Glen Abernethy

Thank you, Mr. Speaker. The report identified that the department is offering a continuum of withdrawal management services, although there are some gaps and there is room for improvement. One of the areas of improvement is mostly around awareness. We need to do a better job of making sure that our nurse practitioners, our nurses, our physicians and other practitioners throughout the Northwest Territories, as well as outside stakeholders like RCMP are aware of the program. We’re working on information to get out to these individuals so that they understand what is available and how we can...

One of the best ways to reduce the amount of smoking is to ensure that new people don’t start smoking, which is why we are working with the schools and the community health reps in the individual communities to tailor programs to suit, match or meet the needs of individual communities.

With respect to individuals that are already smokers, we are providing the NWT Helpline, and we also encourage them, if they need additional support, to talk to their physicians or health practitioners in their communities, who will be able to point them in a path of tools that might work for them on a cessation...

Thank you, Mr. Speaker. I can’t remember the exact rates off the top of my head but I do know that we have some of the highest rates in Canada. Thank you.

Thank you. That’s certainly an interesting concept and certainly something that I will have the department look at. At this time I cannot say that there are actual funds available to do this exact thing, this exact roundtable of conversation, but it’s something that’s certainly interesting and I’ll have the department take a look at it. Thank you.

Thank you, Mr. Speaker. We don’t actually have any programs at this time dedicated strictly or particularly to post-traumatic stress disorder, but we do have psychiatric assessment and treatment that is available both on an in-patient and outpatient basis. So if an individual is suffering from post-traumatic stress disorder, they can access outpatient care or treatment through a referral from a nurse or a doctor or other professionals here in the Northwest Territories. So I would strongly encourage individuals who are going through this to get in touch with their medical practitioners. Thank...

Yes, understood.

Mr. Speaker, this is true for all the communities in the Northwest Territories where we don’t have emergency rooms, so many of our small communities are in this particular situation.

When an individual in one of these communities is sick or experiencing an emergency, there are numbers they can call into their health centre, whether it’s a community health nurse or, in the case of Tsiigehtchic, CHR or CHW, or in Tsiigehtchic they may actually choose to call the emergency room. Those professionals will still be able to contact Med-Response to help coordinate medical response in those communities...

Once we have a better idea of what the program is and what it offers, it’s something we may be able to do, but at this time I just don’t know enough about it to say yes or no.

Thank you, Mr. Speaker. The reviews the Member is talking about are all part of the entire health transformation we’re going through right now where we’re looking at how we’re providing services in all communities throughout the Northwest Territories in order to enhance services. That work is ongoing. The legislation will be coming in front of this House shortly and the planning will continue through to 2016, when we hope to go live.

But at the same time, we’re not just waiting for that to happen. We are implementing Med-Response, which I’ve mentioned several times in the House. We did a soft...

At this point in time there is no intention to build a territorial treatment facility in the Northwest Territories. We will continue to utilize the incredible facilities that we use in the South that are giving a wide range of programs and services to the people of the Northwest Territories; we will continue to deliver on-the-land programming through our Aboriginal partners, which the money has been put in the budget to do so; and we are continuing to pursue the mobile treatment options, which I would be happy to discuss with Members more.

With respect to withdrawal management, that is in the...