Thank you, Mr. Speaker. In communities there are very few resources in terms of trying to develop programs and at least sustain and maintain them so that we help each other. The questions I have are for the Minister. It is a known reality that detox centres are very far and few between. At the community level, when people take that very ultimate step, the big step for them is a cry for help, asking for help.
Can the Health Minister describe what typically happens when someone goes to the nursing station and says they want to quit drinking? Mahsi.
Thank you, Mr. Nadli. The Minister of Health and Social Services, Mr. Beaulieu.
Thank you, Mr. Speaker. Although within the health system we don’t actually have designated beds for people to detoxify, we do have beds so that an individual that is saying that he is ready now to quit and needs to go through detox, then the health centre should be getting in touch with the authority to advise if there are any beds available for that specific individual.
Each case is different. If this person does go into the health centre needing detoxification and is ready to go, then I think it is incumbent upon the health centre to go through their authority and try to find them a bed in one of the hospitals to be able to allow him to detox. Thank you.
Mr. Speaker, we have treatment centres, of course, in the NWT. We have very limited access to detox centres, especially at ground level. How do we track the success rate of our alcohol and drug treatment programs? Thank you.
Mr. Speaker, one of the things that we found as a bit of a gap in the one treatment centre we have, was determining whether or not we were being successful. We recognize that there are various measurements that can be used to determine the success of treatment. People will be contacted after one year and see if they still remain clean and sober. Then if they start drinking after 13 months, is that considered to be a success story or do we contact them after five years? And if they drink after six years, would that be considered a success story? It’s difficult to determine success unless we’re saying that the individual has stopped drinking or stopped using drugs and has stopped drinking and using drugs for the rest of their lives, essentially, if they felt that there was enough of an issue that they had to go through treatment. It is a very difficult thing to really determine because we don’t know at which point we’re going to make the measurement. Thank you.
Mr. Speaker, I think my colleagues would agree with me that the measurement that we use on this side of this House is to have more success stories of people being able to arrive at a point where they enjoy sobriety. It is 85 percent of crimes committed that are related to alcohol or drugs. What is Health’s role in ensuring that treatment is available for inmates in the correctional facilities? Mahsi.
Mr. Speaker, treatment is available to individuals that are incarcerated, but the success, again, is difficult to determine. Sometimes individuals will go to treatment, go through their incarceration without any issues, any indications, and once they get out, then at what point do we measure them?
It’s difficult to determine success. You see it. There are successes. There is no question about it. There are a lot of people out there who have successfully quit drinking or have successfully quit using drugs. Again, how they affiliate with the treatment centre that is sitting on the Hay River Reserve is something that we still need to get a closer look at. We are looking at that in the idea of when we are trying to revamp programs in Nats’ejee K’eh. Thank you.
Thank you, Mr. Beaulieu. Final, short supplementary, Mr. Nadli.
Thank you, Mr. Speaker. At the outset of the 17th Assembly, something that I remember very clearly is that there was a very strong, common theme that we wanted to undertake programs and services that dealt upon preventative steps to ensure that people were leading healthy lifestyles. At the same time, we wanted to ensure that the health care system was in the position to provide information to people so that, in the long run, they would lead healthier lives. What is Health doing to make sure that young people in school understand the impacts of the dangers of alcohol abuse? Mahsi.
Mr. Speaker, that work is, again, a difficult type of work. It is not common to talk about alcohol and other addictions such as cigarette smoke and so on in the lower grades. What we need to do is we have to determine at what point that we need to go into the schools, at what age category do we need to target when we start talking about Fetal Alcohol Spectrum Disorder and alcoholism, smoking and so on. Sometimes there are some issues with approaching children that are too young in the school with these types of programs. We have to determine at what point we go into the schools.
As far as school programs that go directly into addictions, we know that there are cigarette programs. Don’t be a Butthead is an example. As far as alcohol and other drugs in the school, I don’t have that information, but I don’t think there are other programs pertaining to alcohol and drugs in the schools. Thank you.
Thank you, Mr. Beaulieu. The honourable Member for Yellowknife Centre, Mr. Hawkins.
