Glen Abernethy

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.

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...

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...

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.

I, like everybody else, have just received the report and will carefully consider the seven recommendations outlined by the coroner; however, I am not prepared to speak to those details yet because we haven’t concluded that review.

To the Member’s first part of the question, we would love to track medications and whatnot in order to avoid these types of issues, but as I said, there really is no system to do that or to require professionals to put that information into a prescription monitoring system until we complete the Health Information Act. Once we have the Health Information Act done, we...

Thank you, Madam Speaker. We don’t actually have a mechanism to track prescription drug abuse at this point in time, but things are underway to try and address this particular concern, and it is a serious concern and we do need to address it.

Under the Pharmacy Act there is an ability to set up a prescription monitoring program, but due to privacy issues that we’re all aware of, we currently cannot require health care providers to enter information into the program. Because we cannot require health care providers to enter the information, we have not yet set up a program to monitor...

As I indicated, I will share those protocols with the Member so that he can understand the protocols that are in place.

Individuals who have access to our electronic medical records are those individuals who have a reason to be reviewing those files with respect to the clinical management of a patient or client. But I will share those protocols with the Member. Thank you, Madam Speaker.

Thank you, Madam Speaker. I thank the Member for his question. As I indicated, we will share those protocols with the Member. I have had the opportunity to speak to the department about the protocols that are in place, including security passwords and all the other mechanisms that are in place to ensure that the privacy is secure.

I am not aware of any breaches of this system. A breach would be a serious issue. If there are breaches, I would appreciate the Member and all of my colleagues, if they’re aware, sharing those with us so that we can quantify them, fix them and make sure it doesn’t...

I don’t believe any agreements have been made necessarily at this point between Aurora College and the Sahtu Health and Social Services Authority where our personal support worker training is going to occur. I do know over the many years that the Personal Support Worker program has been delivered in a number of different communities. I believe at one point it was delivered in Fort Res in cooperation with Yellowknife. I know last year there was a large graduating class out of Yellowknife. I will certainly have those conversations to see if there are any opportunities to deliver it in the region...

Thank you, Madam Speaker. The health centre and long-term care facility in Norman Wells are scheduled to begin operations in 2016. We know that there are a significant number of positions that will come along with that facility, and the types of positions include registered nurses, licenced practical nurses, resident care aides, activity coordinators, physiotherapists, dietitians, cooks, cooks helpers, housecleaning, laundry, as well as some admin support, so there are a variety of types of jobs that may be there.

With respect to one of the areas, we know that we need to train some local people...