Thank you, Mr. Speaker. In my Member’s statement I talked about what kind of services we have in terms of supporting some of our first responder service providers in the Northwest Territories, who, I must say, are identified as having some of the highest rates of post-traumatic stress disorder. These are our firefighters, our doctors, our nurses, RCMP. My question is for the Minister of Health and Social Services.
What is our government and the department doing in terms of reaching out to these service providers and making sure that they do have the supports should they need them?
Thank you, Mr. Moses. The Minister of Health, Mr. Abernethy.
Thank you, Mr. Speaker. We don’t actually have any programs at this time dedicated strictly or particularly to post-traumatic stress disorder, but we do have psychiatric assessment and treatment that is available both on an in-patient and outpatient basis. So if an individual is suffering from post-traumatic stress disorder, they can access outpatient care or treatment through a referral from a nurse or a doctor or other professionals here in the Northwest Territories. So I would strongly encourage individuals who are going through this to get in touch with their medical practitioners. Thank you.
Thank you. In some cases just talking about mental illness is a tough thing to do for anybody, even if you are a doctor and understand the situation, to bring up the issues and the symptoms that you’re dealing with. Particularly in the North because we have such a small population there’s a good chance that if you end up in an event you might know the person and that can really cause really high stress and make you more vulnerable to PTSD.
I’d like to ask the Minister, other than what he’s said now, how are we getting that information out to these first respondents as well as to the doctors and nurses?
How are we getting the information that there are those resources that he mentioned available? Thank you.
We’re trying to do a number of things to increase awareness of mental health issues here in the Northwest Territories. We did release a magazine last year, which was Mind and Spirit, which encourages people to read, talk and understand mental health issues. One thing I’d like to encourage all Members to do, as well as all the Ministers and all residents of the Northwest Territories, is to take Mental Health First Aid. That creates an awareness in the individuals so they can recognize when people they know might be struggling.
At the same time, we do have community counseling programs that are available. This is free counseling available to individuals who are either suffering from post-traumatic stress disorder or may know somebody that is and they can refer them to. A lot of these situations the Member is talking about actually occur while the individual happens to be on duty or at work. Many organizations do have employee and family assistance programs. I would encourage individuals to access their employee and family assistance programs to begin the process of healing.
I would also suggest that individuals should call the NWT Helpline, which may be another resource for individuals who may not be willing or prepared to talk to either a friend or somebody they know, but might be interested in getting some advice from somebody that’s a little bit more anonymous.
So there are a number of programs out there. We are constantly trying to encourage people to talk about mental health issues, to create awareness and lead people to the help they need. Thank you.
Thank you, Mr. Abernethy. Your final, short supplementary, Mr. Moses.
Thank you, Mr. Speaker. Last week I went to World Cancer Day, and talking to some of the individuals, they have a speaking forum, or a talking circle group here in Yellowknife, which is a great way to talk about it. So I was wondering if the Minister has any resources available that he can set up some type of forum for our first responders that want to get together and talk about these kinds of issues.
Are there any resources in the operations budget or any resources that he can think of that we can address this in a talking circle forum? Thank you.
Thank you. That’s certainly an interesting concept and certainly something that I will have the department look at. At this time I cannot say that there are actual funds available to do this exact thing, this exact roundtable of conversation, but it’s something that’s certainly interesting and I’ll have the department take a look at it. Thank you.
Thank you, Mr. Abernethy. Final, short supplementary again, Mr. Moses.
Thank you, Mr. Speaker. We talked about the Mental Health Act and post-traumatic stress disorder. So I just want to ask the Minister – I know we’re going through a review of one of the bills – under one of the provisions in the Mental Health Act it talks about involuntary admission. Sometimes when a person who has mental illness doesn’t want to admit themselves, they have people they work with that care about them.
Are there any amendments being made that we can make right now to the Mental Health Act that can address these issues? Thank you.
The Mental Health Act is currently in the process of being completely rewritten. Timing-wise to do an amendment and then interfere with the process that’s underway might actually slow things up.
The types of issues the Member is talking about are going to be addressed under the Mental Health Act. We had hoped to have the Mental Health Act in front of this House in the life of this government, but it’s taking a little longer to draft than we had thought. We think we may be done drafting in the summer, which means we’re not going to have enough time to bring it to the House to go for first, second and third readings.
So, what I would like to propose to do is, as soon as the bill is done, in our August sitting I would like to table that document so that it is available to the public to review and consider, so that it can be the first bill that is going through first, second and third readings in the 18th Legislative Assembly. Thank you, Mr. Speaker.
Thank you, Mr. Abernethy. Member for Frame Lake, Ms. Bisaro.
