The territorial health minister joined several MLAs for a tour of the addictions facilities with which the GNWT is partnered, to get a better understanding of what NWT residents experience going south for addictions treatment and what they need when they come back home.
“If I was to have one takeaway,” said Health Minister Glen Abernethy, “although a lot of work is done on helping people return to their communities and a lot of aftercare planning is done, this is certainly an area that we can do better.”
Right now, says Abernethy, NWT residents returning home from treatment at one of the four centres the NWT is partnered with – Poundmaker's Lodge in St. Albert, Alta.; Fresh Start Recovery in Calgary, Alta.; Aventa Centre in Calgary Alta.; and Edgewood in Nanaimo, B.C. – is booked for a followup appointment with a counsellor. Each of the facilities also works to develop an aftercare plan with the client, said Abernethy.
“Things you might see in there are support groups, community-based support groups like AA, as an example,” he said. “They work to make sure the person is going to attend their one-on-one counselling sessions when they return to their community, they find out what types of activities are happening in the community or region that the individual might be able to participate in to help with their recovery.”
But not all communities – especially the smaller ones – have support groups like this, and people often don’t know what is available to them in their greater region that they could possibly attend, said Abernethy.
Before the next election, in October 2019, Abernethy said the current government will finish its Addictions Recovery Action Plan, identify and confirm what is currently available for aftercare in communities, and try to identify some ways the government could help these programs.
While Abernethy said these groups, such as Alcoholics Anonymous, aren’t and shouldn’t be run by government, he wants to look at options like making facility space available or technology so that groups can connect with people from farther away.
The trip was arranged by the Standing Committee on Social Development, of which Nahendeh MLA Shane Thompson is chair. Thompson said the trip was revealing in many ways for he and others who attended.
When the MLAs had the chance to speak with NWT residents who were attending the facilities, one topic they discussed was what it was like to be away from home. Some said the distance from their homes, where there may have been enabling factors for their addictions or where they might have felt judged, is helping in their recovery.
“They’re away from their families, which is hard, but they’re also trying to get themselves better,” said Thompson. “We talked to some people who said, well, it’s getting close to Christmastime and this is hard, but they said that it’s about getting themselves healthy so they can be a healthier person.”
Thompson said the committee also visited Guthrie House, which is an addictions program for inmates run by B.C. Corrections and the John Howard Society, to gather information on how a program like that operates.
The committee is now putting together a report on the tour that it will make public, and which will be used to help the GNWT draft its Addictions Recovery Action Plan.