Jane Groenewegen

I’d like to call Committee of the Whole to order today. What is the wish of the committee? Ms. Bisaro.

Thank you, Mr. Abernethy. Deputy Minister DeLancey.

Thank you, Ms. Bisaro. Minister Abernethy.

Wouldn’t it be wonderful if the Mental Health First Aid became as prevalent as having a First Aid certificate? I mean, you can hardly work anywhere or do anything without a First Aid course and certification.

The other day in the House, also, I asked the Minister that seeing that we cannot be, as a health service, everywhere all the time in every community, I had asked the Minister again about this idea of hooking patients or clients up with counsellors remotely through telehealth or through telephone counselling, telephone support. I’d like to ask the Minister, what is currently in place and...

Agreed. Thank you. Health and Social Services, ambulatory care services, operations expenditure summary, $60.154 million. Mr. Dolynny.

Thank you, Minister Abernethy. Ms. DeLancey.

Thank you, Mr. Speaker. My questions today are for the Minister of Health and Social Services. I allude in my statement to the fact that we cannot have resources on the ground everywhere all the time to respond to some of the needs of people who have either had treatment or are waiting to go to treatment that are back in our communities and needing some kind of support.

I’d like to ask the Minister of Health and Social Services if any consideration or research has ever gone into the idea of supporting or funding local groups. That could be people who are in recovery, people who have had...

Thank you, Mr. Moses. More of a comment there, I didn’t hear a question.

Administrative and support services, grants, contributions and transfers, total contributions, $43.887 million.

Thank you, Mr. Abernethy. Ms. Bisaro.

Thank you, Mr. Speaker. Today we’re going to do a little bit of a theme day on mental illness. When I think of mental illness, I think of anxiety, depression, bipolar, schizophrenia and addictions.

Some come and go, some are lifelong, some will respond well to medication and some others not so well. Some result from a hereditary predisposition and some are less likely to be hereditary, but all mental illness deserves the same response as any other physical illness. To that end, I think our resources through the Department of Health and Social Services and this government are stretched very...