Thank you, Mr. Speaker. Mr. Speaker, today in my Member's statement I talked about mental illness and suicides in my region. My questions are to follow up to the Minister of Health and Social Services. Has there been any outreach to education institutions specializing in Health and Social Services programs for recommendations or potential training for healthcare professionals and residents of the GNWT aside from what we do presently? Thank you, Mr. Speaker.
Masi. Minister of Health and Social Services.
Thank you, Mr. Speaker. Mr. Speaker, as the Member knows, we do have a relationship with Aurora College and they do provide important training, things like resident care aid training and nursing, but I think the Member is asking about some of the other things that we are exploring. I did have an opportunity to meet with the Dean of Effective Medicine at the University of Alberta to talk about potential opportunities for us to work together in bringing physicians up for residency placements, but also the possibility of having some dental hygienists come up for some practicum placements. We are looking to having those types of relationships with institutions to see what opportunities exist and to see how we can benefit our residents here in the Northwest Territories.
I thank the Minister for his answer. I guess my concern is regarding the mental health and mental wellness of our individuals, and I have to applaud the department and the staff who are there helping us. However, is the department looking at mental health resources like telepsychology and looking into for remote, small communities? Right now we do not have staff in there, so are we able to be looking at some of these options?
Mr. Speaker, the use of telepsychiatry is already in place in the Northwest Territories. The telehealth support unit may be able to provide those types of services directly to individuals or indirectly to communities based on supports and resources that are required to support individual people. However, I do want to caution that often that would be for follow-up appointments and those types of things. Initial appointments, I believe, and I think many people believe that some of that needs to be done person-to-person, psychiatrist or counsellor with an individual, so that they can start to develop a rapport and a relationship, so there still is a requirement to try to facilitate some face-to-face, but, as follow-up appointments, we do have the ability to use our telehealth and other tools that are available.
I again thank the Minister for his answer. I guess my concern is small communities that do not have staffing there, and that is something that we need to look into. Mr. Speaker, having a database upon which ministry program outcomes could be monitored would give us a better idea of what kind of programs are working for our residents. Does the Department of Health and Social Services currently have one in place? If it does not, does the department intend to look into implementing one?
The department is continuously enhancing and looking for ways to enhance efforts to ensure that we have administrative databases that allow us to monitor program outcomes. We do have the electronic medical records as well as the new Child and Family Services information system that went live last week. With electronic medical records, we have not got it into every community yet, but we are rolling it out, and we are intending to have that done shortly. Those tools will help us collect data that will help this Assembly as well as the department make evidence-based decisions about what is actually happening out there. We also have 32 indicators that we track on a regular basis and compile data on so that we can monitor the effects and the results of the services that are being provided, so there are a lot of things that we are using to collect data at this point.
Masi. Oral questions. Member for Nahendeh.
Quyanainni, Mr. Speaker, and I again thank the Minister for his answer. Mr. Speaker, what measures are being taken to ensure that programs delivered by Health and Social Services in all communities are done correctly and adhere to all policies and procedures?
Mr. Speaker, the department publicly reports on outcomes through our public performance measurement report which comes out annually. Public reporting of performance indicators and results basically allows for an open and transparent assessment of the effectiveness of the health and social services system as well as our programs. Both in 2015 as well as in 2016, the public performance measurement report included over two dozen indicators covering a wide range of topics related to health and wellness. These are the types of things that we are going to continue to report on so that we can show progress or lack thereof in the different areas of the system here, in the Northwest Territories, to help us make evidence-based decisions. Thank you.
Masi. Oral questions. Member for Kam Lake.
