$500,000 budgeted for new law
Three new positions in Yellowknife created to accommodate Mental Health Act changes
Shane Magee
Northern News Services
Friday, June 17, 2016
SOMBA K'E/YELLOWKNIFE
The GNWT is adding three new positions in Yellowknife as implementation of the new Mental Health Act draws near.
Glen abernethy: Health and Social Services Minister says money is needed to phase in new mental health law. - NNSL file photo |
The GNWT has planned to spend $501,000 to implement the law coming into force in January in its recently tabled budget.
Health and Social Services Minister Glen Abernethy said in an interview the day the budget was released that it became clear as the department was writing regulations that it needed to spend its money better and more in line with the new law.
"We recognize that there are some additional dollars that are required to really make the act a reality," the minister said. Some will go toward program administration, some for staff, he said.
This week during a legislative assembly committee meeting combing through the budget, Abernethy was questioned about the spending and where the new jobs will be located by Nahendeh MLA Shane Thompson. All three new positions will be located in Yellowknife but will have a territorial focus.
"We've got three new positions that have been created, two full-time, one part-time for the Mental Health Act, and to help us with the implementation of that," Abernethy told the committee of MLAs on Monday.
The positions, according to health department spokesperson Damien Healy, are permanent. A part-time administrative assistant will support a new Mental Health Act Review Board. A policy advisor will in part oversee training of front-line staff as well as an evaluation and review of the new law. A clinical social worker at Stanton Territorial Hospital will co-ordinate and manage the start of community treatment plans. All positions are expected to be filled this fall, according to Healy.
The funding and new staff aren't a surprise. Immediately after the law was tabled, Abernethy said it would likely cost the government more and result in the need for more staff. Until now, the scope of those changes had not been clear.
The act, a complete overhaul of previous legislation, was passed last fall and comes into force in January 2017. It includes a suite of new tools for health-care providers, including the ability to allow patients to be released to communities for treatment. It also sets out patient rights, strengthens provisions allowing for involuntary treatment and creates an appeal board to consider questions regarding treatment.
Abernethy has said the ability to facilitate people living in their home community under supervision while receiving treatment is the most consequential part of the new law. That aspect is relatively new in other jurisdictions where the minister said it's worked well.
Should someone stop treatment, such as taking a medication, the law allows the patient to be detained and brought to a treatment centre by police. That aspect of the new law is what the social worker will support.
