Thank you, Mr. Abernethy. The Member for Sahtu, Mr. Yakeleya.
Thank you, Mr. Speaker. I want to continue my questions to the Minister of Health and Social Services in regard to the mental health services provided in our small communities.
The Minister’s Forum on Addictions and Community Wellness, Healing Voices, has 67 recommendations and 12 members that visit 21 communities. In there, in the recommendations, 47 to 51 talks specifically about mental health in our communities and these recommendations are very, I would say, shallow. So I want to ask the Minister, this indication as to the type of mental health support in our small communities, it’s really, really shallow in terms of people not really understanding, as my colleague Mr. Blake talked about, even for the youth.
What has the Minister’s department done to follow up and strengthen or implement these 67 recommendations under the Minister’s Forum on Addictions and Wellness?
Thank you, Mr. Yakeleya. The Minister of Health, Mr. Abernethy.
Thank you, Mr. Speaker. The Mental Health and Addictions Action Plan that came out from the Department of Health and Social Services moves a long way to supporting the recommendations that are in the Minister’s Forum.
We do have community counsellors in most of the communities in the Northwest Territories who can provide direct counselling, whether its addictions related or whether its mental health related. There’s also NWT Helpline that we strongly encourage people to call if they’re unable to talk to anybody else. In the communities they’d have nurses. The nurses are also there to provide referral services to individuals who are seeking addictions treatment or have other mental health issues that they’d wish to address. They can certainly get referrals to other practitioners throughout the Northwest Territories right from their communities.
So there are a number of things that are available within the communities themselves. We also have programs in the schools like the Talking About Mental Illness, we’ve got the promotion campaigns that are out there, the Feel Real Radio which is transmitted everywhere that CKLB transmits, encouraging people and youth to talk about mental health issues as well. Thank you.
I read a report on the impact of residential schools and other root causes for poor mental health in Aboriginal people and students who attended residential schools and the devastating effects is has on mental health. We have reports on the residential school survivors that cannot access treatment programs right now in the Sahtu region, people who are being denied. We cannot close their files because they cannot fulfill a treatment program under the mental health Minister’s Forum on Addictions. We’re failing terribly at the community level.
How many mental health workers are right now working in the Sahtu and which communities do have mental health workers?
I can’t honestly remember which communities are actually currently filled and which communities are not filled. We do have turnover in these communities, but I will commit to getting that information for the Member.
I’d also like to ask the Member if he could share that document with us that articulates the individuals he feels are being failed and we can have further discussion on that as well. Thank you.
The last count, as the Minister of Education said, there’s 5,500 so far that he knows of, of people in the Northwest Territories who have attended the residential schools. I say that number is higher, up to at least 10,000. That is devastating in the Northwest Territories. If you look at the history of the residential schools and the terrible effect it had on residential school survivors and their mental health, we have yet to come a long, long way to provide good mental health. So I’d be happy to share this with the Minister.
I want to ask, has this department looked at any type of mobile training or mobile treatment for residential school survivors who aren’t able yet to get into a treatment program to look at their wellness issues?
Thank you. We are pursuing a mobile treatment option available to all residents of the Northwest Territories, some of who might actually be survivors of residential schools. I would also like to just remind the Member that based on discussions that we’ve already had, I’ve had the Executive and the Department of Health and Social Services get in touch with the federal government to find out what, if any, transition planning can be put into place as they exit the field around the residential school survivors. Thank you, Mr. Speaker.
Thank you, Mr. Abernethy. Final, short supplementary, Mr. Yakeleya.
Thank you, Mr. Speaker. At one time the Grollier Hall Healing Society was involved in the court process up in Inuvik, and the Grollier Hall Healing Society developed training modules, residential school treatment program models, care givers survivors, community survivors.
