Thank you, Mr. Speaker. My questions are for the Minister of Health and Social Services. I’d like to just note that many of my constituents work on behalf of elders across the Northwest Territories, and certainly many of them and many of our NWT seniors are concerned about the lack of dementia facilities and services, particularly in the small communities.
So I’d like to start by asking the Minister when will full dementia facilities be available in small community health facilities across the NWT. Thank you.
Thank you, Mr. Bromley. The Minister of Health and Social Services, Mr. Beaulieu.
Thank you, Mr. Speaker. The Department of Health and Social Services recognizes that we don’t have the facility to match all the situations in the Northwest Territories in the appropriate locations. So we’re developing a system called Continuum of Care for Seniors, and within that care we are looking at, first, all the possibilities of keeping individuals in their home as long as possible; secondly, working with the NWT Housing Corporation to develop assisted living inside the senior citizen’s home that they own and operate; thirdly, going into long-term care at the regional levels; then lastly, there are 132 people that have been placed in the last three years and 19 of them were appropriate for placement in the dementia centre. So there are only 24 beds in there – we recognize that – and 19 of them were placed in the last three years. Thank you.
Thanks for the comments from the Minister. Obviously, most of those don’t deal with dementia, but the last category is certainly the one we’re focusing on here today. The Territorial Admissions Committee makes decisions about placement of older adults – and I have no doubt that’s what the Minister was referring to there – and they make decisions to ensure they get placed where there is proper care. However, if there are facilities that are not being used, they’re in danger of making poor decisions. In fact, just such a situation exists in Fort Smith, where we have spent $6 million to open a wing and yet we have nobody to staff it. So, no use of those beds.
So my question is: How can this happen and what’s being done to correct it immediately, given the demand we have out there? Mahsi.
Thank you. There are 15 people on the overall waiting list for long care treatment. Right now we have five people on the waiting list to go into the Territorial Dementia Centre. That’s just added information.
I think that we need to use the units in Fort Smith. I recognize that people that need care because of cognitive issues are in the Northern Lights Home right now in Fort Smith, but to build a new wing and not have the money to operate it is not acceptable. We’re going to come back to the government as a department to try to get money to continue or expand the operations of that wing. Thank you.
Thanks to the Minister for those comments. Indeed, it is a principle to try and place people as close to home as possible, obviously, when we have a facility, but no way of operating it that’s not happening. So I appreciate the Minister is going to do something about this. My next question is when? Thank you.
I will start discussion with the authorities across the Territories immediately. I am in constant communication with the Joint Leadership Council through the chairs and the public administrators of all of the authorities across the territory. A dementia authority, yes, it is needed. It’s often a territorial resource. So I’ll discuss it with all of them in my next meeting, which I have scheduled for late January. We’ll start the discussions on how we could get the dementia centre, or the six-unit wing in Fort Smith operational as soon as possible. Thank you.
Thank you, Mr. Beaulieu. The Member for Inuvik Boot Lake, Mr. Moses. I’m sorry; Mr. Bromley.
Thank you, Mr. Speaker. That was three questions. I wonder if I could just get my fourth one in.
I’m sorry, Mr. Bromley. Yes, short supplementary. Go ahead.
Thank you, Mr. Speaker. Thanks again to the Minister. I’m still shaking my head over this $6 million and now we have to go discuss it with a bunch of people on whether to make this operational or not, given the demands on our infrastructure dollars. I’m shaking my head.
My last question is: Are other regions in the NWT in the same situation as this Fort Smith facility? Thank you.
Thank you. No, there’s no other area in long-term care, dementia or assisted living where there are units that are vacant that are ready to be used. There could possibly be units that are vacant that are not ready to be used at this time. Thank you.
Thank you, Mr. Beaulieu. The Member for Inuvik Boot Lake, Mr. Moses.
