Mr. Speaker, I’d like to take the opportunity today to highlight a pressing need in our health care system.
It’s well known that more and more of our residents are choosing to stay in the N.W.T. as they age instead of moving down south. It’s no surprise, then, that the elder segment of our population is increasing — actually, it’s three times the national rate.
Health issues associated with aging are surfacing and stressing our health care programs, our facilities and our residents. Unfortunately, our health care system more and more must manage geriatric illnesses. Perhaps the most challenging of these are dementia and Alzheimer’s.
Family members must watch helplessly as the parent or a sibling recedes from them and from reality. As the patient becomes lost to the real world, concerns for their safety and security move to the forefront. Patients wander away without knowledge of where they are or where they’re going, not knowing the time of day or night, with no awareness of weather conditions as they go out the door at minus 40. Without realizing it, they’re violent towards their caregivers.
There are no proper care facilities for dementia patients in the N.W.T. So it falls to the patients’ families to struggle with how to provide good and adequate care for them. The choices are few: care for the patient at home, which means constant care 24 hours a day, seven days a week — a daunting task for any family member, no matter how much they love the patient; second, admit the patient to a hospital to be cared for there, a facility neither designed for long-term care nor secure for these patients; or, last, send the loved one out to a dementia facility in the south, a heart-wrenching decision.
None of these choices is the right choice. This House has an opportunity to make inroads on the dilemma currently facing families and caregivers of dementia patients. Planning is underway for a badly needed Territorial dementia centre, the culmination of much dedication and hard work on the part of the Yellowknife Association of Concerned Citizens for Seniors in conjunction with the Government of the Northwest Territories and with assistance from a community-minded Yellowknife business.
A completed centre will meet the unique needs of dementia patients, afford them a good quality of life and give peace to their families. Our Northern elders deserve the best we can provide for them. This facility will do that. Over the next few weeks Members can ensure that the building of this centre becomes a reality. I urge all Members to think of our elders and support this project.