Can the Minister go back in history and see if these models can be used today? These were trailblazers in terms of helping the survivors in the communities. Can the Minister look and say, yes, the wheel has been invented, we can use this? Can he get a hold of those models and look for…
I’m not a great big fan of recreating the wheel if it’s already working well. But we would have to explore these programs. They may no longer be relevant; they might be relevant. We’re certainly willing to look at other programs, and I’d appreciate if the Member could maybe share some of his insight into these programs with us as well. In particular, which ones he thinks were really effective and which ones maybe weren’t so effective. Thank you, Mr. Speaker.
Thank you, Mr. Abernethy. Member for Inuvik Boot Lake, Mr. Moses.
Thank you, Mr. Speaker. In my Member’s statement I made references to two different reports that came out. One was the Mental Health Indicators for Canada. I’d like to ask the Minister of Health and Social Services if he or his department is familiar with this report that was released on January 22nd and if it’s been something that’s been brought up a lot among the Health and Social Services Ministers across the country. Thank you, Mr. Speaker.
Thank you, Mr. Moses. Minister of Health, Mr. Abernethy.
Thank you, Mr. Speaker. The department does keep up on most of the publications that are out there with respect to health and social services and mental health. I haven’t personally seen it myself, but I will confirm, I will check with the department to confirm they have it.
We haven’t had any tri-territorial meetings with the Ministers of Health and Social Services since January 29th, so the answer to his second part is no.
This document, the Mental Health Indicators for Canada, will help paint a complete picture of mental health throughout this country and also here in the Northwest Territories. It’s going to allow us to tell us how well we are doing or how poorly we are doing in terms of the health system in responding to Canadians’ mental health and well-being and their needs and what we need to do to effect the change and also here in the Northwest Territories.
Will the Minister and his department look at these? There are 13 indicators. Will he and his department look at these 13 indicators, compare it to our Mental Health and Addictions Action Plan and see if there’s anything that we need to incorporate or change, so that these indicators can help us, direct us in making the decisions to help those that need mental health services? Thank you.
The Department of Health and Social Services has just recently put in 32 indicators to monitor the effectiveness of the health and social services system here in the Northwest Territories. But we also rely on information that other organizations are putting together to help us make informed decisions here in the Northwest Territories, organizations such as CIHI. Any nationally recognized organization that is doing this type of an analysis, we do get the information and we do look at it. We’re always looking for ways to improve our reporting mechanisms. So, we will certainly look at that, and if there’s any need to update or enhance our 32 indicators, we’re always looking to improve it.
I’m glad that the department is keeping up to date on all these national standards. In fact, this is the first ever national level set of indicators that identifies and reports on the mental health of Canadians.
So I’d like to ask the Minister, if this report is something that the department wants to move forward on, will he bring together stakeholders to look at these indicators and act on them, much like the Anti-Poverty Strategy? Thank you, Mr. Speaker.
We already have a Mental Health and Addictions Action Plan, and as far as indicators to help us identify whether we’re on the right track, or whether we have to amend our approach, we’re always looking for ways to improve what we do.
The Mental Health and Addictions Action Plan is a living document and it will continue to move forward and it will continue to evolve as realities change. As we learn more through new indicators, it would be inappropriate for us to remain static. We will have to be flexible.
Thank you, Mr. Abernethy. The Member for Frame Lake, Ms. Bisaro.
Thank you, Mr. Speaker. I’d like to revisit some of my questions with the Minister of Health and Social Services. The Minister mentioned, in the response to my last question, that basically in communities people can simply go to somebody and get treatment. I’d like to say to the Minister that homeless people are generally not proactive and they’re not generally recorded. They tend to operate on their own. So, without an advocate, I’d like to ask the Minister, how does he expect that a homeless person will take advantage of opportunities that do exist in a community?
Thank you, Ms. Bisaro. The Minister of Health, Mr. Abernethy.
