Thank you, Mr. Speaker. Early investments in the health and well-being of mothers and children through nurse-family programs pays huge benefits down through the years. Good work is underway in four communities through the Healthy Families Program at the Department of Health and Social Services and I look forward to hearing more details on any expansion to be proposed in this year’s budget.
Nurse-family programs focus on improving prenatal health, reducing child abuse and enhancing family functioning in the first two years of the child’s life. Unlike many mental health, substance abuse and crime prevention programs, nurse-family programs help first-time mothers become effective parents.
Results of this support are enormous, as demonstrated in a growing number of studies and case assessments. In studies of low-income mothers in U.S. cities the nurse-visited women smoked 25 percent fewer cigarettes during pregnancy, had fewer kidney infections and produced heavier babies. Mothers and children had better diets and there were 80 percent fewer cases of child abuse and neglect. By age 15 the children had fewer criminal convictions, by two-thirds. They also had 60 percent fewer sexual partners, smoked almost one-third fewer cigarettes, and consumed alcohol on less than half the days of the control group.
After 15 years, poor, unmarried women still showed major benefits. They had fewer subsequent pregnancies, fewer months on income support, there was an 80 percent reduction in the child abuse again, a major reduction in maternal misbehaviour due to alcohol and drug abuse, and 70 percent fewer arrests. The number of days mothers were in the hospital for injuries dropped by 80 percent. By age six, children had fewer behavioural and mental health problems, grades were better, they were using less tobacco, alcohol or street drugs. Each study showed the most significant improvements were seen in high-risk, poor families.
This type of program is exactly what was recommended by the Child and Family Services Act review for every NWT community. It’s the kind of integrated model being called for in the No Place for Poverty workshop recommendations. It’s about the integrated cross-government approach we must take to prevent problems, rather than spending on the bottomless pit of battling symptoms.
I seek unanimous consent to conclude my statement.
---Unanimous consent granted
The current delivery of the Healthy Families Program in four communities has been endorsed by all and provides the basis for rolling this program out across the Territory. We know dollars are short, but the demonstrated, almost miraculous, benefits of nurse-family programs shows this is where we should be staking our resources. Our existing small community nursing station delivery model and our social services Healthy Families programs provides the basis on which to build.
I will be pushing for maximum emphasis on this approach and will be asking the Minister questions on how to pursue this to the fullest.
Thank you, Mr. Bromley. The honourable Member for Great Slave, Mr. Abernethy.
