Thank you, Mr. Speaker. Mr. Speaker, in my Member's statement today, I spoke about some of the things that the community of Fort Simpson has done to address the tragedies that have occurred in the past year. I have some questions for the Minister of Health and Social Services to hopefully clear up some stuff. Can the Minister tell us what the department has been able to do in response to the number of tragedies in the Deh Cho region in 2017? Thank you, Mr. Speaker.
Masi. Minister of Health and Social Services.
Thank you, Mr. Speaker. Mr. Speaker, our first priority when a tragedy like this happens is to work with the families, to make sure that we have counsellors and other supports meeting with the family to help them address their grief and their loss. That has always the first priority. That is something that we made available in the Deh Cho region.
We also recognize that, given the large number of incidents and crises that were happening in the Deh Cho, there was a significant demand on all the workers in the community and the region who were reaching out to community members and families. We also made counsellors from other communities from across the Northwest Territories available so that they could come in and provide some backfill and some additional supports to the community, given that there were a large number of people who were seeking help and wanted to receive supports during these crises.
We also had individuals from the headquarters come down, as well, and meet with the communities. There was first reach-out to the families. Then there were additional community people, additional supports came in from different communities. Then the departments were able to provide some support in the communities.
We had a number of good conversations with residents in the community about the types of things they need, and we are continuing to work with the community and the region to try to find some additional solutions. Thank you, Mr. Speaker.
I thank the Minister and his department for the work that they were doing. Thanks for that information. As I said in my Member's statement today, there were a lot of departments that have been part of the support network. Can the Minister advise how the department has been working with other departments and organizations to ensure that everybody is aware of each other's services, including the mental health and addiction staff, Child and Family Services staff, Victims Services staff, and Education, Culture and Employment staff?
As a government, this is certainly one area that we can do better in, break down some of our silos and make sure that staff in one department know what is going on in another department. We have been trying to work with our partners to make sure information is shared. We have been able to collaborate on a number of initiatives. We have been able to work with community members in the Deh Cho region. We have participated with them on different events.
For example, on February 7th and 8th, the department staff attended workshops in Fort Simpson that offered mental wellness, suicide prevention, as well as What Will it Take Program and Talk About Mental Illness, which is often referred to as TAMI Program. The speakers travelled with our staff, so we had an opportunity to talk about the types of programs that are available both through Health and Social Services, but also through communities and other agencies. I know that the federal government has supports that they have provided in different situations at different times.
I think we all need to work together to try to get the information that we are all doing. This isn't something that one department, one government can solve. This is something that is going to take everybody working together. We are going to work harder to make sure the information of the programs we are offering is out there. I look forward to working with the Member to help get some of that information out over time.
I appreciate that answer from the Minister. In regard to the plan to support family, staff, and communities who have been impacted by these tragedies, can the Minister advise some of the things the department is able to offer?
First and, I guess, foremost is that we do offer, and we do make our counsellors available to the families who are struggling so that they can continue to work through their grief process and come to terms with the horrible incidents that have occurred. We want to do more than that. We want to support communities, as well.
We strongly encourage residents of communities to attend things like the Mental Health First Aid program as well as the Applied Suicide Intervention Skills Training. The more people who can attend these things in the communities, the better. That includes the families, as well. We work with the territorial authority, Health and Social Services Authority, and community leadership to develop a wellness and suicide prevention plan. That work is still under way. We haven't completely reached our resolution on that plan.
The department offers On-The-Land Healing Fund $125,000 a year, which goes to the Dehcho First Nations so that they can facilitate on the land programs that lead towards healing and supporting individuals who are going through crisis.
There is also always the helpline available to residents. Should they need to speak to somebody and speak to somebody now, I would strongly encourage people to use that helpline and engage with the practitioners we have in the community, whether it is community health nurse or a counsellor. In September of next year, the new youth mental health counsellors, we encourage them to reach out and get in touch with the providers that are out there.
Masi. Oral Questions. Member for Nahendeh.
Thank you, Mr. Speaker. I greatly appreciate the Minister's ability to provide that information here to the House as we can share it with our residents. Mr. Speaker, can the Minister provide a brief summary of some of the things the department has been able to do in regard to the suicide prevention treatment and after-care as part of the mental health and addiction recovery in NWT Strategic Framework 2016-2021? Thank you, Mr. Speaker.
The framework that the Member is referencing is a foundational document that sets the direction we are going to move forward in a number of different areas. It is going to result in three different action plans. One of the action plans, the Youth Mental Health and Addictions Action Plan, has already been released. The Addictions Recovery Action Plan and the mental health recovery action plan are still in development. They will be developed during the 2018-2019 fiscal year.
Having said that, with respect to the Youth Mental Health and Addictions Action Plan, one of the key items that, I think, residents of the Deh Cho and I think other communities will recognize is the implementation of the youth mental health and addictions counsellors who will be Health and Social Services employees working in the schools, providing supports for our youth.
There is also the Territorial Suicide Prevention and Crisis Response Network, which is something that the Members told us clearly that we needed to put in place to support communities in times of crisis. We are moving forward with that. It was a great recommendation. We have some financial support from the federal government that has allowed us to make this happen. This is about pulling together and developing a culturally-safe, common suicide risk assessment. It is about ensuring there are seamless pathways so that when a community is in crisis, we can get them the support they need, both internally but externally. It is about establishing clear processes to allow these things to happen so that the responses are swift, timely, appropriate, and respectful. Thank you, Mr. Speaker.
Masi. Oral Questions. Member for Yellowknife Centre.
