Thank you, Mr. Speaker. In my Member’s statement today I talked about what I see as a lack of support in the smaller communities for people suffering from mental illness. This is a problem which has come into very clear focus in Hay River in the last month. I am very interested in this Mental Health First Aid program which is rolling out in a couple of small communities and I would like to ask the Minister of Health and Social Services what the plan is for the roll-out of this. If he could just describe it for us briefly and give people some hope that maybe there is something coming here that will help smaller communities deal with issues of mental illness.
Thank you, Mrs. Groenewegen. The honourable Minister of Health and Social Services, Mr. Beaulieu.
Thank you, Mr. Speaker. The Mental Health First Aid course is something that our department is offering to professionals from the regions and communities, that they go back to their communities to put on workshops on mental health that would be open to the citizens, teachers, anybody that wishes to learn more about mental health issues at the community or regional levels.
I mentioned that two communities have so far had the opportunity to partake in this: Tuktoyaktuk and Fort McPherson. What’s the agenda, what’s the schedule look like for taking this important training, workshop information to other communities?
This week we are running the course again, the Mental Health First Aid course. It’s going to be offered to all the regions, and some of the major communities that I notice on the list – I don’t have the list here with me - but I believe one is Hay River. Somebody from Hay River is here. For sure someone from Smith, Yellowknife, Deh Cho, Sahtu, and the Tlicho communities are here taking that course that they will take back to their regions.
I see this as only being helpful. When there is a crisis of mental health issues in a community, what are we doing about protocol so that everybody knows what the plan is? You don’t hear very often of people being medevaced because there’s a mental health crisis. You do certainly when there’s a physical illness, you hear that but, when there’s a mental illness and there’s a crisis, you don’t hear of what the protocols are for dealing with that.
We live in a severe climate and environment, and when you’re in the smaller communities, if we do not have those kinds of protocols and infrastructure in place, it can be a dire consequence for the person that’s ill and those trying to help them. Is there any work going on in the department to come up with a protocol so that everybody knows who is in the social services or health care profession and the policy or whatever services are in those communities what the plan is?
Laid out in the Mental Health and Addictions Action Plan was the attempt to try to remove the stigma of mental health so that individuals are able to work freely with people who are afflicted with mental health issues. It’s a very, very difficult area.
As the Member indicated, you can’t just, you know, if somebody gets hurt, a physical injury, people know what to do. There’s a certain process. You get the person into the hospital. Mental health cases are different.
We are trying to train people. We are trying to set up a system where individuals are able to identify mental health. We’re trying to set up a system where individuals are able to deal with mental health issues. It’s a very difficult situation that we are starting to get more heavily involved at this point and by the time we get rolling into the Mental Health and Addictions Action Plan, we should be able to develop some protocols on how to deal with mental health cases as well.
Because of the remoteness of some of our communities, I would like to ask the Minister if he is aware if there is still any kind of a crisis helpline that is available for people that they can call into when they are experiencing difficulties and what role does our government play in sustaining such a service.
I don’t have that information with me. I don’t remember if the crisis line is still open or not. I can verify that information for the Member and advise the House whether or not that crisis line is still open.
Thank you, Mr. Beaulieu. Final supplementary, Mrs. Groenewegen. The honourable Member for Range Lake, Mr. Dolynny.
