Thank you very much, Mr. Speaker. Mr. Speaker, my questions are for the Minister of Health and Social Services.
Access to addictions treatment for youth is provided through child and family services. I'm wondering why has Health and Social Services chosen to fragment adult and child treatment access? Thank you.
Thank you, Member for Kam Lake. Minister responsible for Health and Social Services.
Thank you, Mr. Speaker. Mr. Speaker, what we consider in providing addiction services for our youth and children is the vulnerability of the population and our ability to support them. So I feel very confident that having that response come through child and family services is very important.
One of the services they offer, for example, is when a child goes to treatment outside of the community, outside of the territory, they arrange for courtesy supervision, which means that there's a social worker where the child is who will check on them, connect them to any additional services and make sure the youth is safe. So I don't think this system is fragmented. It's set up to assist a vulnerable population of youth which is different than what adults need. Thank you.
Thank you, Mr. Speaker. Mr. Speaker, how does Health and Social Services address the barriers created by housing this service in child and family services given the history of our country and the fear of child and family services? Thank you.
Yes, thanks. I think the Member is talking to the possibility that discussing addiction for youth would trigger protection concerns. That is not the case at present. If a family approaches child and family services, the first step would be a needs assessment followed by an offering of different options that the family could take advantage of and when they choose one, then a plan is tailored to that family and to the person who needs treatment.
We're working hard to combat this stigma that admitting any difficulty in parenting is going to trigger protection concerns. We are very dedicated to dividing these two issues, protection from prevention. Thank you.
Thank you very much, Mr. Speaker. Mr. Speaker, given the request for communitybased solutions, what types of funding is available for grassroots programming specifically geared toward youth addictions treatment? Thank you.
Yes, thank you, Mr. Speaker. Mr. Speaker, we've done quite a lot of work in my time expanding the number of communitybased treatment programs that are available to Indigenous governments primarily and also to community governments. It's really driven by those entities about what range of ages they take into their programs.
So, for example, we have the On the Land Healing Fund, Community Suicide Prevention Fund, Peer Support Fund, and Addictions Recovery and Aftercare Fund.
So these funds are set up with a focus but the implementation is really, as I said just now, up to the Indigenous governments, and they can take in the age of the participant of anyone that they choose. Thank you.
Thank you, Minister. Final supplementary, Member for Kam Lake.
Thank you very much, Mr. Speaker. Mr. Speaker, can the Minister speak to what harm reduction programs are available to youth in the NWT? Thank you.
Thank you, Mr. Speaker. Mr. Speaker, harm reduction is certainly a focus for us and addiction services for youth really mirror the same that is offered to had adults.
And so just to briefly recap those offers, there's communitybased counselling through the community counselling program or through the child and youth care counsellors. It's the youth's choice which to access.
We have the 24/7 Help Line through the NWT Help Line, and then the kids help phone service which also includes a texting option.
We have apps that are specifically directed to children and families, such as the Strongest Families Institute and the Breathing Room app. We have specialized treatment options for youth and children, both in territory and out of territory. And then we have, as I just mentioned the communitybased wellness programs. Thank you.
