a centre for residential treatment. They meet them in their own environment. One of the treatment options that we are looking at is where a team of three counsellors are going into a community and work with the community. That was targeted at addressing youth treatment. We found that to be a way where we can treat youth without sending youth out to facilities down South that specialize in treatment. Thank you.
I think the issue is of trust and building relationships. So if you did have these professionals that were providing this mobile treatment, I would like the Minister to confirm if there could be continuity, if there could be a long-range relationship developed with the community or the people who could be the helpers also in the community going forward, not just a one-time deal where some people you don’t know come into town, everybody is all excited, everybody jumps on board and says let’s do this. I want something that’s sustained, that is supported and that will see some results. Thank you.
Part of any treatment program, whether it be residential treatment, on-the-land treatment, mobile treatment, in order to have any treatment programs have success, we have to have an after-care program. That is one of the other recommendations that were made in the Minister’s Forum and also we recognized that just by talking to the community counsellors. An after-care program is very important and how we develop an after-care program, depending on the size of the community, will determine its success. Thank you.
So we’ve had this idea shared with us by the senior officials in the Minister’s department. The Minister has shared this mobile treatment idea with us here in the House today. It’s not a cheap solution. It’s going to take money. It’s going to take a lot of money to see this laid out and rolled out in an effective way.
Does the department have the financial resources to back up this idea of mobile treatment and how soon could we see it started? Thank you.
The department has been working on wellness plans. Right now, we are funding the communities to develop wellness plans to do some of this work. We’re also going to use some of the money that we were using in Nats’ejee K’eh to do some of this type of issue. I’m not sure we are going to have all the money to do all of the programs, but the idea, I guess the general idea would be that once the mobile treatment team has gone into a community, then the after-care program will come into play. We’re assuming further on down the road there could be a follow-up mobile treatment. That could be coupled with on the land, it could be coupled with treatment of youth. So the idea is it will continue to flow, so once mobile treatment is started in the community it will continue.
We know that the addictions are very high, especially in Aboriginal communities; therefore, we are trying to address that issue by sending mobile treatment people in. That’s once we’ve had an opportunity to evaluate a pilot of such so that we make sure we are doing the right thing. Thank you.
Thank you, Mr. Beaulieu. The honourable Member for Weledeh, Mr. Bromley.
Thank you, Mr. Speaker. I’d like to follow up on my Member’s statement from earlier today. Of course, we’re focusing on treatment for alcohol and drug addictions, so my questions will be for the Minister of Health and Social Services. We’ve heard the Minister explain in the past that there are many options for treatment in the South. Could the Minister explain how the department selects these addictions treatment centres? In other words, how does the department decide which are eligible and which are not?
Thank you, Mr. Bromley. The honourable Minister of Health and Social Services, Mr. Beaulieu.
Treating people in southern institutions is not a new thing. Treating people in southern institutions is not something that happened because Nats’ejee K’eh shut down. This is something that was ongoing. Individuals have come to us and have gone for treatment while Nats’ejee K’eh was still operating, have gone for treatment in the South. How the department selected this is after working with the various treatment centres down south, they looked at the places they felt would best suit our needs for the people of the Northwest Territories and had signed contracts at four treatment facilities down south.
Thanks for that response and I’m certainly aware that we’ve done this for a long time and this is not something that we just started. I imagine that these different treatment centres use different approaches to treatment and that may be appropriate for people with different backgrounds.
Could the Minister provide an overview of the main schools of thought in terms of how to treat addictions? Thank you.
I guess, in general, there could be a treatment centre down south that we are in a contractual relationship with that may be able to address more complex types of treatment. It could be dealing with harder drugs. There could be a treatment centre down south that could treat alcohol. There could be a treatment facility that would deal with a lot of the traditional and cultural type of treatment. And there’s a treatment facility down south that may be able to address women’s treatment. Thank you.
If we’re going to make progress on this, we need to be able to define what we think success looks like and find a way to measure it.
Could the Minister explain how the department currently defines and measures success in terms of addictions treatment? Mahsi.
That’s a very difficult question. Success is largely measured by the individual themself who is attending treatment. Sometimes the counsellors and individuals determine success by the individual attending treatment. Sometimes they determine success by the individual finishing treatment and sometimes they determine success by the length of time the individual stays clean and sober after treatment. There’s no specific time. Some people say they have reached success if they have been sober six months, some is a year and some don’t ever believe they will ever reach success because they will never feel they are completely away from addictions and addictions is a daily battle. So success is very difficult to measure. If we were to develop a program to follow an individual once treatment was completed, then we would also have to get some approvals from individuals that had gone through treatment. Once an individual has finished treatment, they don’t want to be in touch with that facility. Some do, but not everyone. But a lot of them say no, once I’m done here, I’m done. Thank you.
Thank you, Mr. Bromley. Final, short supplementary, Mr. Bromley.
