Mahsi, Mr. Speaker. As Mental Health Week comes to a close, I would like to bring to the attention of this House the concerns of many families and the victims of mental illness and professionals involved in health care service about the suitability of our own Mental Health Act. The NWT’s act was passed in 1988, Mr. Speaker. Today, it is clinically, administratively and perhaps even from a human rights point of view, significantly behind the times.

In most other jurisdictions, the foundation of mental health legislation has moved from the concept of where a victim of mental illness may be a danger to themselves or to society, to an assessment or a continuum of care that looks at an individual’s competence and capacity. So there is now a much greater emphasis on the individual’s own autonomy and ability to be a functioning member of society, than one of protection and control. This is one of the major faults now in our Mental Health Act.

Mr. Speaker, many clinical aspects of mental illness are viewed differently today than when this legislation was created. For instance, illnesses such as schizophrenia and bipolar disorder are now recognized along with diseases like Alzheimer’s and Parkinson’s.

With the impact, Mr. Speaker, of alcohol on a society and the recognition especially manifested in Fetal Alcohol Syndrome Disorder and the ever- increasing number of mind-altering drugs that are readily available in our society, the question is coming up more and more: Are we dealing with a mental health situation or a psychiatric issue? Is it a behavioural and police issue? Who is best suited and most appropriate to deal with these circumstances when they come up? This is where our Mental Health Act, Mr. Speaker, needs to be revised, addressed, and it needs to be done so on, I believe, an urgent basis.

I am going to be asking the Minister of Health what can be done to bring this very necessary part of our health legislation into modern context. Thank you, Mr. Speaker.

---Applause