Thank you, Mr. Speaker. My question today is just a follow up from my statement regarding heart and stroke. My question is to the Minister of Health and Social Services. What methods do we use, especially in small communities, to detect and diagnose heart disease in children?
Thank you, Mr. Nadli. The honourable Minister responsible for Health and Social Services, Mr. Beaulieu.
Thank you, Mr. Speaker. I believe that the method that is used is used by the doctors. I don’t actually know the exact terminology, but it goes to the regular process during the time when a child would be feeling ill. The doctors would go through a process that I’m not familiar with or not an expert to speak of at this time.
I’d like to thank the Minister for his response. My other question is: Is information regarding heart disease and heart conditions getting to school kids, and if so, how is that being done regarding the overall health of children and heart conditions?
The department supports some of the Healthy Family programs. We have some Healthy Family programs in the North and also there’s Healthy Babies. During the prenatal stages there is support given to the mothers to see if there could be any issues prior to birth. One of the key areas is that when the babies are just born and until they start school, they have a program, Healthy Babies, and if there’s any issue, it’s hoped it would be caught at that point.
I’d like to thank the Minister again. Just in terms of my final question, how do we know that information programs, whether it’s Healthy Babies or initiatives to ensure that heart disease is detected, are effective since we know that the rate of obesity, for example, is rising?
At this time we recognize the fact that there is obesity, high obesity amongst children. The department is trying to work with the federal government on the childhood obesity issue right across the board by asking the health centres and anybody that is in the health field to work on proper eating, and not eating sugar, and exercising and so on. Essentially what we’re trying to do is approach this from a wellness and promotion area, hoping that these issues are picked up at this time. Some of them are difficult to pick up, but that is what we are hoping to do with the promotion and prevention programs.
Thank you, Mr. Beaulieu. The honourable Member for Weledeh, Mr. Bromley.
