Thank you, Mr. Speaker. I will follow up to questions on my Member’s statement earlier for the Minister of Health and Social Services. As I stated, we’ve heard over the last little while the need for a treatment centre in the Northwest Territories. I do understand that we have four contracted treatment centres down south at any given time, pending that there are beds available.
How many of our NWT residents actually, through the fiscal year 2014-2015, went out for treatment during that fiscal year? Thank you, Mr. Speaker.
Thank you, Mr. Moses. Minister of Health and Social Services, Mr. Abernethy.
Thank you, Mr. Speaker. In 2014-2015 we had a total of 174 residents who took advantage of the treatment facilities available to Northwest Territories residents. In 2015-2016, to date, we’ve had 109 residents of the Northwest Territories take advantage of those same treatment facilities.
Just as a note, we have put in an expedited referral process to ensure that people can get to those facilities as quickly as possible. Sometimes now is the right time for individuals. We have seen some significant success with those bonafide referral processes. Thank you, Mr. Speaker.
I am glad to hear that. Those numbers are pretty high for the Northwest Territories. I would like to ask the Minister if he’s been working with any of our Aboriginal groups or any other non-government organizations to look at the possibility of creating a facility or using an existing infrastructure, which is one of our priorities that we set out at the onset of this government, to create a treatment facility in the Northwest Territories.
We have 174 residents in 2014-2015 and 109 to date this year. We do have a facility up in Inuvik, Arctic Tern facility, and I do recall at one time there was only one person in that facility. Yet, we fully staffed that facility for the one person. I know the Minister has mentioned the feasibility of having a treatment centre based on the number of patients that would be in that facility at any given time.
I would like to ask the Minister, has he spoken to any NGOs or Aboriginal groups to partner – that we will take care of all the expenses to partner – and create a treatment centre here in the Northwest Territories? Thank you, Mr. Speaker.
Just to be clear, we have on average, at any given time, about 12 residents for the Northwest Territories who are seeking treatment through facility-based treatment. The individuals who are attending treatment often have significantly different needs and, as a result, are going to any one of our four facilities available to our northern residents. For instance, Poundmaker’s Lodge is a co-ed facility with a wide range of spiritual-based programs as well as the ability to provide some level of social detox. They have on-site psychologists and psychiatrists who can provide support to the residents who need that particular programming. We also have Aventa, which is a facility for women only and it has gender-specific programming as well as trauma-informed treatment programs. It has a wide variety of programs that we’ve never been able to provide here in the Northwest Territories for a more generic type of facility that have been delivered in the past.
We also have Fresh Start Recovery Centre, which is a male only facility with gender-specific programs designed to support men through their healing process. We also have Edgewood, which is a facility more specifically designed for opiate use or individuals suffering from addictions to narcotics and other drugs. At no time do we have 12 people who are in one facility. We tend to have them throughout the four facilities because they have a wide range of needs.
When the Minister’s Forum on Mental Health and Addictions was completed, it told us clearly that we need to offer a wide range of services to the residents of the Northwest Territories. Treatment facilities are but one of those options and we provide that option. We have an expedited referral process, we have no waitlists, and we can get people in there 24 to 48 hours if it’s appropriate. We do encourage people to do some level of counselling before they go, but sometimes now is the right time.
We also have on-the-land programs that are throughout the Northwest Territories, done in partnership with our Aboriginal governments. We’ve had some great turnout in attendance to those particular workshops. We also have community counselling, and we’ve recently put in new community counselling guidelines and processes to ensure that community counsellors are providing a high range of services. Before anybody goes to one of our treatment centres, they have to have a follow-up appointment booked for after-care with the community counsellors.
Mr. Speaker, we have a wide range of services. We are following the direction from the Mental Health and Addictions Forum. We’re always looking for ways to improve our services. We continue to move forward with our attempts to put in a mobile treatment so that we can provide more regional based, building upon things like the Matrix program that we have in place that is being used by residents of the Northwest Territories. So, we offer a wide range of services to people suffering from mental health and addictions. Thank you.
I appreciate all the answers that the Minister stated. However, the realities are, we can provide all these services but if we don’t have the resources to see them through in some of our small communities where we have some of our higher rates, even in the regional centres. You know, I’ve chatted with some of these people who have gone through these programs and have had a difficult time reintegrating back into the community because those services weren’t always provided during the times that they needed. So, obviously, the after-care is still a concern.
The Minister did mention the expedited process, and I know I’ve had a lot of individuals who I’ve spoken to who really needed to get the treatment right away but they were told that they need to go through counselling services, whether it was six or eight sessions, and as we all know, there are waiting times, but also in the small communities you might not have a counsellor or the fact that if it’s a really small community then everybody knows what the issue is and there’s a stigma attached to that.
I’d like to ask the Minister, what’s the expedited process and how can residents who really need the help be able to get that treatment sooner than later?
We do encourage residents who are struggling with addictions to attend a number of counselling sessions. I believe it’s four, depending on the nature of the addiction. But we also recognize that sometimes four sessions is too much. Sometimes now is the time. If you are suffering from mental health or an addictions issue here in the Northwest Territories and you know now is the time, you need to speak to a counsellor or health practitioner, let them know that now is the time, I need to go now, and we can get a referral through the department in 24 hours and we can begin the process of getting you into treatment after the 24-hour period. Sometimes we’ve been able to get people in treatment as quickly as 48 hours.
So, if you have constituents who have gone and said now is the time and they haven’t had that offered to them, you need to let us know so that we can make sure that we fix the process. In the meantime, if you have constituents who tell you now is the time, encourage them to talk to their counsellor. It’s an emergency situation. We always book emergency situations immediately. We can get you in, we can get the referral in 24 hours and we can get you to treatment as quickly as possible. Thank you.
Thank you, Mr. Abernethy. Final, short supplementary, Mr. Moses.
Thank you, Mr. Speaker. I think that also needs to be reiterated and emphasized and encouraged to our social work staff, to our health professionals, because sometimes people who really need it are getting turned away and not getting the services that they need. I am speaking from the experiences I have had over the four years, especially since this expedited process has gone through.
I also want to ask the Minister – and it has been brought up in this House before – whether or not he’s speaking with his ministerial colleagues in Nunavut and the Yukon, so we are creating a pan-territorial northern treatment centre that would offer the cultural values, the traditions and provide that family and community support, that northern support that’s needed. I wonder if he’s had any kind of discussion with our Health Ministers from Nunavut and the Yukon. Thank you, Mr. Speaker.
We remain committed to finding opportunities and we are always looking for opportunities to work with our northern partners. In the last four months, I have tried twice to arrange meetings with my counterparts in Nunavut and the Yukon. This is one of the agenda items that was on the list, that was on the agenda. Unfortunately, both meetings were cancelled by the other jurisdictions. I have asked to work with my colleagues in the other territories to gather information on the facilities and programs available in those jurisdictions to see how we can partner. Unfortunately, as I indicated, both meetings that I booked with the other jurisdictions were cancelled. We are committed to working with them if there is an opportunity. Thank you, Mr. Speaker.
Thank you, Mr. Abernethy. Member for Frame Lake, Ms. Bisaro.
