Thank you, Mr. Speaker. I believe we need a made-in-the-North solution to the issue of supporting the residential school survivors that will provide intensive support for all these survivors.
I want to ask the Minister, will the Minister investigate the feasibility of a pan-territorial facility for treating addictions and mental health issues of residential school survivors? Thank you, Mr. Speaker.
Thank you, Mr. Yakeleya. Minister of Health, Mr. Abernethy.
Thank you, Mr. Speaker. I did have some initial conversations with the Minister of Health and Social Services for Nunavut and the Northwest Territories. They have since stopped being the Ministers of Health and Social Services, so I will follow up with the new Ministers to see if there’s any interest in a pan-territorial approach. Thank you.
That’s certainly good news on this side of the House here. I look forward to the Minister’s follow-up.
Lately I’ve been trying to address the problems experienced by the residential school survivors who have been convicted of a violent or sexual crime and who have been turned away from addictions treatment programs. These men are falling between the cracks.
As an alternative, will the Minister commit to funding intensive individual therapy sessions for these men, or looking at a mobile treatment program?
We do provide a continuum of care and supports for individuals who are suffering from addictions here in the Northwest Territories, from community counsellors, we’re trying to extend the Matrix program, which is an outpatient treatment program that can be delivered in different communities throughout the Northwest Territories which these individuals would have access to.
Our difficulty has been that a number of the facilities out there that provide residential treatment have policy and procedures about not allowing individuals with certain criminal records into co-ed facilities. So, I will work with the Member and we will try to articulate the programs that are available for these individuals today, and when there are specific cases we will certainly work with the individuals to meet their needs. Thank you.
My question for the Minister of Health, I’ve been told that one of the weaknesses of the Nats'ejee K'eh facility was its failure to fully make use of the free counselling offered by Health Canada to residential school survivors. Can the Minister comment on this claim?
That claim has never been made to me. I’d certainly be interested in where it came from and we could certainly look into the details, but that is not something that has been articulated to me in the past.
Final, short supplementary, Mr. Yakeleya.
Thank you, Mr. Speaker. In the Minister’s Forum on Addictions, in the recommendations…There are over 60 recommendations, 67 to be exact, the recommendations are to help with the interagency of our small communities.
I want to ask the Minister, can he commit to give direction to the health workers under his authority to work with the other agencies, such as the police, the counsellors, to look at how they deal with mental health patients in the community so that they do not fall through the cracks when they need help from a small community perspective?
Over the last year and a half, I’ve had an opportunity to travel to many communities in the Northwest Territories, and we will continually hear communities talking about working towards developing interagency committees. I think there’s significant value in interagency committees. I have had an opportunity to talk to CEOs, public administrators and board chairs, and there’s support for participating in interagency communities throughout the Northwest Territories where they currently exist. We would certainly be willing to participate in…[Microphone turned off]…as they begin or start up. Thank you, Mr. Speaker.
Thank you, Mr. Abernethy. Member for Hay River South, Mrs. Groenewegen.
