Just going back to the first part where, you know, individuals who can’t see individuals. The Med-Response team has highly competent professionals and the CHRs and the CHWs in the communities will articulate what they see. I believe they’ll err on the side of caution, which is the expectation. We don’t want to put people at risk. So if individuals are in need of medical detox and the doctor on the line determines it’s necessary, they’ll come in.
With respect to how long medical detox would be required for, it’s going to depend on medical direction. When they’re in either Inuvik or Yellowknife, a physician will be involved in the file, likely one of the hospitalists in the building, and they will assess when a person is officially medically detoxed. Where they go from there is somewhat dependent on the individuals but also on the doctors. If the doctors believe that somebody might need a psych consult, they would bring in psychologists and other professionals to have those conversations with the patient. If the patient has completed the medical detox and they decide that they’re ready for treatment, we have an expedited referral process to get them into a treatment facility in the Northwest Territories.
But treatment facilities won’t work for everybody. It isn’t what everybody wants, which is why we have continuum of care options or support options for persons with addictions. They can go back to the community and engage with counsellors, they can use a Matrix program, they can use one of the on-the-land programs that are being offered by a number of the Aboriginal governments in the Northwest Territories. There are lots of different options.
As far as the specifics around the psych situations in emerg, I’m not a doctor so I don’t know the exact steps that would be followed, but I’ll see if I can get some additional information for the Member on those steps.