Glen Abernethy

I don’t have the specific details. I will commit to getting that information for the Member, but it’s my understanding that it’s about $300,000, but I’ll get the exact number for our Member and committee.

Recognizing the support this committee has for Healthy Family programs, I imagine that we will see an increase in the budget once the supp passes. Thank you.

It’s too early to say whether Hay River is going to roll into this new authority immediately or whether it’s going to be transitioned over time. We are doing that work and I’m certainly happy to have continued discussions with the Member on that. In the meantime, I will work with the public administrator in Hay River and have the department work with the CEO to see how we can reduce some of the wait time in Hay River.

Thanks, Madam Chair. I am happy to answer the question now. We did send the draft Medical Travel Policy to the Standing Committee on Social Programs to provide us with input. We are just tweaking it right now at which point we’ll be sending it to the executive for final consideration. At the same time, we are also working on the individual pillars that fall under the Medical Travel Policy and right now we’re actually doing the work on patients, supports and escorts that began in 2014, December. Our consultants have travelled to communities like Hay River, Inuvik, Tuk and Behchoko. They’ve gone...

The Member has recently brought that to my attention and we’re working with the Beaufort-Delta to figure out what’s going on with the details of the situation and we will be able to respond back to the Member shortly.

Actually, the Member for Yellowknife Centre answered that question earlier. We do have a 1-800 Helpline that is available 24/7 for individuals who need to talk to somebody if they’re experiencing some level of crisis. We also have the Dalhousie psychiatry program here in the Northwest Territories. It does take a referral to get to that program, but individuals can access that as a way and means of getting support they need when they may not be able to get an in-person visit. We do have community counsellors, as well, through most of the communities, and I do encourage people to follow up with...

The Department of Health and Social Services has just recently put in 32 indicators to monitor the effectiveness of the health and social services system here in the Northwest Territories. But we also rely on information that other organizations are putting together to help us make informed decisions here in the Northwest Territories, organizations such as CIHI. Any nationally recognized organization that is doing this type of an analysis, we do get the information and we do look at it. We’re always looking for ways to improve our reporting mechanisms. So, we will certainly look at that, and...

Thank you, Madam Chair. As I indicated yesterday, a significant portion of the system funding within the Department of Health and Social Services is actually for the authorities. So, recognizing that the authorities report on criteria and categories that were created by CIHI and the department didn’t, we have moved to a system where our reporting system that’s in front of you now mirrors what’s coming from the authorities and is consistent with CIHI, and this is one of the categories that existed. In previous budgets these dollars would have been in one of the sections where it said “transfers...

Thank you. The dollars actually came in in the ’14-15 fiscal year, which we’re using for the transition and the planning, and it came in by way of a supp in ’14-15. So it will not show as an increase in ’15-16. Thank you.

I’m not prepared to commit to a standard today. We’d have to do some analysis and research to see what would be reasonable. I will say that throughout the Northwest Territories the wait times do vary. For instance, in Yellowknife it’s two to three months for counselling, two months for adult psychiatry and it could be two or three months for child and youth psychiatry, and these are for non-urgent issues. In the Sahtu, in Tulita it’s two months. In Deline it’s, surprisingly, turned out to be about two weeks; Colville Lake, one month. In the Deh Cho, Fort Providence is about three weeks, Fort...