Thank you, Mr. Speaker. I spoke earlier about the elders and the passing of them. Mr. Speaker, I want to ask the Minister of Health and Social Services, I know it’s been a wish of the elders prior to them passing, that a lot of them want to stay in their own communities and be laid to rest there. However, sometimes that’s not possible. I want to ask the Minister, in terms of helping with the families with the elders’ wishes, what type of palliative care do they have in the Sahtu region in terms of helping with the elders and their last days in their communities.
Thank you, Mr. Yakeleya. The honourable Minister responsible for Health and Social Services, Ms. Lee.
Thank you, Mr. Speaker. Currently, the palliative care or support for elders or those who are suffering from other medical conditions in small communities are supported by local health staff and home care staff. Thank you.
Mr. Speaker, the support that is there, sometimes it is not meeting the needs of these elders and their families. What can be done to increase the support so that families do have time to rest and take a break to take care of their families?
Right now we have six families, possibly, in Deline who are going to need support for the families. What can the Minister do and what can this government do in terms of supporting these families, in terms of the needs for these elders?
Enhancing home care service and community support is one of the goals of the department. We appreciate that extra resources are needed to expand those services, but for now we deliver those services with the staff and resources we have in the communities. Thank you.
Certainly we want to enhance the resources and the support in the communities and certainly that is one of our goals. However, I want to ask the Minister: When can we reach that goal? What is it that she needs us to do in terms of going into the communities in the Sahtu, going into Deline and saying we have these dollars, here, we are going to help these families in need?
Right now there are six families that do need palliative care support. Right now we are not meeting them and soon we’re going to have these families make some tough decisions as to sending their families into Inuvik or Yellowknife and that’s where they’re going to die. I want to ask the Minister what is she going to do to help these families in the Sahtu region.
That’s the first time that I’ve heard of the six clients that the Member is mentioning. I will be happy to undertake to get those names and get information from the authority as to what work we are providing for them. Thank you.
Thank you, Ms. Lee. Your final supplementary, Mr. Yakeleya.
Mr. Speaker, I will certainly be happy to give those six names to the Minister. Also, there are other elders in the Sahtu who have already passed away and should have had support by this department to know that they can die an honourable death in their communities rather than come to Yellowknife and...(inaudible)...other facilities that passed away. This has put a lot of stress on the people in the Sahtu. I want to ask the Minister what is it that she needs to do to put extra support within her department, extra support within the communities to have palliative care support in the communities right now. Right now, it’s not adequate. What does she need to do?
For the immediate future, right now I need to get more information on the situation with the families and to talk with the authority to make sure that the resources needed are supported for those families. In the long-term and mid-term, the MLA knows that this is what we want to do more of. It’s part of our Foundation for Change action plan. We want to be able to change our system so that we strengthen our local and community delivery and find more resources so that we can support our elders, and chronically ill, and persons with disabilities in our local communities. Thank you.
Thank you, Ms. Lee. The honourable Member for Kam Lake, Mr. Ramsay.
