Thank you, Madam Speaker. I was going to follow up to my Member’s statement in listening to the people of Inuvik, and listening to some of our educators and parents and our constituents. My question today is for the Minister of Health and Social Services.
In his action plan, we talk a lot about mental health and addictions in the communities and in the territory, but one place that we don’t really bring it up or talk about it is in the schools. I would like to ask the Minister of Health and Social Services what is his department doing to address some of these mental health disorders such as behavioural issues, violence issues, some of these issues that are possibly happening in the schools. What is he doing? How is he working with the Department of Education, Culture and Employment to address some of these mental health concerns that are happening in our schools today? Thank you, Madam Speaker.
Thank you, Mr. Moses. The Minister of Health and Social Services, Mr. Beaulieu.
Thank you, Madam Speaker. I guess the first thing under the total umbrella of a chronic disease strategy is mental health. As we develop that strategy, we are looking at all aspects of mental health. As we have travelled to the communities, it was apparent that there needs to be some counselling at the schools and so on, targeted to mental health. Also, when the addictions forum is travelling they have indicated that they would like to look at some wellness in the communities, and they are going into the schools to talk to the students there and target also mental health. Thank you.
Madam Speaker, I would like to ask the Minister… I know he has a forum out there asking questions, but he’s also got an action plan developed. I saw it in this House maybe two weeks ago. Why are we sending people out there when we have an action plan here already to be put into place?
What specifically is in his Mental Health and Addictions Action Plan, what kind of services and programs does he have identified for youth in the schools? It’s not youth outside of the schools. I want to know what is happening for them in the schools so they are not disrupting other students. How do you get these students that are in the schools the proper care and treatment that they need so they can succeed? Thank you, Madam Speaker.
Madam Speaker, I think the department recognizes that, along with the authorities, this is sort of like an issue that is a looming issue right across the territory with youth. Whether or not we are going into the schools to do the counselling, it’s not as simple as the Department of Health and Social Services indicating we’re going to go into the schools to start counselling. We have to work sort of interdepartmental with ourselves and the Department of Education. They have to, in turn, work with the school boards in order to appoint counsellors for the schools. We are preparing for that.
We have the Stanton authority working with the Dalhousie University on mental health and psychiatry. These are the things we’re doing, but it will still take some work and some legal process to get the counsellors into the school. Thank you.
Madam Speaker, he didn’t really make reference to some of the things that are listed in his Mental Health and Addictions Action Plan. But it’s not all about counselling. We can talk to people until their ears fall off and still nothing’s going to go through. It’s about intervention.
What is this Minister doing or even working with the Department of Education to intervene to address some of these needs that these children are requesting and are asking for, or some of our teachers are asking for this intervention to address some of these needs in the schools with mental health and addictions?
Within the action plan, as the Member referred to, we are promoting understanding, awareness and acceptance of mental health. Those types of things are in the very initial steps in order for us to potentially intervene, if necessary, in the schools. But again, prior to intervention there’s a lot of other work that has to occur. Like the Member indicated, there are things in the action plan, yes, I agree, they’re there, we put them there for a reason and these are the very initial steps to understand it. This is an issue that is becoming quite a huge issue right across most communities, and we recognize that and we are trying to address that as soon as we can. Thank you.
Thank you, Minister Beaulieu. Final supplementary, Mr. Moses.
Thank you, Madam Speaker. When the department finally addresses some of these concerns, what is the department doing to ensure that students who need these extra resources and that need this help and these services are not provided in the Northwest Territories for the students that need it? In fact, these services aren’t even provided for for adults that need it, and students are very critical. They’re learning and they’re developing, and yet we’re still waiting to find out what they need. But when he does find out, how is he going to assure that they get the services when we don’t even have them in the Northwest Territories? What’s his action plan to get these services and resources for the students that need it in our communities so that they can grow, develop, learn, become educated and become part of society? What is he doing and where is he looking to send these students that need the help that they do need? Thank you.
Thank you. Some of the actions would be some of the mental health first aid, some of the actions where we’re trying to improve efficiency of services is as simple as having discussions. Just to be able to allow the students to talk about mental health, that is within our action plan. This is a fairly complex issue coupled with fairly complex processes that involve a couple of departments for us, as a department, working through our authorities to enter into the schools with mental health counsellors, we have to first do some evaluations of students. Students, in order to be evaluated, it has to be agreed by the parent that this student has a mental health issue and needs to be evaluated. So there are things that we need to do. We need to put things in place and we’re forging ahead to do that. Thank you.
Thank you, Minister Beaulieu. Member for Inuvik Boot Lake, Mr. Moses.
