Thank you, Mr. Speaker. My questions today are addressed to the Minister of Health and Social Services and I’d like to follow up on my statement about the breast cancer navigator position. I mentioned in my statement that the position has been empty for quite some time.
I’d like to ask the Minister, first off, if he could give me an update on what the department is doing to fill that breast cancer navigator position at Stanton. Thank you.
Thank you, Ms. Bisaro. The Minister of Health and Social Services, Mr. Abernethy.
Thank you, Mr. Speaker. As the Member indicated earlier, the position is no longer called a breast cancer patient navigator or a cancer patient navigator. The new one is, actually, the cancer care coordinator, which still has a key patient advocate role and we are currently trying to fill that position. We are going through some internal recruitment at Stanton to find somebody to take on that role. So we are recruiting as we speak. Thank you.
Thanks to the Minister for the update. I can appreciate that the coordinator will have an advocacy role, but I would stress that I believe that the navigator position is a lot closer to a patient than the cancer care coordinator is going to be. Just the very name “coordinator” removes it from the actual patient who is in a position to need the help.
One of the recommendations from the Breast Health/Breast Action Cancer Group was to expand the navigator position to the regions and to patients, patients with other cancers. So I’d like to ask the Minister if that is anywhere in the thinking of the Department of Health and Social Services.
Will we see navigators in the regions? Will we see navigators for patients other than breast cancer? Thank you.
Thank you. The cancer care coordinator will focus on navigating the system and embracing the patient-centred care philosophy. It will help improve the patient’s experience and care outcomes and empower a patient towards things like self-management, harm reduction and health improvement and maintenance.
This is a patient advocate and they will consult with a variety of health care providers in partnership with the patient. They will assist in identifying needs within the cancer care continuum for the patient and for the patient’s caregivers as well as their family. The cancer care coordinator will also work closely with the individuals in care of the roles and responsibilities. So, this is clearly an advocate position.
We do work closely with the Breast Health/Breast Cancer Action Group and the Aboriginal health and community wellness division has been doing a number of things with respect to the recommendations that have come forward from that group as well as other groups, not just them.
We aren’t, at this point in time, planning to put cancer care coordinators in every region, but we are looking at expanding the role of this particular one to be more than just breast health, and from there we’ll be able to make some more evidence-based decisions on whether this is something that is indeed needed throughout the territory. Thank you.
Thanks again to the Minister. The Minister mentioned the report and the 18 recommendations in the report and that they are doing some work on it. There are certainly several of them which I want to highlight. One I did already, but number two was to develop a standardized cancer care process, number seven, establish policies, protocols and mechanisms to ensure there’s good coordination and information flow among professionals, develop and implement breast cancer care after-care, which is something that we need in many different situations, and review the escort policy, which certainly Members have a very large interest in getting revised.
So, to the Minister, if they’re looking at this report from the Breast Health/Breast Cancer Action Group, can he tell me, have they responded to the action group on these 18 recommendations, and if so, is there a response to that report which could be available to Members and the public? Thank you.
Thank you. Cancer is obviously a big deal in the Northwest Territories. It is one of the leading causes of death in the Northwest Territories and to that end we are currently developing an NWT Cancer Strategy, which does incorporate input from many different groups, including the group that the Member has already referenced today. We’re also working with Aboriginal governments, we’re working with the individual health authorities, we’re working with elders and non-government organizations, communities, as well as cancer survivors. This isn’t just breast cancer. This is a number of the different cancers that people in the Northwest Territories experience. So we are taking all that data and we are developing an NWT Cancer Strategy. Thank you.
Thank you, Mr. Abernethy. Final, short supplementary, Ms. Bisaro.
Thank you, Mr. Speaker. To the Minister I would suggest since he didn’t say that they have replied to the report from the Breast Cancer Action Group I would take that as a no.
My last question is my usual time question. I’d like to ask the Minister when can we expect to have this cancer coordinator position filled. Thank you.
The Aboriginal Health and Community Wellness staff members are working with the group, the Breast Health/Breast Cancer Action Group that the Member has mentioned and they’ve been having continued dialogue. So there has been some conversations both ways. We are hoping to have the cancer care coordinator position filled in the immediate future, but it’s hard to say for sure whether we’ll find somebody. We are currently staffing. The staffing process usually takes a month or two. We’re hoping to have it filled within that period, but we have had problems staffing similar positions in the past. So I’d hate to give a hard and fast date, but we expect it to be soon. Thank you.
Thank you, Mr. Abernethy. The Member for Mackenzie Delta, Mr. Blake.