Thanks to the Minister for that. I believe the Minister provided a range of possible measures. I was hoping to hear how he defines success, what we mean by success. So I’d appreciate any comments the Minister might have on that.
Could the Minister commit to provide this House with an evaluation of the success of each of the current addictions treatment centres that we refer people to? At a minimum, statistics on short-term and long-term relapse rates would be useful, but I imagine the department has other measures of success it could report on. Mahsi.
Thank you. I view success as a change in life, a complete change in lifestyle of individuals from using or consuming to not using or consuming, but also change other parts of their life as well. We can do that. We can go and try to determine what we consider to be success for the facilities that we’ve engaged in and will be in a contractual arrangement until March 31, 2014.
We can also go back to the records and maybe look at some success rates at Nats’ejee K’eh to see what type of rates they felt were success rates. Thank you.
Thank you, Mr. Beaulieu. Member for Mackenzie Delta, Mr. Blake.
Thank you, Mr. Speaker. Just a follow-up from my statement. The Minister of Health and Social Services mentioned that there will be a lot of on-the-land programming. Has the Minister been working with the Gwich’in to offer programs at the Gwich’in Wellness Centre? Thank you.
Thank you, Mr. Blake. The Minister of Health and Social Services, Mr. Beaulieu.
Thank you, Mr. Speaker. Yes, we have. We’ve met with them. We had some discussions. The deputy minister went up to Inuvik one time when I was not able to go and also had some further discussions with them. I met with the vice-president of the Gwich’in Tribal Council here in Yellowknife about two weeks ago, I would say, and we talked specifically about the use of that facility. He recognizes, and the Gwich’in recognize, that it would just not be able to be completely a centre used for only treatment, but that that centre could be used for other things. It could be seasonal. So we’ve had that discussion and we’re willing to work with the Gwich’in to use that facility for something.
Thank you. I believe this facility is ideal, as there are no distractions. I’d like to ask the Minister, can we expect to see programs offered this winter. Thank you.
Thank you. That is my hope, but I don’t have the information here with me on the treatment options that we’re moving forward with at this time. But I do believe that we’re definitely looking at something with the Inuvialuit further north and we’ve had these discussions with the Gwich’in. So I’m hoping that something can come out of this this winter and I can certainly update the Member on that, if that is the case. Thank you.
Thank you. I realize it takes time to develop the proper policies to operate this facility. I’d like to ask the Minister again, will we see programs offered at the Gwich’in Wellness Camp within the next year. Thank you.
Thank you. If the Gwich’in are able to line up some other uses for the facility. I recognize that they have talked about the other departments that may be able to use that facility and then it becomes feasible for them to operate. At that point, they said that that building could be available for a treatment program or two. So if they’re able to run some other programs and I can’t remember specifically, but he mentioned that they had worked with ENR, they’ve worked with Justice to make that a possibility. If that place is operational and we have a program developed, we certainly want to put a program in there, certainly before the next year is up. Thank you.
Thank you, Mr. Beaulieu. Final, short supplementary, Mr. Blake.
Thank you, Mr. Speaker. Just from what the Minister has said, it sounds like funding is an issue here. If this is a focus of the department, will the Minister agree to help the Gwich’in to take care of the maintenance of the building? Thank you.
Thank you. I think what we would rather do, I suppose, is to get into a contract on the number of people who would be taking the treatment and then pay the rate for that treatment as opposed to agreeing to pay for the operating costs of the facility. So I think that is probably the way we would go, certain costs for a certain number of people that are in treatment. Thank you.
Thank you, Mr. Beaulieu. Member for Sahtu, Mr. Yakeleya.
Thank you, Mr. Speaker. I talked in my Member’s statement about some of the support that’s needed in someone’s life when they want to put away alcohol or any type of addiction. Coming from a small community, in communities the people are listening to me now, today, at this very minute. They have enough motivation and courage to say I want to do something with alcohol, put it away or do something with addictions, drugs or whatever type of addictions they have.
Are there any types of programs right now, from listening to the Minister’s Forum, where they can take their family who say we want to go up to their cabin and stay there for a bit to deal with those issues?
Thank you, Mr. Yakeleya. Minister of Health, Mr. Beaulieu.
Thank you, Mr. Speaker. From October 23rd to 25th last week, we had gathered 50 people, 60 people in Fort Simpson to look at the development of an on-the-land youth treatment program. We need to be able to get that information and we’ve hired an individual specifically to develop that program. We need to look at what the youth had to say, how they see the program developing.
Now, I have to say that when we were travelling in the Sahtu, the people over there certainly want to see not only the youth go out on the land but the elders and the youth together to go out on the land for treatment. I’ve seen that in my own riding as well. So we kind of have a general idea of what on-the-land treatment with youth and on-the-land treatment is going to look like. So, certainly, we could end up with that type of treatment.
