Thank you, Mr. Speaker. In a brief preamble in follow up to some of the discussion today on post-traumatic stress disorder, I myself experienced a traumatic event as a child which has carried over into adulthood. I’m almost 60 years old and I still have claustrophobia because I was in a building that was struck by a tornado when I was a child, and I did not see it coming. I heard it but I did not see it. To this day, I want to see what’s happening around me, and that’s why I don’t like being closed in and that’s why I sit beside the door. No, seriously, these kinds of things, at the time, my parents said, okay, everybody back to work, like nothing had happened, but there are people who are dealing with all kinds of trauma that happened to them, probably far worse than being in a building that went up in a tornado, and there isn’t help for them in the communities.
I floated this idea past the previous Minister of Health and Social Services and today I’m going to put it past the current Minister of Health and Social Services. Would it not be possible to bring professional, renowned services into the Northwest Territories on a tour to the communities where they would meet with the people and develop a relationship? Then they would go back to wherever their practice is in the South and those people could make appointments to talk to that person on the phone, so they could look forward to that, so they would know that if they were in difficulty or they wanted to continue on with their counselling that all they had to do was talk to that person on the phone. Is this not a model of care for things like post-traumatic stress disorder which would be helpful?
We, obviously, are not going to get professionals in this type of treatment and counselling in every community in the Northwest Territories. We probably couldn’t even get that kind of specialized treatment here in Yellowknife, but I know there are contractors out there that would go into our northern communities, that would develop the relationship with the client, would be there for them, come back on an annual basis, something like that.
Is that a model we’ve considered? Could we think about it?
Thank you, Mrs. Groenewegen. The Minister of Health, Mr. Abernethy.
Thank you, Mr. Speaker. I’m not actually aware of any programs like that, so if the Member does have some information she’d like to share, I’d be happy to read it and share it with the department
There was a young doctor that came to Hay River as a locum that did a practicum when he was receiving his medical training who went on to become Canadian known and an internationally renowned doctor who specializes in stress disorders and mood disorders. He has come back here to the North since. I am sure there are other people besides him. His name is Dr. Grant Mullen, and that is exactly what his practice does, and I did convey that information to Minister Beaulieu at the time. This is a doctor with an extreme interest in the North. Like I said, it doesn’t have to be a sole sourced thing. It could be other people, but could we put out a request for expressions of interest of people who specialize in those areas that would be interested in serving our northern communities?
Once we have a better idea of what the program is and what it offers, it’s something we may be able to do, but at this time I just don’t know enough about it to say yes or no.
Even if it was not a specified program or something that’s already structured. I’m just asking the Minister, would it not make sense to have people that are in remote northern communities who are enduring stress and mood disorders on a frequent basis where they are often in crisis, if they had a professional contact of someone they’d already developed a relationship with to be able to get counselling over the phone, because we know we’re not going to have them in person in our communities?
It might be an interesting opportunity in the short term, but I think our priority needs to be to continue to staff the positions in the communities to make sure that people have somebody they can talk to face to face and eye to eye. Thank you.
Thank you, Mr. Abernethy. Final, short supplementary, Mrs. Groenewegen.
Thank you, Mr. Speaker. Yes, in an ideal world we would have people with those specialized skills in every community, but at this time we do not. I think there are things we can do in the interim, because people are under duress and stress and when they are in that situation have no one to turn to, they self-medicate, they use drugs, they use alcohol, all kinds of things to escape those feelings that they have of extreme stress and I think we need to do more as a government. Thank you.
Yes, understood.
Thank you, Mr. Abernethy. The Member for Yellowknife Centre, Mr. Hawkins.
