Thank you, Mr. Speaker. My questions are for the Minister of Health and Social Services. Could the Minister please explain or describe the COVID protocols and procedures that have been implemented to protect small communities from counsellors who may be travelling in to the Northwest Territories from the South? Are they being vaccinated before they enter the communities and, if not, will she make them a COVID priority group? Thank you.
Thank you, Member for Great Slave. Minister of Health and Social Services.
Thank you, Mr. Speaker. We are vaccinating NWT residents as a priority group. We are not vaccinating non-residents because of the limited supply of vaccine available to us at this point. What we've had in place all along through the pandemic is that people who are going to work in isolated communities, really regardless of what job they are going to do, have to isolate for 14 days in one of the regional hubs and then move on, if they are welcome, in the small community, and there take the precautions that we all do, wash their hands, wear their mask, and so on and so forth.
I feel that the needs of mental health clients are being met in a number of ways by the GNWT, by resident counsellors, through helplines, through apps, and so on and so forth, that provide people with options about how to access mental healthcare. I want to just finish this answer by giving out the phone number for the NWT Helpline. It's available 24/7. Anyone can call it about anything. It is confidential; people remain anonymous. Please put this on your Facebook: 1-800-661-0844. Thank you.
I respectfully disagree with the Minister on her characterization of the supports the GNWT is providing for mental health. I am glad to hear the helpline is 24/7. There is a website somewhere that I came across the other day that said that it only operated from 7:00 to 11:00, so I'm really glad to hear that. My next question has to do with small communities. Are safe places being developed in small communities where victims can feel safe? Have they been vetted with a COVID lens? What is the department doing to protect vulnerable people in small communities where isolation may be causing more depression and is a factor?
I'm just going to go over some of the things that we have available to people in the communities. We now have child and youth care counsellors in all schools north of Yellowknife, so that includes many of the most isolated places in the NWT. We have the NWT Helpline, which I mentioned. We have land-based healing, which has had good uptake from Indigenous governments. We have counsellors in 19 communities who are resident, and in the other communities, they are flown in or driven in to provide care on a schedule of so many days per so many weeks. We also have the Strongest Families Institute, which is an assist for families with children aged three to 17, to assist them with questions that they may have there. We also have the Kids Helpline, which is specifically for youth to receive services. There is a great deal that is available to all residents of the NWT. If they find that anonymity is hard to achieve in their house, they are welcome to make an appointment at the healthcare centre and take the call there.
Thanks for, again, listing all the resources you did yesterday. However, that didn't answer my question as to: Are there safe places in the Northwest Territories for victims to go to that are not in their abuser's home? However, I will follow up with the Minister on that one personally. My next question is: Are people in remote communities being asked to initiate the counselling documentation process from their communities when there is a known lack of resources to do so? How is the department facilitating the use of their services in small communities where the access to technology may be limited or language barriers exist?
Just first to the Member's other question. Of course, we do have family violence shelters, five of them in the NWT, and a 24/7 crisis line for people experiencing family violence. As you heard when the Minister of housing talked to the Member from Nunakput, freestanding extra places to go and take calls are in vanishingly short supply in small communities. If people are wanting to send documentation to counsellors or other entities, they can go to the government services offices that exist in most communities and they can send faxes or have scans made there in order to provide the necessary information for counselling services.
Thank you, Minister. Final supplementary. Member for Great Slave.
Thank you, Mr. Speaker. I'm not sure that the Minister actually listened to my statement today, so more of a comment that people, as stated, do not want to go to people in their communities and talk to them about their mental health supports so, if we are not facilitating the Health Canada counsellors to come through and help them, which is more anonymous, then I don't really understand how we can stop these people from falling through the cracks. Again, I'll just make more of a comment. I completely disagree with the Minister's characterization of her supports. Thank you.
Thank you, Member for Great Slave. I'll give the Minister an opportunity to respond, if she'd like.
The Department of Health and Social Services takes mental health issues extremely seriously. We spend $17.5 million a year on mental health supports. We are looking at a range of offerings, which should not be readily dismissed. They are tailored to different kinds of issues and different kinds of communication styles. We have very dedicated counsellors working in 19 communities. We have barrier-free access. You can go in on a drop-in basis. You can go the same day for counselling. We are pretty confident that people are not falling through the cracks because Health Canada is not on the scene. We are the healthcare provider in the NWT, and we take that job seriously. Thank you.
Thank you, Minister. Oral questions. Member for Kam Lake.
