Thank you, Mr. Chair. Mr. Chair, all four of the treatment centres that we visited operated on the 12-step model, and as you may know, peer support is critical to the success of the 12-step program.
What I have heard since I came back is that, in even the regional centres, let alone the small communities, people are reluctant to create AA groups, which would be the natural follow-up, because of privacy concerns, which I stated earlier. There really isn't a level of anonymity in a place that has 1,000 people, and not everyone is comfortable sharing the details of their addiction and recovery in that format.
That means that aftercare, as my colleague from Nahendeh said, really needs to take place on an individual basis. How this would work within privacy concerns, I am not sure, but it may be possible to link people who have been in recovery to one another so that they can provide peer support one-on-one. That was one thought I had.
Otherwise, as my colleague said, really, it is individual. The centres offer online support. They offer telephone support. If you are in the place where the treatment facility is located, you can drop in and talk to them. Other than that, the peer support piece, it is not really clear that it would be easy to get that going. It is not really a matter of money and resources. It is a matter of privacy, which is a more difficult issue to address.
Having said that, of course, that is not the only way to support people in their sobriety, and I will leave the Minister to fill in the blanks. Thank you.
Thank you. Mr. Testart, would you care for the Minister to respond as well? It is your 10 minutes.
Thank you, Mr. Chair. I am content if the Minister would like to. I am sure that people would appreciate hearing about the supports we currently have towards aftercare. Thank you, Mr. Chair.
Thank you. Minister Abernethy, three minutes.
Thank you, Mr. Chair. I was hoping to have a response to each of the recommendations as we are going through the motion, so I won't go into too much detail here, other than to sort of articulate as best I can what the process is today, not necessarily where we need to go.
If an individual in the Northwest Territories is seeking support through a facility-based treatment centre, we go through a referral process and expedite it. We get the person in there. Before they even go down, they are required to have a follow-up appointment booked in their community or wherever their referral came from. If the person is from X community, they have to have an appointment booked in their community as part of their aftercare.
Then, the person goes down, they go through their treatment process, they get the tools they need, and then their facilitator, their lead person, their clinical advisor, if you will, down there will then work with them on the development of a self-directed aftercare plan. That involves getting in touch with the local provider, following up on those appointments, and getting in contact with local resources that exist and other programs that might be appropriate.
In principle, on paper that sounds good, but what we know is it's not necessarily happening. People aren't following up when they come back to the communities. Some of these aftercare programs, as the Member for Yellowknife Centre described, aren't necessarily working because of the size of some of these communities and the size of some of these groups. Clearly, without question, we need to do better on aftercare.
It's not just about some of these counselling things. When we were on the trip, the Member for Yellowknife Centre said something that stuck with me, and I think she nailed it right on the head: we can't be releasing people to poverty or to homelessness, and sometimes that is the case. Some people who are in treatment have come from a couch-surfing lifestyle, and they have nowhere to go to when they return. There isn't really a defined plan on how to help those people come back to the communities and avoid going into that homelessness situation, the poverty situation, again. We have work to do.
I would like to speak to those when we are going through the recommendations, but I think we are on the right track. I think we are working together to find solutions. We have aftercare, but it needs to be strengthened, without question. Thank you, Mr. Chair.
Thank you. Nothing further from Mr. Testart. Mr. O'Reilly, opening comments, general comments on the report? Mr. O'Reilly.
Thanks, Mr. Chair. I will keep this very brief. I just want to thank the members of the standing committee for their work. I learned a lot. This is not an area that I knew very much about. I think that I am better informed now.
I also want to thank the Minister, who is not listening to me, but I do want to sincerely thank him for engaging in this discussion and debate. It's kind of an awkward place to do it, in Committee of the Whole, but I do very much appreciate him engaging in the debate and discussion. It does not happen often enough in this House, so I want to thank him.
Thanks, Mr. Chair. I move that this Assembly recommend that the Department of Health and Social Services enhance its public communications on addictions treatment. Thank you, Mr. Chair. I would like to have it as a recorded vote. Thank you, Mr. Chair.
Thank you. There is a motion on the floor. The motion is being distributed. Minister Abernethy.
Thank you, Minister. To the motion. The Member has requested a recorded vote. All those in favour, please rise.
The Member for Nahendeh, the Member for Frame Lake, the Member for Yellowknife Centre, the Member for Mackenzie Delta, the Member for Yellowknife North, the Member for Kam Lake.
All those opposed, please stand. All those abstaining, please rise.
The Member for Inuvik Boot Lake, the Member for Range Lake, the Member for Great Slave, the Member for Yellowknife South, the Member for Inuvik Twin Lakes, the Member for Hay River South, the Member for Thebacha.
The results of the recorded vote are: six in favour, zero opposed, seven abstentions. The motion is carried.
---Carried
Mr. Thompson.
Thank you, Mr. Chair. Mr. Chair, I move that the Assembly recommend that the Department of Health and Social Services enhance community-based aftercare services by encouraging the development of a peer support network, scheduling regular access to counselling and addictions facilities through existing health centre resources, i.e. Telehealth, and engaging with southern facilities to train territorial healthcare providers in the delivery of family support programs. Thank you, Mr. Chair. I again request a recorded vote.
Thank you, Mr. Thompson. There is a motion on the floor. The motion has been distributed. To the motion. Minister Abernethy.
Thank you, Mr. Chair. Providing aftercare and appropriate follow-up is an important step in the recovery process. There are, as I have already described, a number of options for aftercare support for individuals returning from addictions treatment. I won't list them again, for the sake of time. While there are some options in place, we need to ensure that our current range of aftercare and support options are keeping pace with the needs of people and the best and emerging practices.
