Marsi cho, Mr. Speaker. Mr. Speaker, in my Member’s statement, I talked about the alcohol impacts of small communities. I’d like to ask the Minister of Health and Social Services what is the department doing to address mental health and addiction issues in small communities. Thank you, Mr. Speaker.
Masi. Minister of Health and Social Services.
Thank you, Mr. Speaker. Mr. Speaker, it’s a fairly broad question but I’ll do my best to stick to youth and younger people as the Member’s statement focused in what I thought was mostly about youth. We are coming forward. We have just tabled more recently the Youth and Mental Health and Addictions Action Plan which articulates and outlines a number of things that we need to do as a government and as an Assembly to support our youth who are struggling with either mental health issues or addictions issues.
One of the key things that we’re looking to do is providing some quality counselling supports to our youth. Traditionally, a lot of this has been done in the school system. We’re looking at a new way of doing this with community counsellors that are working in schools but also are year-round employees rather than seasonal or school-based employees. It’s pretty exciting work. I think by working together, we could really make a difference in people’s lives.
In the Member’s statement, he talked about the healthy family programs. I think it’s really important to recognize that a child’s development starts long before birth and that we need to continue to do things to help families be healthy, help families be strong in raising their children. We have healthy family programs in 17 communities in the Northwest Territories providing high-quality programming to help expectant parents be ready for their child’s birth to make sure that they’re in a strong position that they’re living healthy lives and that they’re in a position to provide supports to their children.
There are a large number of things we are doing between the action plan, the child and family committees, as well as treatment option counselling and everything else that’s available to residents. I would strongly encourage the member to encourage youth in his community, youth around the Northwest Territories to take advantage of the help lines, the Facebook pages we have to provide support, and to talk about these issues that people are facing. We need to not be silent about the challenges people are facing, whether it’s mental health or addictions. We need to be working to get the message out there. I applaud the Member for his statement. Thank you, Mr. Speaker.
A very good answer, Mr. Speaker. Where can the people, I guess in general and I don’t expect the Minister to know specifically which place to go to in the small communities, but in general where can the individuals that are struggling with alcohol or struggling with mental health turn to when they’re trying to address their issues in the small communities?
Mr. Speaker, there are a number of places. They can go to community counsellors. The Member will point out that there isn’t a community counsellor in every community in the Northwest Territories, but we have them in most communities in the Northwest Territories. Where they don’t exist, they can be reached by telephone. Those numbers are usually available at the community level in the community health stations or other places, so please encourage your youth to look at those.
As we move forward with the new community counsellor program, I think there’s a real opportunity to enhance what’s available to our young people whether they’re in school or not in school. We can’t forget technology, Mr. Speaker. Mr. Speaker, our youth are very adept, more so than some of us, at utilizing technology which is why we’ve opened up and done some work around having some Facebook pages available where there can be some group sessions, individual sessions. They can work with client leads to help them identify what programs might be available with them, both at a local, regional, and territorial level. Between that and the help lines, there are some things that young people can engage in directly right from their homes right away.
Mr. Speaker, changing gears just a bit. I’d like to ask the Minister if the department has been able to determine the cost of alcohol to the health system in the NWT.
Thank you, Mr. Speaker. Mr. Speaker, over the years there have been some suggestions on what the cost of alcohol is on the system. I think the Member has actually shared some numbers that he had with me. I can’t remember what those numbers are at this time, but I will go back and see what we can provide as far as what those numbers are. I might have to look at Hansard because I think the Member might have actually used those numbers at a previous date and once upon a time. Thank you, Mr. Speaker.
Masi. Oral questions. Member for Tu Nedhe-Wiilideh.
Thank you, Mr. Speaker. Mr. Speaker, early this month, the federal government committed to providing $204 million to support First Nations and Inuit communities to improve mental health services. I’d like to ask the Minister if his department is up to speed on that and if they are going to be accessing any of that money over and above what’s coming directly to the GNWT from the federal government. It seems to be a special type of an announcement aside from that. Thank you, Mr. Speaker.
Mr. Speaker, any time the federal government announces a pot of money that’s available to support youth and mental health, addictions or frankly any pot the government identifies that might be available to the Northwest Territories, we as Cabinet, we as Members obviously look into that to figure out what is available to the Northwest Territories. I can’t speak to exactly what is available to us today or what mechanism there exists for us to actually obtain some of those funds. I do know that I think it was the year before the last the federal government did announce a $69 million pot to help combat addictions and suicide across this country. Of that amount, $2.5 million was allocated for the Northwest Territories. Half of that went to the IRC. The other half is flowing through the Government of the Northwest Territories to communities for on-the-land programming. Thank you, Mr. Speaker.
Masi. Oral questions. Member for Frame Lake.
