Debates of December 12, 2011 (day 6)

Topics
Statements

QUESTION 45-17(1): SUPPORTS FOR FAMILIES OF CANCER PATIENTS

Thank you, Mr. Speaker. I spoke in my Member’s statement that in my meeting with the people in Fort Good Hope all of the speakers talked about the number of cancer-related diagnosed community members and the different sources that possibly cancer could be coming from. The most heartbreaking comments were from young people in the communities on the ones who are the surviving members of cancer. So I wanted to ask the Minister what type of support can be given to the people in Fort Good Hope or the family members who have to deal with the loss of their loved ones due to the number of recent cancer deaths in that community.

Speaker: MR. SPEAKER

Thank you, Mr. Yakeleya. The Minister of Health, Mr. Beaulieu.

Thank you, Mr. Speaker. Grieving families of individuals who have passed away from cancer can get client counselling from the community counsellors. Also the access through how they can obtain community counsel to deal with the grieving of loved ones through cancer can be arranged through the community health nurse. Thank you.

There’s an author that’s renowned for her work with death and cancer, Elisabeth Kubler-Ross, and she talks about dealing with grief, and the general normal grief process takes about two years for the person to go through the whole grief cycle. Of course, with our Aboriginal people we have our own cultural grief ceremonies.

I wanted to ask the Minister, because there are so many deaths in Fort Good Hope, is there any way that his department can find a dedicated person to come to Fort Good Hope, stay in Fort Good Hope, and deal with the hundreds of people that are affected by one cancer death or two cancer deaths or three cancer deaths rather than to go and seek counselling services in the community. I want a dedicated person to deal with the cancer deaths in the community and have someone there on a full-time basis.

At this time our intention was to have the chief medical officer go to Fort Good Hope to meet with the people there. I know I have talked to the chairman of the Sahtu Health and Social Services Board and she’s interested in myself, along with some departmental staff and the MLA to go to the Sahtu and travel to all the communities, including Fort Good Hope, and maybe from that type of discussion could evolve into something that is more focused on this particular issue.

I certainly look forward to that trip with the Minister. One of the speakers in my meeting said living in Fort Good Hope is stressful and scary. You don’t know if your number’s next and you’re going to be the one told that you have cancer. It’s very tragic and painful to listen to young people sit in front of you and cry and say my mom or my dad has cancer. I know they’re not going to live long and they’re going to die.

I’m asking the Minister if he will start plans or look at plans to have somebody come into Fort Good Hope and sit with the living members of someone who has died of cancer or people who have recently been diagnosed with cancer and work with them, just like the book I quoted earlier from Elisabeth Kubler-Ross, and talk about death and dying and help our people. Can the Minister look at some plans to look at that type of initiative? This is what the people are telling me and I don’t think I need the Minister to hear exactly what I’m already telling him. Can the Minister work on some earlier plans?

The cancer rates across the Northwest Territories have gone up. Between 1992 and 2009, cancer rates are 162 cases per 100,000 to an increase of 283 cases per 100,000. In Fort Good Hope it is a bit higher but it is not significantly higher than that particular NWT number. It’s 331 cases per 100,000. That doesn’t mean we don’t want to focus on the issue. As the Minister, I would be prepared to discuss some sort of strategy to address the issue of all of the people in the Northwest Territories that have loss through cancer and try to address that issue in a more across-the-board way.

Speaker: MR. SPEAKER

Thank you, Mr. Beaulieu. Final supplementary, Mr. Yakeleya.

Thank you, Mr. Speaker. The people in Fort Good Hope have asked me why they have to yell so loud for help. Recognizing there are a lot of cancer deaths in the Northwest Territories, my people in Fort Good Hope in the last month have three more who have been diagnosed with cancer. That’s three more families that are affected right now. They are asking for help. Why do they have to yell so loud to this government to say bring somebody in? Let them work with the families. Let them work with the young ones. Let them understand what death and dying is all about and how hard it’s going to be for them. Can the Minister work on some early plans, look at his department and say that we can dedicate some funds to help the people in Fort Good Hope to deal with cancer, especially on death and dying?

In Fort Good Hope between 2001 and 2009 there’s been 19 cases of diagnosis with cancer and there are 980 cases of cancer diagnosis across the NWT.

I’m not saying we don’t want to do this in Fort Good Hope; all I’m saying is it would be good for the department and it would be feasible for the department to develop a strategy that addresses the issue right across the Territories and not specific to one community.

Speaker: MR. SPEAKER

Thank you, Mr. Beaulieu. The honourable Member for Hay River South, Mrs. Groenewegen.