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K'ATLODEECHE/HAY RIVER RESERVE
The territory's sole residential addictions treatment facility is shutting down after the Department of Health and Social Services announced it is cutting funding to the centre.

The Nats'ejee K'eh Treatment Centre's contract with the GNWT will not be renewed as of Sept. 30. Instead, clients of the territory's only residential addictions treatment facility will be sent to community counselling services as well as potentially referred to southern institutions. - Sarah Ladik/NNSL photo

The GNWT contract of the Nats'ejee K'eh Treatment Centre on the Hay River Reserve will not be renewed on Sept. 30, when the current one expires.

"This decision is the result of strong recommendations flowing from the Minister's Forum on Addictions and Community Wellness," health minister Tom Beaulieu told News/North. "This is one of the first steps towards our plan to deliver better care."

That plan – set to be rolled out in April 2014 – is to deliver addictions treatment on a more mobile and individual basis, including more on-the-land programming and residential care in communities, according to Beaulieu. In the meantime, clients of the centre who cannot be taken by their community counselling services will be referred to southern facilities in Alberta and British Columbia. A press release from the department stated contracts governing such referrals should be completed by the end of July.

The centre has offered residential addictions treatment programs for close to 20 years, first under the K'atlodeeche First Nation, then under the Dehcho Health and Social Services Authority. The territorial government took over responsibility for the centre in May 2013. Despite being the only such treatment centre in the Northwest Territories, Nats'ejee K'eh was only operating at about half its capacity as of last November. "There have been continued problems recruiting and retaining qualified staff," Beaulieu said. "And not having that qualified staff to deliver the care is risky."

Beaulieu was not the only one concerned with staffing issues. According to Leon Nason, the president of Local 06 of the Union of Northern Workers, 12 staff members at Nats'ejee K'eh were given their two weeks notice at 4 p.m. on July 11, a few hours after the statement to the media announcing the decision to not renew the contract was released.

"There have been problems at that centre for staff going back several years," he said.

Hay River North MLA Robert Bouchard stated he had concerns about the shifts in treatment.

"(The GNWT) just stops this program with no Northern solution. We will ship our people to southern facilities," he stated. "Meanwhile, the Hay River area loses 12 jobs. They had no way to re-profile this facility?"

Bouchard said the current government was supposed to be committed to decentralization,

"But in one quick cut, removed 12 positions in the small community of K'atlodeeche."

Not everyone, however, was upset at the centre's closing. Former executive director of the Dene Cultural Institute Joanne Barnaby was cautiously optimistic about the future of addictions treatment in the North.

"I hope this is leading to some recognition on the part of the government that culture-based treatment is what everyone is asking for," she said. "I hope any service, in the North or South, will be culture based."

Barnaby believes there is still a place for residential treatment and wants to see the Nats'ejee Keh facility put to good use.

Beaulieu stressed the nature of the forthcoming treatment programs for addictions counselling would focus on what he called "a continuum of treatment options," including care more tailored to each client and delivered closer to their home.

"It will be addictions focused," he said, acknowledging the intertwined nature of substance abuse problems and mental health issues. "In the action plan, we talk about both, but we need to have well-qualified staff and from there, we can determine the best treatment course for each individual."

As for the Nats'ejee K'eh building itself, Beaulieu said it would become an asset to be handled by the Department of Public Works and Services, despite its location on land owned by the K'atlodeeche First Nation.

"One of the recommendations from the board we received was to turn it into an educational facility," he said. "It would be a place to teach people about the negative effects of drug and alcohol abuse. We're moving away from straight treatment, though there will always be a need for that, but we're trying to work on prevention, as well."

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