Thank you, Mr. Speaker. My questions are for the Minister of Education, Culture and Employment. Will the Minister of Education tell me or provide me with what programs and supports are currently being provided to junior and senior high students in our territory related to mental health and suicide, peer counselling, or anything like that? Thank you, Mr. Speaker.
Thank you, Member for Inuvik Twin Lakes. Minister of Education, Culture and Employment.
Thank you, Mr. Speaker. There is curriculum in the school that deals with this, as the Member is well aware, and I believe she referenced some of it earlier. If not, I know that she's spoken about it before. I can get a list of those programs or those courses for the Member.
This has been an issue for a while now. One of the issues I find with the school curriculum is there are a lot of things that we should be teaching, and there are only so many hours in the day. When you talk to schools, they want to teach what they need to in order to take students to the next level academically, but also teach the type of life skills that students need. It's a struggle to find that balance of what we can fit in and where we can fit it, because there are only so many hours in the day. We do work on that. As for the particular courses and the particular programs, I can get that information for the Member. Thank you.
Will the Minister commit to providing ASIST, the Applied Suicide Intervention Skills Training that the health department offers, or some type of peer counselling geared for students who have been taking on this role in person and through social media by default by not having anyone consistent that they can talk to but each other?
I will definitely look into that. We had a conversation about this yesterday. It is a very real issue that students are facing. They become counsellors, peer counsellors, who are dealing with heavy, heavy issues. That weighs on someone. People internalize that, and that becomes an issue for them. I am committed to looking into this.
I believe that the rates of suicidal ideation, which are thoughts of suicide, in our youth are higher than we want to believe. We as parents are struggling alone, thinking that we are the only ones dealing with this issue, but more and more I am talking to more parents and more educators; we are having a crisis that is not being brought to the surface. I want to ask if there is a way that the Minister of education can work with the health department to really capture how many of our young people are struggling with suicidal ideation.
Absolutely. I can work with my colleague, and we can look deeper into that. It is an issue. It is a recognized issue. That is why, in partnership with Health and Social Services, we are rolling out child and youth counsellors across the territory, because we recognize that this isn't something we can ignore. Schools are places where you go to learn, but you can't learn if you are dealing with so many other very, very serious concerns that are consuming all your time and are very emotional. I will do that work with my colleague.
Thank you, Minister. Final supplementary, Member for Inuvik Twin Lakes.
Thank you, Mr. Speaker. The last question: I just want to see if there is information for parents if they have to support their kids with suicide that can be distributed because I know a lot of the teachers do mail-outs and things, just to keep alert on key things to identify, as some students are struggling and their parents aren't aware. Thank you, Mr. Speaker.
One of the things about this job is there is a lot. There is a lot in ECE. This is something I have an interest in, a personal interest, but I haven't gotten to the level of detail, yet, that I would like to. I appreciate the Member bringing this up. It is going to spur me and my department to look further into this. As for those resources, I will look into that.
I want to say, too, that, in the last Assembly, whenever we had a youth parliament or whenever I engaged with the youth, this was one of the biggest issues they spoke about, the mental health crisis among our youth. We are aware, people are aware of it. This is a great opportunity for me to help, do what I can to address some of those concerns I hear from the youth. We always want to hear from the youth, so we say. Then what do we do about it? This is my chance to do it, so I am committed to working with Health and working with all the Members to help tackle this issue. Thank you, Mr. Speaker.
Thank you, Minister. Oral questions. Member for Hay River South.
