Thank you, Mr. Speaker. In my Member’s statement today I talked about concerns of addiction. Certainly, as we look at the beginning of this new Assembly, there are many people here that would like to see the addictions problems addressed. Although I know the Minister is new to the job, I would like to highlight a comment made in Wednesday’s Hansard on December 7th on page 5, in which the Premier says we need to find creative ways to address addictions, mental health, and promote wellness.
That now brings me to the question to the Minister of Health and Social Services. Is the new leader of that department, who will be setting the course for Health and Social Services, what’s his intention on addressing the addictions issue in the context of the much needed problems to address detox, whether you’re treating alcohol or other drugs such as crack or meth? Thank you.
Thank you, Mr. Hawkins. The honourable Minister of Health, Mr. Beaulieu.
Thank you, Mr. Speaker. This is where I had indicated earlier of working upstream. We’re trying to work in the intervention, to try to ensure that addictions that people are facing, and mental health issues that people are facing, that they do not face those issues by us trying to prevent that from happening. Our intention, again, is to look at increasing our budgets in the area of prevention, hopefully working with children and so on at a young age and also dealing with youth. We think that that type of approach of making the youth and the children aware of the issues and so on, and then as they get older they would be able to avoid the addictions that are apparent now at the community levels and also right across the North. Thank you.
Thank you. I appreciate the answer from the Minister on prevention and I wholeheartedly agree from the approach of upstream. It’s better than being downstream without the paddles. On this particular problem, though, it almost sounds like they’ve abandoned the people with this particular issue. It’s great to provide prevention for those to keep them away from drugs such as crack or meth, and hopefully it will keep them away from alcohol abuse, but the territory really needs a detox centre to focus in on how to address these issues, and in the past they’ve used Stanton, which is not an appropriate facility. So, my question is more focused on what is the Minister willing to do on today’s problem for people suffering from addictions problems? Thank you.
The department is spending about $6 million on mental health and addictions. In the city of Yellowknife the department is supporting programs and the Tree of Peace for addictions programs at the Sally Ann, at the John Howard Society. As far as straight detox goes, at this time we have a ward at the hospital, which is not specific to addictions, but does include addictions. Then there’s also the Nats’ejee K’eh Centre in Hay River that’s there for the treatment of people with addictions. Right now that unit is running at about 50 percent capacity each time they have an intake. Thank you.
I appreciate the facilities or the locations the Minister has highlighted, but in fact those are areas that help people to carry the burden of their addictions, but yet it’s not a detox or a treatment centre by typical design.
Although the Minister doesn’t need to be educated on this particular issue, we know we had an addictions centre downtown that was used for many years, then was closing and then given away. Then they built one on the Detah road and that was closed and now is being used as a training centre. I mean, how many more addictions centres do we have to open and close and still not address the problems?
So, back to the question. We need a detox centre here in the Northwest Territories. Where that is located doesn’t really matter to me. Treating the people of the North is the priority, not the location of this particular facility. How will the Minister tackle this particular issue? Thank you.
Right now the department has some programs in place to address some of the problems. We are enhancing the Aftercare Program for addictions, and the closure of the addictions and detox centre, the closure of some of the treatment centres was something that happened in the past due to capacity, not the capacity of the department but the capacity of the treatment centres. All of the treatment centres at that time were operating with very few clients. The decision was made to roll it up into one centre and try to keep that centre full and operating as efficiently as possible.
At this time, even though we only have one treatment centre in the North, again that treatment centre only operates under 50 percent capacity for intake of clients. Thank you.
Thank you, Mr. Beaulieu. Final, short supplementary, Mr. Hawkins.
Thank you, Mr. Speaker. I take exception with the last comment provided by the Minister. We only have one treatment centre, but the problem where I take exception with that is it’s not focused on detox or multi-problems when it comes to alcohol or drugs such as crack and meth. My fear, and the fear of many people, is has this government given up on people with addictions. Will this government finally take a clear stance, draw up a plan and build or even lease a detox centre to treat the people of the Northwest Territories who suffer from addictions? Thank you.
Some of the organizations that I spoke of do deal with the fact that individuals, prior to attending treatment, have to essentially be alcohol or drug free for several weeks prior to attending. There’s also a program in the Sally Ann where there’s a withdrawal management system. There’s a unit there that individuals go, to go through withdrawal. With those programs, the intention is to use individuals that are serious about coming to treatment to deal with their issues, they go there, they remain essentially drug free or alcohol free for a certain period of time before they go for treatment. As far as pure detoxification, yes, there is a centre or a unit in the hospital that can help with that, if individuals need to go for detoxification, that can help. They can also go to the withdrawal management systems at the Sally Ann.
Thank you, Mr. Beaulieu. The honourable Member for Sahtu, Mr. Yakeleya.
