Thank you, Mr. Speaker. My question today is dealing with my Member’s statement that I gave yesterday in dealing with mental health and addictions. We have had a lot of discussion here today on infrastructure and some new capital projects that are coming to the Northwest Territories. Alongside with that, unfortunately, we do get a lot of health and social issues that do come with these big capital projects.
My question is for the Minister of Health and Social Services and deals with mental health programs and infrastructure. What is the plan to fix the lack of services that we have in some of our communities, especially in our regions, and the lack of human resources to address these mental health concerns? Thank you, Mr. Speaker.
Thank you, Mr. Moses. The honourable Minister of Health and Social Services, Mr. Beaulieu.
Thank you, Mr. Speaker. The intention of the department is to continue with the Community Counselling Program, trying to address some of the wellness services in the community, increase the wellness services in the community, and also reviewing the Mental Health Act. The department is waiting for the release of the national mental health report from the Canadian Mental Health Commission. I will be attending the National Mental Health Summit in Winnipeg in February as a part of the release of that commission report. Thank you.
Mr. Speaker, with all due respect, I don’t think we need a Mental Health Act or see a report to know what is happening in the communities and the neglect that we are having on people who really need the services for these mental health issues. Once again, I would like to ask: Is the Department of Health and Social Services, not only them but there are other departments that are involved in this, how we can work together to address the issue right now?
It is Christmastime. It is a tough time for anybody that is not getting the services they need. I think it is something that needs to be addressed now rather than later, when we have to review some documents to tell us what we already know. I would like to ask the Minister again, is there a plan in place that can identify these situations or offset the lack of services in our communities right now. Thank you, Mr. Speaker.
Yes, the intention of the Department of Health and Social Services is to move to prevention. Right now the Department of Health has a small budget in promotion and prevention.
The intention and the direction that I have given the department has been to increase the amount of money we are spending on prevention, and specific to some of the communities where there is a high incidence of addictions and mental health. The plan is to go into the schools to start at the youngest age possible, to work with the kids and so on, and also working with the health professionals at the community level, and move more money into prevention and try to prevent working upstream so that we prevent addictions from affecting the health of the people and mental health people as well. Thank you.
I’m glad to hear that the department is taking a proactive approach in education for prevention and awareness. However, right now, as I mentioned earlier in my two questions, we do have a waiting list, especially in Inuvik. The waiting list for anyone to get counselling is about three months and it is something that needs to be done now to address those issues. We will be coming to a new fiscal year in 2012-13. I was wondering if there was anything on the horizon in the fiscal operations O and M budget within the Department of Health and Social Services to offset those issues of our workers right now that are being over-exhausted dealing with counselling. Thank you, Mr. Speaker.
The intention is to fill the vacancies of the mental health and addiction workers that are currently in place. Right now there are vacancies which are causing the backlog, and the intention is to move some of those people, if necessary, to out-of-territory options in order to get the counseling necessary for the individuals. But a key is to try to fill the vacancies, which we are having some difficulty doing at this time. Thank you.
That’s all great for the communities that do have vacancies, but like I said, for communities that don’t have vacancies and they are already fully staffed, they are getting overload from some of the communities, especially Inuvik. They get referrals into the region and they’re getting overworked. Long days and, as a result, like I said, we are getting people that are on the backlog for three months to receive the services.
What’s the plan for the communities that do have full staff but are overworked? That needs to be addressed because we’re neglecting the people that are needing those services. Thank you.
The intention is to continue to work with the health and social services authorities. If the Beaufort-Delta has a backlog, then our intention would be to support them from outside the Beaufort-Delta to try to get the backlog dealt with. Again, like I said, we would try to do some out-of-territory counseling, if necessary, and hopefully deal with the backlog. Thank you.
Thank you, Mr. Beaulieu. Final, short supplementary, Mr. Moses.
Thank you, Mr. Speaker. Just one last further question here. The Department of Health and Social Services, there are programs out there with other departments that make it so people have to go through the process, go through the counseling to get assistance; specifically, Housing, ECE and some Justice for rehabilitation. However, some of those people that are going through it don’t necessarily take it serious or are making the backlog for the people that really do need it. Is the Minister of Health and Social Services willing to come up with a plan to offset those issues so that the people in the Northwest Territories who really need these programs can get access to them, working with the departments of Housing, ECE and Justice? Is he willing to sit down with them to come up with a strategic plan, an action plan, should I say? Thank you, Mr. Speaker.
Yes, this department would be prepared to deal with Housing, Education and the Income Support Program, housing programs, public housing programs, so that we can prioritize the counseling needs at the community levels. Thank you.
Thank you, Mr. Beaulieu. The Member for Yellowknife Centre, Mr. Hawkins.
