Mahsi cho, Mr. Speaker. Today I talk about the importance of respite care in Tu Nedhe communities. I have questions for the Minister of Health and Social Services.
Mr. Speaker, Tu Nedhe is a part of the Yellowknife Health and Social Services Authority. I want to ask the Minister what the plan is specific to communities in Tu Nedhe. Thank you.
Thank you, Mr. Beaulieu. The honourable Minister responsible for Health and Social Services, Ms. Lee.
Thank you, Mr. Speaker. As I stated, we have begun to have a respite care program outside of Yellowknife for the last three years. We are not in all of the communities yet. We have started in the Beaufort-Delta and Deline and I believe we have a couple of respite programs in Simpson. So we need to continue to work together to find respite care programming in communities across the Territories. Thank you.
Mr. Speaker, I have a couple of situations in Tu Nedhe that need immediate assistance. I have a disabled couple taking care of an elderly uncle who’s I believe in his nineties. Could the Minister tell me what kind of assistance would be available for family members caring for people today? Thank you.
In situations like that, the Yellowknife Health and Social Services Authority, which is responsible for Tu Nedhe, would do an assessment on that individual and the family and provide either home care assistance, occupational therapy assistance, and work out a care plan for the family. Where there is a respite care program like Yellowknife, they could access those. But where there isn’t, home care and local health and social authorities would look to assist the family. Thank you.
Mr. Speaker, the situations in Tu Nedhe where individuals are being cared for by family, that’s happening without any compensation to the family, and what’s happening is the elders are now getting to a point where they feel that they’ve become a burden because they recognize that the family is doing this, taking shifts doing this on their own. Some seniors are even refusing care because there’s no money to support the families that are trying to help them.
Does the Minister and the health authority, I suppose, acknowledge the fact that respite care would, in the long run, save a lot of money for the government? Thank you.
In the long run we will always need support of the families to take care of our elders and we’ll always have to rely on the families who look after children with disabilities and all kinds of family members who need assistance, which is why respite care is important to these families. It gives them a little bit of breathing room and helps them cope with the challenge of the extra responsibilities that they have. So I don’t think the government will ever be in a place where we could do 24-hour care for everybody.
We need to work together with the families. In cases of elders and persons with disabilities, government works to provide home care programming. Home care is very multi-faceted. Sometimes it’s nursing coverage and sometimes it’s light housework. So the program is different. Where there is a respite care program, it just gives the families a break while they take care of their loved ones.
Thank you, Ms. Lee. Final supplementary, Mr. Beaulieu.
Mahsi cho, Mr. Speaker. In Tu Nedhe we still have more seniors in institutional care than we do in some sort of respite care, even though there is no money with the respite care. There are still individuals taking care of their aged and disabled family members. Does the Minister acknowledge that disabled and aged people have a better quality of life with family members under respite care rather than institutional care? Thank you.
Absolutely. Institutional care is always more expensive, usually far away, it’s less humane and less personal. So in all ways, we should, as a government, minimize that. We do also accept, though, there are situations where there is no choice but to give institutional care for some of our elderly and some of our residents because their needs are so acute and so expansive that no individual or families can provide that. This is why we have under the Foundation for Change action plan as a goal to enhance and expand home care and respite care. Thank you.
Thank you, Ms. Lee. The honourable Member for Yellowknife Centre, Mr. Hawkins.
