Thank you, Mr. Speaker. My questions today are for the Minister of Health and Social Services. I allude in my statement to the fact that we cannot have resources on the ground everywhere all the time to respond to some of the needs of people who have either had treatment or are waiting to go to treatment that are back in our communities and needing some kind of support.
I’d like to ask the Minister of Health and Social Services if any consideration or research has ever gone into the idea of supporting or funding local groups. That could be people who are in recovery, people who have had experience and could be trained in some fashion but would be there to support people in the community that are struggling with mental illness. Thank you, Mr. Speaker.
Thank you, Mrs. Groenewegen. Minister of Health, Mr. Abernethy.
There’s already a number of community-based organizations that do provide different types or different levels of support. They may not be in every community. In Yellowknife, by way of example, there is the Tree of Peace that does provide some of those services.
We offer, throughout the Northwest Territories, two deliveries in every region. The Mental Health First Aid program, which is actually a wonderful program and I encourage… Actually, I’d like to challenge all the MLAs to actually take the Mental Health First Aid. I’d also like to challenge the MLAs to have their CAs take Mental Health First Aid, because it’s a program that helps individuals become aware and conscious of mental health issues that people have and helps direct them to where they can get resources. So I would encourage all your residents to take the Mental Health First Aid so that we could all be participants in finding solutions in helping people in need. Thank you, Mr. Speaker.
I would love to take Mental Health First Aid. I don’t know exactly how I would access that or what I could do. But as an MLA, you have to understand that we get called to the homes by parents who are going out of their minds, worried about their children because they don’t know what they’re going to do next. You can take them to the hospital, but we cannot admit and treat except for only the really critical cases. So it is hard to know, as a parent, as a friend, as a community member, as an MLA, how to respond to some of these really stressful situations, because it does involve entire families and I would say particularly parents when they’re worried about their children.
Tell me how we can access the Mental Health First Aid that the Minister is talking about, because I’ll be the first one to sign up. Thank you, Mr. Speaker.
I’m glad the Member is taking the challenge. I too will be taking Mental Health First Aid training.
The authorities have enough money to do two deliveries of Mental Health First Aid training in each of the regions every year. I will commit to getting the Member as well as all of the Members a complete list of where the Mental Health First Aid training will be, and I’ll let them know when Mental Health First Aid training is going to occur in their communities so that they can participate.
I would also encourage them, as I did previously, to please get their CAs to take it, because I know their CAs often have to deal with a lot of issues coming from constituents. But, please, advertise it in your newsletters. Let’s get the information out there so people can have the tools and the resources they need in order to help support individuals in their communities. Thank you, Mr. Speaker.
Wouldn’t it be wonderful if the Mental Health First Aid became as prevalent as having a First Aid certificate? I mean, you can hardly work anywhere or do anything without a First Aid course and certification.
The other day in the House, also, I asked the Minister that seeing that we cannot be, as a health service, everywhere all the time in every community, I had asked the Minister again about this idea of hooking patients or clients up with counsellors remotely through telehealth or through telephone counselling, telephone support. I’d like to ask the Minister, what is currently in place and where could that go?
Actually, the Member for Yellowknife Centre answered that question earlier. We do have a 1-800 Helpline that is available 24/7 for individuals who need to talk to somebody if they’re experiencing some level of crisis. We also have the Dalhousie psychiatry program here in the Northwest Territories. It does take a referral to get to that program, but individuals can access that as a way and means of getting support they need when they may not be able to get an in-person visit. We do have community counsellors, as well, through most of the communities, and I do encourage people to follow up with community counsellors when they get the opportunity.
Thank you, Mr. Abernethy. Final, short supplementary, Mrs. Groenewegen.
Thank you, Mr. Speaker. I’m glad that the Minister reminded me about community counselling, because as my colleague Mr. Bouchard mentioned, yes, we do have these services in the community, but we’ve recently heard that in Hay River right now that if you need counselling you are going to be on a three- or four-month waiting list, and that isn’t really good when it comes to issues of needing counselling for anything to do with mental illness.
I’d like to ask the Minister, is there any plan by his department to enhance those services in the communities so that we do not end up with a backlog of people waiting for services?
There is no plan in the budget that is before the committee today to increase the number of community counsellors in the communities. There are wait times. I will acknowledge that there are wait times throughout the Northwest Territories, but I think it’s important to note that these are mostly wait times for non-urgent clients. Clients with urgent needs are seen within 24 hours. Urgent issues, issues of extreme risk or importance can be dealt with immediately, within 24 hours.
Thank you, Mr. Abernethy. The Member for Frame Lake, Ms. Bisaro.
