Glen Abernethy

I believe it’s important to get to the communities to meet with the residents. As the Minister of Health and Social Services, I’m absolutely committed to do that. I’ll take that as an invitation, and I’ll have my staff work with the Member’s staff and we’ll work out a date.

What we are trying to accomplish is a more integrated system of health and social services delivery in the Northwest Territories so that a resident in a community can receive seamless care through the whole system from their community of origin to any facility that can provide them the services they need. With a more integrated system, we can maximize our benefits of having patients go to other locations as opposed to just focusing, say, on Yellowknife. We’ll be able to flow patients to Inuvik, Hay River or wherever we can provide the best service in the best time for the best results, so it...

Thank you, Mr. Speaker. I wish to table the following document, entitled “Government of the Northwest Territories Anti-Poverty Action Plan, Building on the Strengths of Northerners, 2014-15 to 2015-16. Thank you.

I’d like to thank the Member for the invitation. We will certainly come to the community and we will come prepared. Thank you.

Where it’s deemed medically necessary by physicians or other health professionals, we would certainly be willing to have that conversation. I would encourage the Member to come to my office and maybe we can discuss the individual cases, because I’m not actually aware of the individual cases at this time. Thank you, Mr. Speaker.

Thank you, Mr. Speaker. The department is actually currently completing a Territorial Palliative Care Framework and Action Plan, which is going to guide us on the delivery of community-based palliative care services throughout the Northwest Territories, and this plan and action plan are expected to be completed by the end of March 2014. Once that’s done we’ll be in a better position to have a discussion about what we can do with existing infrastructure and new infrastructure.

I do know that with all new infrastructure that we’re building with respect to long-term care facilities, we are...

Thank you, Mr. Speaker. Obviously, we want to work with our residents to keep them as close to home as possible, recognizing that we do have some infrastructure challenges. The Housing Corp has been doing a significant amount of work with respect to facilities in the communities to provide some opportunities for elders as they age and have to move out of their own units. We are looking at putting in a long-term care facility in Norman Wells, which would be the first of its kind in that region. So we are doing a number of things, but from time to time we do have residents who do have to come...

In the Northwest Territories there are a number of long-term care facilities throughout the Territories in different communities and regions. The Housing Corp has done some pretty impressive work in getting some infrastructure on the ground to provide types of support. There is a dementia centre here in Yellowknife. So, we do provide a significant number of services to individuals needing it.

I’m not sure I fully understand the Member’s question. Is he asking how many seniors are utilizing long-term care facilities outside the Northwest Territories? I’m not too sure what he’s asking, but I’d be...

Thank you, Mr. Speaker. Psychiatric services in the Northwest Territories have been enhanced through a partnership between Stanton Territorial Health Authority as well as Dalhousie Global Psychiatry and Yellowknife Health and Social Services. As the Member knows, there are two resident psychiatrists in the Northwest Territories, and mental health services, as I’ve just said, have been expanded to include the Dalhousie Global Psychiatry department of Dalhousie University. Both the on-site psychiatrist and those helping us through Dalhousie provide both direct and distance treatment consultation...

There are a variety of conditions that our residents may be facing with respect to health. I know that we are doing a significant number of things around cancer and have cancer support groups and other groups and mechanisms that are available to individuals that are suffering from particular conditions. If the Member has some other conditions or some specific conditions that he would like to talk about, I would certainly be open to that discussion and encourage him to come down the hall and we can have that conversation. Thank you, Mr. Speaker.