Thank you, Mr. Speaker. Mr. Speaker, I made a Member's statement earlier about addictions treatments and the concern that there aren't treatment options here in the North; that we have to send our residents south to pursue treatment. Can the Minister of Health indicate whether or not we are looking at options to provide treatment here or if we're going to continue the practice of relying solely on southern facilities? Thank you.
Masi. Minister of Health and Social Services.
Thank you, Mr. Speaker. Mr. Speaker, I'd like to correct the honourable Member just a little bit. There are a multiple number of programs available to residents in the Northwest Territories. We have community counsellors throughout the Northwest Territories, we've been running on-the-land programs across the Northwest Territories with our Aboriginal partners. We have piloted and we're looking to do more pilots of a mobile treatment option, which is a treatment-type program that can move from region to region rather than relying strictly on a particular facility. We travelled throughout the Northwest Territories, Mr. Speaker, and heard from residents across the Northwest Territories who said one option is not enough for people in the Northwest Territories; we need lots of different options. Dealing with addictions is very personal for some people and a facility-based treatment is not right for them. So we've worked hard to create options.
Yes, we don't have a facility-based treatment facility in the Northwest Territories, but we have contracts with four very reputable, high-quality institutions or facilities in the South. Earlier or later last year I had an opportunity to travel to Poundmaker's with some Aboriginal leaders from the across the Northwest Territories as well as some MLAs. We got to meet Northern residents who were participating in the Poundmaker's program who gave us very, very positive feedback and input on their stay and their experience in Poundmaker's, indicating that it was some of the best facility-based treatment that they've ever had, and some of them had attended facilities here in the North.
I'm not saying our system is perfect, Mr. Speaker. We've clearly got work to do. We've talked about moving forward with a mental health and addictions action plan which will hopefully address some of these issues, but the people told us clearly they want options and today they have more options than they've ever had. We can do better, we will do better, but we're moving in the right direction, Mr. Speaker.
The Minister has answered a number of my other questions. Of those options -- as he wanted to do. Out of those options, have we established a criteria for assessing these and what is that? Is it based on the number of people who are reporting successful treatment? Is it the number of patients processed? I'm just wondering how we're really understanding these options and how effective they are.
It's a good question and the answer is yes, yes, no, yes, no. Bottom line is there's a multiple range of programs that are out there, on-the-land programming being one. We don't currently have an evaluation mechanism to let us know or help us understand how effective these on-the-land programs are, but we're currently working with a stakeholder group who is helping us design an evaluation program for on the land. So yes, we're going to get there.
When it comes to treatment programs, what I can tell you, facility-based treatment programs, is traditionally our number in the Northwest Territories has been a dozen. We've had about a dozen people attending facility-based treatment from the Northwest Territories, whether that was Nats'ejee K'eh or one of the other facilities that failed here in the North.
What I can say is for the first time ever with an expedited referral process to these treatment centres with the high-quality program the word is starting to get back to individuals who are struggling with addictions, and we're actually for the first time seeing our numbers go up. I had a briefing last week and we were able to confirm that over the last little while it's been on average of 18 people from the Northwest Territories enrolling in treatment facilities, so we have seen some increase.
Then when it comes to community counselling, we can provide numbers. One of the difficult things with addictions is somebody might come back from a facility or from an online programming or from a community counsellor and they might be good for two years and then they relapse; is that success or is that not success? It's a hard thing to assess. We're trying to find a way to assess that so that we can continue to provide high-quality programs and enhance programs to our residents.
Thank you to the Minister for that answer. Certainly it is difficult to create a perfect program, and that's part of the concern with the Nats'ejee K'eh facility. One of the issues that was raised about that is there was a bit of credentialism creep that imposed very high standards of training and credentials that were required to provide treatment at that facility, and potentially limited our options to provide that treatment. Can the Minister speak to that? Would it be possible to design something that is based not in Western understanding of addictions but more traditional, Indigenousdriven process that could be facilitybased and potentially could be a service not just for our territory but for the entire north and Indigenous peoples across Canada?
Just before I go to that question, I would just like to point out that, in the Northwest Territories, following up on the honourable Member for Yellowknife North, we are looking to put in a sobering centre here in Yellowknife, which I know is not a treatment centre, but it is certainly a step in the right direction to providing a local facilitybased type support to those individuals that are struggling.
The Member is right. We have facilitybased treatment programs that are available that can tend to be very clinical. Poundmaker's is really fantastic in the fact that it provides a lot of culturalbased supports. Nats'ejee K'eh, I think, well before my time, so I obviously reserve the right to not be a hundred per cent accurate on this, but, when it started, it was more of a cultural healing, more focused on traditional medicine, traditional healing, and it evolved into more of a clinicalbased model.
The clinicalbased model does not work particularly well in the Northwest Territories due to economies of scale. They can be effective when they have a psychologist or a psychiatrist. A small institution with a low demand can't retain that type of professional.
We have been in conversation with the K’atlodeeche, the leadership in K’atlodeeche there, and we are looking at having them take over that facility to provide wellness programming and wellnesstype focused healing to help people deal with some of the root causes of addictions, but it wouldn't be a traditional treatment facility. We think this is a huge opportunity for the community. We think this is a great opportunity for our Aboriginal residents who might be struggling with addictions or impacts of colonization or residential schools, but it wouldn't be considered facilitybased treatment, so there is a distinction between the two.
Masi. Oral questions. Member for Kam Lake.
Thank you, Mr. Speaker. I think the Minister raised a key component of this work, which is traumainformed care and traumainformed therapy. When we are evaluating some of these alcoholism and addictions issues, they are symptomatic to the abuses of colonization and the residential school in particular. Is the department or is the Minister's staff working on a traumainformed care model to address addictions in the Northwest Territories, whether or not that is working with Indigenous partners or the southern facilitybased care we have? Is traumainformed care becoming the lens that we are focusing this effort to bring wellness and safety to our people? Thank you.
Thank you, Mr. Speaker. Essentially, yes. I don't think that is the exact terminology that we are using, but we are looking at a holistic approach, recognizing the impacts and the reasons an individual might be struggling with addictions or mental health issues and building upon those. So, essentially yes, but we have been using different terminology.
Masi. Oral questions. Member for Mackenzie Delta.
