Thank you, Mr. Speaker. I would like to ask some questions to the Minister of the Department of Health and Social Services today. It is with regard to some of our most vulnerable clientele who have low incomes and are probably not ready for when we send some of our residents down to out-of-jurisdiction treatment facilities. I’d like to ask the Minister, him personally as the Minister of Health and Social Services, is he familiar with the type of environment and atmosphere that our residents and people in care who get treatment, the physical environment, that our residents will be going into when we do send them down for treatment. Thank you, Mr. Speaker.
Thank you, Mr. Moses. The honourable Minister of Health, Mr. Abernethy.
Thank you, Mr. Speaker. I did have the opportunity to travel with some members of committee to one of the facilities we have a contract with, Poundmaker’s in Alberta, just outside of Edmonton. I am familiar with that facility. The other three facilities that were contracted, too, I haven’t had an opportunity to visit or tour. Thank you, Mr. Speaker.
The Minister hasn’t had that opportunity, so I’m assuming some of our physicians and counsellors probably didn’t have that opportunity as well. When we’re preparing our clients who are getting treatment for addictions counselling or some type of other issue, how does this government prepare our residents and our clients who are going down south for treatment for some of the things they might see? When you get into the cities, there are more hard-core addicts, there are people who have lived other lifestyles that don’t connect or relate to the type of life we live up here in the Northwest Territories.
How do we, as a government, prepare these residents when we don’t even know what we’re sending them down to? Thank you, Mr. Speaker.
The professionals we have in our system who are working with our residents are aware, for the most part, of the types of services and programming that are offered in each of the different facilities in the South. They do share that information with the residents before they go off for treatment.
On a few other points, we do work with our residents before they go down to make sure they have follow-up appointments back in the North, so when they do come back we can work with them to customize after-care. So we do have discussions with them before they go down and we do help them understand the types of programming that is offered at the different facilities. Thank you, Mr. Speaker.
I do understand the process and appreciate that the government takes that step. However, some of these individuals might be from a small community and have never been to a city before and had those types of interactions.
Does the government have a division or one point of contact that can, on a regular basis or on a weekly basis, follow up with our clients down south to see how the program is going, how the individual is doing or if they are thinking of leaving, continue to encourage and support them to stay in the program? Obviously it is a lot of money and we do want to make sure they receive the proper care and treatment that they need, because of the lack of resources we have up here in the Northwest Territories.
Does the government have a point of contact to follow up with these individuals? Thank you, Mr. Speaker.
One of the things that we do know is that every individual is different and every individual has different needs and expectations. That’s why one of the reasons we put in a variety of different treatment options for individuals from on-the land programs and hopefully we’ll be moving forward and have some success with mobile treatment options as well as facilities. The bottom line is supports will vary depending on the client’s individual needs and arrangement that have been made with that client prior to going down for treatment. So, individually we can have custom plans to have regular contact or, if it’s not necessary, more of a follow-up contact. Thank you, Mr. Speaker.
Thank you, Mr. Abernethy. Final, short supplementary, Mr. Moses.
Thank you, Mr. Speaker. In some cases, our clientele and residents can’t really take the type of treatment or the facility or even the clientele that they’re housed with.
In the worst-case scenario, if a person were to leave the residential treatment facility, does this government offer some type of support service to get them back home to their communities in a safe and timely manner?
Arrangements for travel are made through the medical travel Stanton office. The Stanton Territorial Hospital and the Department of Health and Social Services pays for travel and accommodation costs for when individuals are going out for treatment referred by the government. Currently, the medical travel office has put in place guidelines that denies travel assistance home when an individual leaves treatment early. If they complete their training they would be covered. This was only recently brought to the department’s attention, and I have directed the department to ensure that this guideline is changed immediately to ensure that return airfare is paid by the Department of Health and Social Services whether or not the client has successfully concluded their treatment. We have recognized the challenge and we have fixed it, and we will make sure that people are aware.
Thank you, Mr. Abernethy. The Member for Frame Lake, Ms. Bisaro.
