Mr. Speaker, I have a return to written question asked by Mr. Hawkins on March 3, 2010, regarding addiction treatment options available in the NWT.
The Nats’ejee K’eh (NJK) Treatment Centre is the territorial residential addictions treatment centre and is located on the K’atlodeeche First Nation Reserve near Hay River. It is a 30-bed facility which offers gender-specific alcohol and drug treatment programs as well as follow-up programs (relapse prevention) for adult men and women. The Department of Health and Social Services (HSS) funds NJK through a third-party contract in which the Deh Cho Health and Social Services Authority (DHSSA) receives core funding annually to support NJK. For the 2008-09 fiscal year NJK received $2.043 million in funding to operate the treatment centre and treated 156 clients.
The Community Counselling Program (CCP) addresses the areas of mental health, addictions and family violence. The CCP specifically provides community-based addictions treatment programming as well as prevention, assessment, referrals for residential treatment, counseling and aftercare. The CCP addresses all addiction areas such as substance abuse, gambling and other compulsive behaviours.
HSS provides $6 million annually to the CCP via the eight health and social services authorities. The CCP serves all NWT residents, either directly through the health and social services authorities or through contributions to non-governmental organizations (NGOs). A breakdown of the funding provided to support NGO community-based addictions treatment programming is as follows:
Through the Yellowknife Health and Social Services Authority, the following addictions programming is provided:
$351,026 is provided to the Tree of Peace in Yellowknife for addictions, counseling, community wellness and the coordination of treatment referrals and aftercare.
$63,093 is provided to the Yellowknives Dene First Nation for addictions counseling and community wellness in Ndilo and Dettah.
$468,000 is provided to the Salvation Army in Yellowknife for their Withdrawal Management Program. There are a total of six beds for this program.
$276,249 is provided for Lutselk’e Mental Health and Addictions for counseling, intake, referral services and cultural coordination in the community.
$78,775 is provided to the Deninu Kue First Nation for addictions counseling and community wellness in Fort Resolution.
Through the Beaufort-Delta Health and Social Services Authority, the Tl’oondih Healing Society receives $75,000 to provide mental health and addictions counseling services in the community.
The DHSSA provides $73,500 to Zhahti Koe Friendship Centre in Fort Providence for Family Life Program for counseling and family violence. In addition to funding NJK as mentioned above, the DHSSA is working in partnership with NJK through an agreement between HSS and Health Canada to fund a youth treatment project.
As part of its regular funding from HSS, the Fort Smith Health and Social Services Authority also provides a 16-week community-based treatment program called Matrix in Fort Smith. The program’s objectives are as follows:
For those who do not want to or cannot go out to a residential treatment centre, the program seeks to educate, in a group setting, the facts of the potential harm and damage caused by living an addictive lifestyle.
To educate facts and reinforce them of healthy alternatives.
For clients to understand their personal triggers/co-dependencies and understand the patterns of unhealthy-dysfunctional behavior.
To enable clients to live within their social/family setting and reduce their addictive behavior, by developing healthy coping skills.
The program is based upon cognitive behavioural skills and enhanced motivational skills.
The program works on harm reduction as an initial step, leading to long-term abstinence.
All addiction behavior has similar roots and causes and these are identified to clients before education on specifics such as alcohol, all illegal substances including drugs, prescription drugs and gambling. A client may then deal with their specific addictive issues within the mandatory “one-to-one” counseling session each week with a therapist.
Attendance rates are around 12 clients at each Matrix. Both adult and teen Matrix programs are run.
HSS has been working closely with the Gwich’in Tribal Council (GTC) and the Inuvialuit Regional Corporation (IRC) to establish and pilot community-based, culturally relevant addictions programming in the Beaufort-Delta region. Through the “Building Our Future” investments, HSS will provide $600,000 over three years at $100,000 each to the GTC and the IRC for community-based addictions programming beginning with the following 2009-2010 projects:
The IRC intends to begin work by supporting parents who are struggling with addictions by offering community workshops.
The IRC is also leading comprehensive community-based consultations to identify needs for mental health and addictions services in the Beaufort-Delta region in partnership with the BHSSA. Following these community consultations, the IRC plans to take the information gained from their research and support an addictions aftercare pilot project in the community of Tuktoyaktuk.
The GTC plans to establish a youth worker position in Inuvik to provide prevention and promotion activities around addictions targeted to youth. The GTC also plans to support the Tl’oondih Healing Society in Fort McPherson to enhance existing community-based mental health and addictions counseling and support services.
This work is unique in that community-based organizations are being provided the opportunity to design their own mental health and additions programming based on their understanding of their needs and their unique understanding of solutions that will work for them. These pilot projects will be offered in addiction to mainstream HSS programming, such as the CCP and residential addictions treatment, to broaden the continuum of services.
Individuals requiring highly specialized addictions treatment and support services that are unavailable in the NWT are referred to the Out-of-Territory Review Committee (OOTRC). The OOTRC approves all referrals for alcohol and drug treatment outside of the NWT.
There are no statistics in regards to success rates. Relapse is a normal part of recovery from addiction as individuals attempt to make changes within their lives. Therefore, it is difficult to measure “success” in terms of “relapse.” Many other indicators of success would be broad in scope and also difficult to capture and/or attribute to a particular program such as lower rates of substance abuse, suicide, family violence, impaired driving, addictions-related health issues and so on.
HSS is committed to offering quality mental health and addiction services to all residents of the NWT so that all people are supported to achieve optimal mental health and personal wellness. Therefore, I have directed HSS to conduct a review of the system of service delivery for mental health and addictions. HSS staff will be meeting with and speaking to community-based staff to gather their input around what can be done to improve the current system and what can be done to make it flexible enough to meet the needs of all NWT communities. The results of this review will be utilized to inform the development of an action plan for mental health and addictions services delivery. Thank you, Mr. Speaker.
