Changes to mental health law stalled
Law passed in 2015 was expected to take effect this month
Shane Magee
Northern News Services
Wednesday, January 11, 2017
SOMBA K'E/YELLOWKNIFE
Implementation of a law that changes how mental-health services are administered in the territory is indefinitely delayed and jobs to support its start have yet to be filled.
The new Mental Health Act, passed in fall 2015, was supposed to come into force at the start of this month, according to Health and Social Services Minister Glen Abernethy. He gave that timeline on June 1 while talking about work to implement the law. He repeated it during a legislative committee meeting later that month.
There is often a delay between when a piece of major legislation is passed by MLAs and its provisions take effect.
The new Mental Health Act has yet to come into force and no date has been set for that to happen, according to department spokesperson David Maguire. In the meantime, a previous version of the law continues to govern mental health-care delivery.
Four factors were cited for the delay: the continued preparation of regulations to go with the new law, the development of new forms and documents, the creation of a new review board and the process of carrying out training on the new law.
"It is very important that all stakeholders receive appropriate and adequate training before we move forward and that will be a major focus between now and when the Act comes into force," Maguire stated in an e-mail Monday.
Abernethy was not available for an interview.
Kam Lake MLA Kieron Testart said the delay is disappointing. He said improving mental-health care was an issue that received a lot of attention in the lead-up to the 2015 election and that it's imperative the government supports implementation.
"It has been a year, it's time to get moving on this," Testart said Tuesday.
The Mental Health Act is a complete overhaul of previous legislation and 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. Setting up that appeal board is one of the factors pushing back implementation.
Abernethy has said in interviews the ability to treat people living in their home community under supervision is the most consequential part of the new law.
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.
"We believe this is a significant step to ... providing better mental-health services across the Northwest Territories," Abernethy told a committee on June 13 last year.
The territorial government budgeted to spend $501,000 to implement the law this fiscal year, partly to cover hiring three new Yellowknife-based employees. The department had planned to fill the positions in fall 2016.
As of this week, those roles have not been filled.
Those permanent positions would include a part-time administrative assistant to support the review board, a policy adviser who, in part, will oversee training of front-line staff as well as an evaluation and review of the new law and a clinical social worker at Stanton Territorial Hospital who will co-ordinate and manage the start of community treatment plans.
Shane Thompson, chairperson of the legislative assembly's social development committee, said the committee hasn't received any updates from the minister on implementation of the act.
Told of the work still to be done to implement the act, Thompson called the delay disappointing.
"(The law) has an impact on all our residents of the Northwest Territories so I'm hoping the government and the department of Health and Social Services will have an explanation during this session so all the residents of the territory can hear what's going on," he said, referring to the upcoming session of the legislative assembly set to begin Jan. 31.
