Inuvik Boot Lake

Statements in Debates

Debates of , 17th Assembly, 5th Session (day 61)

Thank you, Mr. Speaker. I’d like to table a document developed by the Mental Health Commission of Canada. It’s titled “Informing the Future: Mental Health Indicators for Canada.”

Debates of , 17th Assembly, 5th Session (day 61)

One of the Members earlier talked about nursing in the small communities. As the Minister knows, we have eight communities that don’t have nurses. I wonder if the department would be looking at changing its policy in terms of looking at trying to see if we can staff nurses in some of these communities, but if not, the amount of days that a public health nurse or a nurse would go into the community. I know that in some cases, the Minister mentioned in the House that a public health nurse will go in for two days sometimes. But I wonder if he could change the policy so that there are more...

Debates of , 17th Assembly, 5th Session (day 61)

This document, the Mental Health Indicators for Canada, will help paint a complete picture of mental health throughout this country and also here in the Northwest Territories. It’s going to allow us to tell us how well we are doing or how poorly we are doing in terms of the health system in responding to Canadians’ mental health and well-being and their needs and what we need to do to effect the change and also here in the Northwest Territories.

Will the Minister and his department look at these? There are 13 indicators. Will he and his department look at these 13 indicators, compare it to our...

Debates of , 17th Assembly, 5th Session (day 61)

Thank you, Mr. Chair. Just a couple of other things I didn’t get a chance to speak to last time. In terms of mental health services, I want to get a quick update on… I’m not sure if it was a pilot project or the work that was being done with Dalhousie University in terms of telehealth for mental health counselling services. Are we still using that and is it being utilized to a degree? Thank you.

Debates of , 17th Assembly, 5th Session (day 61)

Thank you, Mr. Speaker. I just want to reiterate that the implementation guide is available at no cost, so it would be no cost to government to take a look at that.

The last one is the Canadian Standards Association does a one-day workshop in partnership with the Mental Health Commission of Canada with regard to this implementation guide.

Would the Minister possibly look into having his staff take that one-day training and see how much of an impact it does have and whether or not we can develop a training type of program under these national standards? Would he ask his staff to look into that...

Debates of , 17th Assembly, 5th Session (day 61)

That action plan was developed February 2008 and a lot has changed in the last seven years, and I appreciate the Minister working with the Persons with Disabilities Council to look at modernizing this and see how we can take better steps in working with the Council and with individuals.

The next one is in terms of home care support and whether or not we’re providing our home care staff in the communities and in the regional centres… I know we have, I think, when I was working with public health, we only had one home care support worker, and to deal with a community of over 3,000 at the time was...

Debates of , 17th Assembly, 5th Session (day 61)

I do appreciate that. I think it will give us an indication of how well we as a government are doing for employees out in the workforce.

I mentioned that on November 25, 2014, the Mental Health Commission of Canada released the implementation guide for psychological health and safety workplace standards. This is the first time something like this has ever been done.

Is the Minister familiar with that program or that the release had happened last November and whether his department is looking into that type of implementation program as something we can build on here in the Northwest Territories...

Debates of , 17th Assembly, 5th Session (day 61)

Thank you, Mr. Chair. I guess this is a big piece of the Health and Social Services in terms of programs and services that we provide to residents and also supporting our not-for-profit organizations. I guess the first question that I do have is about a year ago, yes, just over a year ago we tabled the Early Childhood Development Action Plan in the House here, and it was a combination between Education, Culture and Employment and Health and Social Services. When you look at the action items, the Department of Health and Social Services was accountable for 14 of those action items. With a year...

Debates of , 17th Assembly, 5th Session (day 61)

Thank you, Mr. Speaker. When we talk about mental health, there are so many branches and so many different avenues we can take in addressing and talking about this very, very harmful disease. What I want to talk about today is some of the work that’s been done with the Mental Health Commission of Canada.

Last year, November 25th, the Mental Health Commission of Canada released a comprehensive implementation guide to help Canadian employers fully adopt the national standard of Canada for psychological health and safety in the workplace, something that is needed. This implementation guide is...

Debates of , 17th Assembly, 5th Session (day 61)

I think the next question that I have in line deals with the ambulatory care services. On a couple of occasions during my term, we have had infants that were born in the Beaufort-Delta in the Inuvik Regional Hospital that were born with jaundice. I’ve asked twice in this House about BiliBlankets. I believe they only have one at the Inuvik Hospital. Should two babies that are born with jaundice happen to be born at the same time, one will be able to get the phototherapy that they need with the blanket, but the other one we’d have to send out on a medevac and those are thousands and thousands of...