Thank you, Mr. Speaker. Following on my Member's statement, we have a lot of people of all ages going for treatment for alcohol and or drug abuse. There's a lot of people from my community, my region, go out to, as far away to Toronto for up to six weeks, and upon the return they're going back into their same old habits, they have no resources to go to. There's absolutely no help and some of these people are falling back into their old habits within a week or so. It would be good if the government can follow through and make some of these programs available in our, especially in our smaller communities. So how can we as a government ensure that we are not setting up our people for failure by sending them to another jurisdiction for treatment to heal themselves but bringing them back to an environment that made them sick. Thank you, Mr. Speaker.
Minister responsible for Health and social services.
Thank you, Mr. Speaker. Mr. Speaker, in order for a resident of the Northwest Territories to attend a treatment facility, they have to be referred by a caseworker, a caseworker who works with them. That caseworker also creates an aftercare plan for when they return home and then before they're discharged, they are to communicate with the -- that is part of the work that happens and, you know, and so I encourage that if residents are returning back to their community, to speak with the caseworker that has referred them out because that is part of it. And if the Member has, you know, residents that want to, you know, have this looked into as to why, he can feel free to reach out to my office and we can work together as to what is being missed, because my understanding is that that is a whole part of the referral process, is the aftercare plan coming home. Thank you, Mr. Speaker.
I'd like to thank the Minister for that opportunity. I'll be taking her advice and reaching out to her. It's been a long time. There is people going out and not following through or don't have the capacity or don't have the resources to reach out to. How long is it going to take us, take for us to move forward and support our people who are crying for help to move forward and break the cycles instead of taking steps backwards because of the lack of resources, especially in our smaller communities. Thank you, Mr. Speaker.
Thank you, Mr. Speaker. Mr. Speaker, one of the things that we have done as a government with feedback from Indigenous and small communities is that we've created the Community Mental Health Awareness Fund, which is something that it incorporates for the Indigenous governments have an opportunity to apply on funding to run their own types of programs, wellness programs, recovery programs, anything that their community chooses to. Then once the initial period is open for regional Indigenous governments, after, I think it's January 31st, I can get the details and send it to the Members on this, but it opens up to everybody else. So for February and March, whatever the funds are left in that community, that community organization that's tied to an Indigenous Friendship Centre. We've funded Friendship Centres in some of the communities in the past. We've funded GTC in the past. We've funded Tetlit Gwich'in to run programs in those communities however this year, we haven't received any applications from the Member's riding. Thank you.
Thank you, Minister of Health and Social Services. Final supplementary. Member for Mackenzie Delta.
Thank you, Mr. Speaker. I'll reach out to Members of my three communities and see if they can allocate some funding. How can we work in collaboration to provide what is needed for the residents of the Mackenzie Delta in regards to addictions and aftercare and for funding and resources to be made available within our smaller communities? Thank you, Mr. Speaker.
Thank you, Mr. Speaker. Mr. Speaker, in the Beaufort Delta was the first to be reviewed under the community counselling program, and so what they have done is they've done a collaboration where they pull the Indigenous governments and the community counselling program together to be able to serve people and hire people with lived experience to be able to provide those services. I know we are working with -- we are currently working in the Sahtu through that process as well, and we're hoping that we'll get through the rest of the territory, because it's designed on servicing the region, the people, and what their needs are. However, I understand, you know, that there's always issues when it comes to when people are in crisis, but what I can do is I can put together the information for the Member and if I can, I'll see how much detail we have to be able to put it together for the region. I know we don't have it broken down just for Mackenzie Delta, but it might be the regional process. We have the THARP that will be opening up, which is a transitional housing and after addiction recovery home, that will be opening up soon. I know all the construction is done now, and it's just waiting on the operator and the policies to be done in Inuvik, which would help for those coming back to be able to stay there before going off to their community to give them that little bit longer support. So, thank you, Mr. Speaker.
Thank you, Minister of Health and Social Services. Oral questions. Member from Monfwi.
