I agree, not everybody wants to go to treatment, but in some cases not everybody wants the help. But as caring community members, caring families, friends, they see it.
With that, I’ll just lead up into what our current Mental Health Act talks about in terms of, I guess, the substitute consent giver part in here and it’s under the Personal Directives Act. I know that some Members were concerned about the wait times that some community members have to go to treatment, and in some cases the person doesn’t want to go. But under this one act, the Personal Directives Act, it talks about who can consent on behalf of the person. It’s a child of the patient, a parent of the patient, a brother or sister of the patient, or any other relative of the patient, even a friend of the patient. So, anybody can actually give the consent through the process to do it. I think something on the news was talking this morning about four months or two months of waiting time to get counselling and when the treatment is really needed.
Are the Minister and his department informing people throughout the Northwest Territories whose family members or even people in the community are suffering that they have the right under our current Mental Health Act to proceed and get them the treatment that they want? It’s involuntary psychiatric assessment and also involuntary admission. Is the Minister making residents of the Northwest Territories aware of that provision in our Mental Health Act we’re using for residents of the Northwest Territories right now? Thank you, Mr. Chair.