Great Slave

Statements in Debates

Debates of , 17th Assembly, 5th Session (day 12)

There are a number of different things that happen depending on the location you’re at. The NWT Community Counselling Standards Manual has a standard on crisis intervention, which would respond to crisis situations similar to suicide or attempted suicide. The standard identifies suicide protocols and procedures for action to be taken, documentation and screening, such as the mental status examination and suicide risk assessments. So those happen in the community if somebody presents with an attempted suicide. The manual also includes suicide prevention resources that an individual may access.

W...

Debates of , 17th Assembly, 5th Session (day 12)

We can require individuals to put information into a prescription monitoring program, or we can, rather, ask them to do, but we cannot force them to do it at this particular point in time. Once we have the Health Information Act, it will be a requirement and they will need to put it in there. The Member is actually, in fact, wrong.

With respect to what we are doing already, the individual health authorities, as I have already said, have put in place processes to limit access to prescription medications in situations where they have concern about a potential abuser. I will go a little further...

Debates of , 17th Assembly, 5th Session (day 12)

There are things happening with respect to the survey. I’ll certainly get that information back to the Member.

Within individual health and social services authorities, or at the authority level, steps have been taken and put in place to limit access to prescription medications in situations where there is a concern about potential abuse of medications. Also, the federal government is currently working in partnership with all of the territories and provinces across the country and looking at ways to address prescription drug abuse. As a department, we will continue to work with the federal and...

Debates of , 17th Assembly, 5th Session (day 12)

Madam Speaker, having healthy, vibrant and safe communities is a key priority for the Government of the Northwest Territories. This is why, over the past year, we have worked with communities as they developed wellness plans, to set priorities and guide how wellness funding should be directed.

I am pleased to announce that all of our communities are on track to complete their plans by March 31, 2014. These are living documents. They speak of the importance of supporting families and child development, celebrating culture, eating good food, being active, promoting mental wellness, building local...

Debates of , 17th Assembly, 5th Session (day 12)

The individual that’s doing that assessment is one of the quality assurance people making sure that EMR is being utilized appropriately.

With respect to individuals accessing or abusing the information, I’m not actually aware of any situations. I will talk to the department to see if we have any evidence or suggestions that someone has breached files confidentiality.

As I’ve said to the Member before, if the Member is aware of a situation, it sure would be nice if he would be willing to share that information so we can get into the system to make sure no breaches are happening. We take all...

Debates of , 17th Assembly, 5th Session (day 12)

Thank you, Madam Speaker. As I said in the past when asked this question, we do have a number of protocols with respect to who has access to records, but we also do have a quality assurance professional that does review who is accessing files isn’t looking specifically at the files themselves, but is looking at and monitoring access. That person looks to see how many people are accessing, how often an individual might be accessing a particular file, will check to see if somebody has the same surname as the file is accessing it to make sure people are only accessing files they should. If and...

Debates of , 17th Assembly, 5th Session (day 12)

I don’t know if those types of statistics are kept. I will check with the department and get back to the Member. Thank you, Madam Speaker.

Debates of , 17th Assembly, 5th Session (day 12)

Thank you, Madam Speaker. There were two questions there, and I will try to answer both of them. The department works in partnership with the NWT Recreation and Parks Association to support training for community-based workers and activities that enhance independence and quality of life for elders. Research has identified several key areas to promote healthy aging, including physical activity and falls prevention, and falls prevention being of particular interest. In conjunction with Elders in Motion training gathering, the department and regional staff are developing a territorial falls...

Debates of , 17th Assembly, 5th Session (day 12)

I recognize from the Member’s earlier statements that obviously face to face is preferable. That is not always the case, but we do have an ability to have individuals call certain professionals and receive services by telephone or by telehealth. But it’s not just a matter of the professional provider. We are eager and interested in helping individuals within communities develop skills so that they can provide support to the individuals. One of the things that we are doing is Applied Suicide Intervention Skills Training, which we are offering across the Northwest Territories.

As you all know...

Debates of , 17th Assembly, 5th Session (day 12)

Thank you, Madam Speaker. With regard to the statistics related to attempted suicides, data would actually be incredibly difficult to collect because there are multiple diagnoses that an individual coming in who has attempted suicide or believed to have attempted suicide might come in with. Client diagnosis codes would often be related to the method of attempted suicide, how somebody chooses to attempt to take their own life. So, there would be multiple different codes that would be used. So, as a result, it would be very difficult to provide that information. Thank you.