Thank you, Mr. Speaker. I have travelled to a lot of communities throughout the Northwest Territories, and where there are issues around homelessness, I know the Housing Corp is very active in those communities as far ensuring people get housing. But also we’ve got government services officers who are aware of the different programs and services who could direct people. We also have, in many of the communities, community counsellors and social workers who can, when they recognize people that are in crisis, refer them to services that might be appropriate. There are people in the communities who are caring and compassionate and want to work with these individuals and will direct them to where they need to be.
Thanks to the Minister. I appreciate that. It is unfortunate that we don’t have a specific person looking out for homeless people in our communities. In Yellowknife, though, we do have a day shelter.
I’d like to ask the Minister, in terms of the Day Shelter, what programs are available at the Day Shelter right now that can assist clients to improve their mental health?
The Day Shelter has only been open for a couple months at this point and there are number of things happening there, including some significant renovations in the building. We have talked to the provider who has indicated that they’re hoping to provide some additional programs and services as well as links to the programs and services that exist. There is space in that building for health practitioners to go to the building and meet with people, as well as Housing staff to go and meet with people, as well as individuals from Justice or income support to go and meet with the people who are utilizing that facility. But right now there are no specific programs being delivered by the provider until the construction is completed.
To the Minister, in the meantime, while this construction is going on, is there an opportunity for people to get referred? There’s the suggestion that this will happen in the future, but right now how do people get referred to a program if they’re willing to go and if they need the help for their illness?
It’s my understanding that we actually do have individuals from the health authority as well as I believe there’s income support and Housing staff going in there, but I will get a confirmation of exactly who’s visiting that facility and how regularly to provide information to users of the Day Shelter.
Thank you, Mr. Abernethy. Final, short supplementary, Ms. Bisaro.
Thanks, Mr. Speaker. Thanks to the Minister. The Minister mentioned some construction that’s going on, and I know that the City of Yellowknife has earmarked about $70,000 for capital costs to assist with the building.
I’d like to know from the Minister if there is an opportunity to take some of that money that’s earmarked for capital and for construction and put that into programs.
We appreciate the City of Yellowknife. They’re a fantastic partner on the delivery of the Day Shelter here in Yellowknife and we look forward to a continued positive relationship with them. The city is contributing some money, as are we, but at this time there are some significant infrastructure improvements that need to be made in that building so that it can meet the long-term needs, and taking that money away from the infrastructure and putting it to programs will actually adversely affect our ability to deliver those programs in the future. We need to get that construction done.
Mahsi cho, Mr. Speaker. I wish to table the following document, entitled “NWT Transportation Strategy, 2015-2040 – Public and Stakeholder Engagement Report, February 2015.”
Thank you, Mr. Beaulieu. Mr. Moses.
Thank you, Mr. Speaker. I’d like to table a document developed by the Mental Health Commission of Canada. It’s titled “Informing the Future: Mental Health Indicators for Canada.”
Mahsi, Mr. Speaker. I move, seconded by the honourable Member for Kam Lake, that Bill 45, An Act to Amend the Workers’ Compensation Act, be read for the first time.
Thank you, Mr. Lafferty. The motion is in order. To the motion.
Question.
Question has been called. The motion is carried.
---Carried
Bill 45 has had first reading.
Item 19, second reading of bills. Item 20, consideration in Committee of the Whole of bills and other Matters: Bill 38, An Act to Amend the Jury Act; Bill 41, Act to Amend the Partnership Act; Committee Report 10-17(5), Standing Committee on Government Operations Report on the Review of the 2013-2014 Annual Report of the Information and Privacy Commissioner of the Northwest Territories; and Tabled Document 188-17(5), Northwest Territories Main Estimates 2015-2016, with Mrs. Groenewegen in the chair.
I’d like to call Committee of the Whole to order today. What is the wish of the committee? Ms. Bisaro.
Thank you, Madam Chair. We will continue with TD 188-17(5), Northwest Territories Main Estimates 2015-2016. We will continue with the Department of Health and Social Services and, time permitting, the Department of Transportation.
Thank you, Ms. Bisaro. Does committee agree?
Agreed.
