Thank you, Mr. Chair. Mr. Chair, I do hear the Member and I do know that, in some communities, we have longer wait times than in other communities. We're certainly trying to find ways to deal with that, whether it's through processes or other means. We are moving forward with the creation of more youth mental health counsellors for kids, to get children when they're young, so that hopefully we'll have been able to address problems before they reach adulthood, which we hope will give us exactly what the Member is talking about, about people being able to function normally.
There are also other parties out there. The GNWT is not alone in providing this service. The federal government has funded a significant number of contracts in the Northwest Territories to help people who are dealing with residential school or the trauma of residential school and others. I think they have 57 people on contract to travel to different communities around the Northwest Territories and provide support.
As far as how many visits or appointments an individual has, I'm not a clinician by any stretch of the imagination and I know that a clinician will work with a client and assess what they think an appropriate schedule is as far as the number of visits, the number of meetings that they need to have. I would suggest that there is no one model that fits all. Some individuals might be good once a month, whereas other individuals might need something daily, depending on their crisis. We did put forward a new Mental Health and Addictions Action Plan in the last government and we are very close to going fully live with our Mental Health Act, which gives us some resources and tools we can use for a small group of high-risk individuals in the Northwest Territories.
So I hear the Member. We are coming out with a new mental health action plan for adults. We just did one for youth. We're also coming out with an addictions action plan for adults. So work has been done in this area, and we're always trying to find ways to improve flow and contact. As a note, if someone identifies as an emergency, and I guess this is the point the Member was talking about, you know, somebody feeling like they have to identify as suicidal even when they may or may not be, but if somebody is in an emergency situation, we can get them into the system immediately, as well. Thank you, Mr. Chair.