The department is currently examining best practice research, jurisdictional and international scans, and local feedback to identify potential actions to support and enhance aftercare services in the Northwest Territories, and we certainly got a lot of good ideas from the committee as we were travelling. This work will inform the development of the addictions recovery action plan and will identify ways in which we can enhance existing services and introduce new programs and new initiatives.
The department has been engaging with southern facility-based addictions treatment centres to gather more information on aftercare programming available through their facilities as well as opportunities for collaboration in program development and staff training. The department will be updating the Community Counselling Program standards and procedures manual to include aftercare standards and guidelines. These standards and guidelines will reflect a recovery-oriented and best-practices approach to care. Training for managerial and front-line staff will be provided as part of the implementation plan in these standards and guidelines. Our non-government partners will also be included in these training opportunities.
We feel that this builds upon the recommendation that was made, but, as it is a recommendation to government, Cabinet will be abstaining. Thank you, Mr. Chair.
Thank you, Minister. To the motion.
Thank you Question has been called. The Member has requested a recorded vote. All those in favour, please rise.
The Member for Nahendeh, the Member for Frame Lake, the Member for Yellowknife Centre, the Member for Mackenzie Delta, the Member for Yellowknife North, the Member for Kam Lake.
All those opposed, please rise. All those abstaining, please rise.
The Member for Inuvik Boot Lake, the Member for Range Lake, the Member for Great Slave, the Member for Yellowknife South, the Member for Inuvik Twin Lakes, the Member for Hay River South, the Member for Thebacha.
The results of the recorded vote are: six in favour, zero opposed, seven abstentions. The motion is carried.
---Carried
Ms. Green.
Mr. Chair, I move that this Assembly recommend that the Department of Health and Social Services partner with its fellow social envelope departments, community governments, and community organizations to develop a pilot program centred on ensuring that Northerners completing residential treatment are not discharged into homelessness but instead are connected with housing opportunities. Thank you, Mr. Chair.
Thank you, Ms. Green. There is a motion on the floor. To the motion. Ms. Green.
Thank you, Mr. Chair. Mr. Chair, when we went on our tour, we had the opportunity to speak directly with people in the treatment centres, and housing was the number one topic on their mind after sobriety. Many of them were very concerned about where they were going to live when they came out of the treatment facility and, particularly, that they not return to their living situation that they had been in prior to treatment because they found that it was not constructive. So there is a real desire on the part of people who have gone through treatment to obtain housing on their release.
The other point I want to make is that this just makes financial sense. The government is paying between $150 and $450 per person per day for these treatment facilities, and so to invest all of that money into helping people obtain their sobriety and then put them back into a situation which has been proven to be destructive for them just makes no sense. So, for me, it's really important that we look at a way to house people coming out of treatment programs so that they have a fair chance to retain their sobriety. Thank you.
Ms. Green.
Thank you, Mr. Chair. I beg your pardon. I would like to request a recorded vote.
Of course. Thank you Ms. Green. To the motion. Minister Abernethy.
Thank you, Mr. Chair. I really appreciate the Member's comments. It's clearly recognized that housing is a barrier for many residents in the Northwest Territories and is reflected in the need to holistically address the social determinants of health as well as the historic cultural and systemic contributions to these issues in our territory. Collaboration and strong partnerships where all social envelope departments as well as external partners are at the table will be required to successfully take on this challenge. It is important to recognize that each situation is unique and that self-determination of the individuals receiving services is of utmost importance and should be central to any actions that we are taking or will be undertaking in this area. The root causes of homelessness and the complexities in maintaining different forms of housing must be taken into consideration in the planning and implementation of any actions.
Under this recommendation, we are prepared to do that work. One of the things we know we need to do is actually try to get a sense of the magnitude, the number of individuals that this situation may face. We did hear that many of them are coming home to environments that, you know, may feel are safe, but there were clearly some who said they had nowhere to go. We need to be able to work with those individuals. We don't know exactly what that looks like yet, but we are committed to doing that work and we will be working with committee.
As this is a recommendation to the government, Cabinet will be abstaining. Thank you, Mr. Chair.
Thank you, Minister. To the motion.
Question has been called. The Member has requested a recorded vote. All those in flavour, please rise.
The Member for Yellowknife Centre, the Member for Mackenzie Delta, the Member for Yellowknife North, the Member for Kam Lake, the Member for Nahendeh, the Member for Frame Lake.
All those opposed, please stand. All those abstaining, please rise.
The Member for Inuvik Boot Lake, the Member for Range Lake, the Member for Great Slave, the Member for Yellowknife South, the Member for Inuvik Twin Lakes, the Member for Hay River South, the Member for Thebacha.
The results of the recorded vote: six in favour, zero opposed, seven abstentions. The motion is carried.
---Carried
Mr. Blake.
Thank you, Mr. Chair. I move that this Assembly recommend that the government provide a comprehensive response to this report within 120 days. Thank you, Mr. Chair.
Thank you, Mr. Blake. There is a motion on the floor. The motion is in order. To the motion.
Question.
Question has been called. Mr. Blake.
Thank you, Mr. Chair. Mr. Chair, it's really that we have a comprehensive response to this report. Not only that, but adoption of these motions, you know, as my colleagues mention, it is people who take that step to go to treatment or take a life-changing step in their life. We need to ensure that they're successful, and the only way to ensure that is to adopt these motions and have them in place, because those are the challenges we are facing, whether it's shortage of housing. That's something that's come to myself here in the last couple of weeks with constituency issues, but I really hope that this government makes the necessary changes. I would like to request a recorded vote. Thank you.
Thank you, Mr. Blake. To the motion.
