Question has been called. All those in favour? All those opposed? Abstentions? The motion is carried.

---Carried

Member for Kam Lake.

Thank you very much, Madam Chair. Madam Chair, I move that this committee recommends that the Department of Health and Social Services develop aftercare processes for persons discharged from hospitals and health centres following suicidal ideation and attempts to reduce suicide re-attempts and loss of life. Thank you, Madam Chair.

Thank you. The motion is in order. To the motion. Member for Great Slave.

Thank you, Madam Chair. As I mentioned when we were talking about the coroner's report, I have heard numerous times of people presenting at emergency rooms across the territory and either not even making it in to see anyone given that it's not considered to be high in the priority list when you look at triages in an emergency room situation, the emergency -- the people working there are going to prioritize physical threats to life that are immediate, such as, you know, injuries and wounds, over mental health concerns. And I'm not saying that's right, but that is what is happening.

I have heard again -- I mentioned about a person being flown into Yellowknife and then being sent home again and then just discharged from the hospital without ever having any -- seen any psychiatrists or any social workers, provided with nothing as far as supports. It was on them to follow up when they did get back to their community in order to then get the followup appointments with the community counsellors.

To me, again, it is cruel that when people are showing up in a desperate state of health to our facilities that our facilities are turning them away. The ER is not equipped to deal with mental health issues that present. The psych ward is full. We don't even have a youth psychiatric facility. I have constituents that have reported to me that their children as young as 12 have started to identify with them on suicidal ideation, and these aren't even what we would normally think of as the vulnerable youth that potentially get stereotyped as being the ones that are at risk. These are people -- it's a cross all, all socio-economic lines. And so as such, to me, it actually almost seems like a legal liability that we are sending people away who are at risk and not giving them any sort of follow up. It's just actually quite mindboggling and it's actually very inhumane. And, Madam Chair, I cannot stress this motion enough and I hope it will be supported, and I hope the government will actually implement it. Thank you.

Thank you. To the motion. Member for Kam Lake.

Thank you very much, Madam Chair. Madam Chair, this is something that we heard directly from youth. It's is also something that I've spoken about numerous times in this House.

On multiple occasions every year since being elected as the MLA of Kam Lake, I have received phone calls from families, particularly parents, who recount their experiences to me. And the consistent piece of information that I am told is that when their youth have gone to the hospital there has been no effort to create a safety plan. There has been no follow up. And there has been no feeling of support as they leave our hospital here in Yellowknife. And I can only speak to here in Yellowknife.

This is a huge concern. And I look at this from the side that when somebody is sitting in front of us and we have the option of a second chance, we have to take that second chance.

I have also had the privilege to sit next to somebody at Stanton who was given a second chance. And when the doctor came into the room to talk to them about what had happened to them, the questions that were asked of that person were do you get enough sleep, do you drink alcohol, and do you do drugs. And what a youth hears is what are you doing wrong. In that instance, there was no attempt to support that youth before they turned and left the hospital. There was no attempt to give that child hope. And sometimes all a child needs is hope.

So this is a very, very important recommendation, and I hope that the government is listening, and I hope to see -- we need to see an appropriate response from the government to this recommendation. Thank you, Madam Chair.

Thank you. To the motion.

Question has been called. All those in favour? All those opposed? Abstentions? The motion is carried.

---Carried

Member for Kam Lake.

Thank you, Madam Chair. Madam Chair, I move that this committee recommends that the Department of Health and Social Services establish a youth and family addictions support and healing centre in the Northwest Territories. Thank you, Madam Chair.

Thank you. The motion is in order. To the motion. Member for Great Slave.

Thank you, Madam Chair. I mean, we've heard time and time again from this Minister and department why we can't have anything here in the territory and it just isn't going to work. Well, when I look at youth who can hardly even sometimes have the ability to move on out of the territory to go to school, who are children that are moving to a positive situation, I don't even understand how we remotely think we should be sending our children away when they are in their most vulnerable position. We pay more attention to the kids going away on SFA and give them more supports than we do with our youth that are struggling. To me this needs to be an Indigenous-led government -- or sorry, an Indigenous government-led community-led initiative, and it does not need to be clinical the way that the Department of Health and Social Services will try to make it, and it needs to stop being a money decision. We need to have people that are making decisions for patients and people in this territory that are doing so and making the best decision based on treatment options, not on what's the cheapest and how much it costs to send people places. So the only way that we're going to do that is by having a youth facility here and not have people have to go elsewhere or just send youth home and tell the parents that they have to cope with it. Again, all I can say about all of this is how shameful I find it. Thank you, Madam Chair.

Thank you. Member for Kam Lake.

Thank you very much, Madam Chair. I know that this is a very big topic that we have heard about throughout the life of this Assembly. I know that there were questions asked today by the Member for Yellowknife South on the floor of the House today and that in response to one of those questions we did hear that the Minister of Health and Social Services is working with Indigenous governments to find out what Indigenous governments would like to see. And so I really hope that within the response to this recommendation that we learn more about what is happening in those conversations, what timelines, if any, might be emerging from those conversations and that we can really get a fulsome idea of what conversations are happening in more detail. Thank you.

Thank you. To the motion. Member for Hay River South.

Thank you, Madam Chair. I guess I look at this motion and I guess, I think about the youth in Hay River and some of the issues, you know, that I've had to deal with as well. And, again, we are talking about a very vulnerable, you know, population. We're talking about, you know, Indigenous youth and others as well. We're talking poverty, poverty as well. But one thing we don't do is we don't seem to make this a priority. It has to be a priority. We're talking about life and death here. And for some reason, I don't know why, you know, we can't get it through our heads that it's so important. And you know, losing anyone else is just not something we should be looking at. And it always seems to come down to lack of funding. And this cannot be a deterrent. The lack of funding should never be a question or an excuse when we're dealing with youth in these situations. So I would hope that the government will really take a look at this and make sure that we have a process in place to keep youth safe, to make sure they get the help they need, and not use the lack of funding to be a deterrent. Thank you.

Thank you. To the motion. Member for Nunakput.

Yeah, thank you, Madam Chair. No, I just want to urge our government, you know, I -- we do need support for our youth and our communities, and I've been standing on this side of the House and being able to try to get out for youth sport and stuff like that, different aspects for our youth to get out of our small communities. We need to help them. They're really -- after, like I said since COVID, this last two years out of COVID, we've been -- our youth are really struggling. I see it every day, because I live it in a small community. And I really -- the supports that we give, it's not enough. But -- and it's too much stress on our local community governments because they're having to take a lot of the weight. But I really urge our government to try to work with this side of the House to make a plan on a go forward for suicide prevention, a meaningful participation on both sides to make something be able to work for all of us and something to be proud of to support our youth in our small communities, which we need to do. Thank you, Madam Chair.

To the motion.

Question has been called. All those in favour? All those opposed? All those abstaining? The motion is carried.

---Carried

Member for Kam Lake.

Thank you, Madam Chair. Madam Chair, I move that this committee recommends that the Department of Health and Social Services expedite and streamline the application, approval, and reporting requirements for the community suicide prevention fund. Thank you, Madam Chair.

Thank you. The motion is in order. To the motion.