Thank you, Mr. Speaker. Today I’m going to speak about an act that was assented to in the Legislative Assembly in June of 1985 and that’s the Mental Health Act. In the last 28 years, nothing of significance has been done to this Mental Health Act. There haven’t been any major amendments to this act to provide our workers and our stakeholders and those that provide the mental health services in the Northwest Territories to do a better job or else get the services to people that need it. Those 28 years is a long time.
The reason I’m bringing this up today is because on the Department of Health and Social Services website are four discussion papers that are looking at updating this Mental Health Act, which I have taken a strong look into the Mental Health Act and there were a lot of holes in it. It wasn’t very strong, and in some cases, it was very confusing to myself and health professionals when we looked at it.
Today I am encouraging all key stakeholders, concerned residents of the Northwest Territories who have family members who might have mental disorders or have people in their communities that they want to take care of, to review these discussion papers that are on the Department of Health and Social Services website, and add their feedback, add any comments that they might have, and provide input into making this Mental Health Act stronger to provide the right services and programs for the people of the Northwest Territories.
When I was looking at some of these other reports, in 2004 there was a Mental Health and Addictions Services Report that clarified that mental illness is a major cost-driver in the Northwest Territories, and that, in the Northwest Territories at that time, suicide rates were twice the national average. I’m pretty sure nothing has changed in that time. In fact, at the beginning of this 17th Legislative Assembly, when we were going through our orientation and getting our updates from the Department of Health and Social Services, it was mentioned that mental health and addictions is the biggest cost-driver for the Northwest Territories today.
I encourage all residents of the Northwest Territories and key stakeholders in the Northwest Territories who provide mental health and addictions services to review these discussion papers, give us your feedback so we can have a very strong Mental Health Act at the end of this government, moving forward. Thank you, Mr. Speaker.
Thank you, Mr. Moses. Member for Weledeh, Mr. Bromley.
