Thank you, Mr. Speaker. I welcome the Minister back to the House. I have some questions for him, as well, today. I’d like to ask the Minister, in follow up to my Member’s statement earlier about seniors and programs that we do have for seniors, looking at the report, Our Elders, Our Communities document that was tabled in May 2014, some of the statistics show that elders who receive home care services vary from region to region. In some cases there are a lot of seniors who require that kind of service.
So I’d like to ask the Minister, what is our government doing to offset some of those high uses of home care, especially in the Beaufort-Delta where I think that’s one of the highest areas that access some of these home care services, and whether or not we have the resources to address those needs. Thank you.
Thank you, Mr. Moses. Minister of Health, Mr. Abernethy.
Thank you, Mr. Speaker. One of the large things we’re doing is actually the system transformation, which will allow us to focus our resources more appropriately than we have in the past. This will make an actual improvement in all areas of health and social services in the Northwest Territories, including the supports that we provide with home care. It will also ensure that we have a consistent approach for home care across the Northwest Territories. We also have partnerships with the NWT Seniors’ Society and we do provide them with a significant amount of money to run a number of different programs which we partner in as well.
One of the things that we’re partnering is the NWT network to prevent abuse of seniors, of which the NWT Seniors’ Society has run and we’re helping to fund that program. We’re helping to create awareness and other information around falls and elder abuse. Thank you.
I’m glad to hear the Minister speak towards elder abuse and creating some kind of awareness program.
There are all kinds of elder abuse, financial, physical, psychological, neglect, you could go on and on with the list. One thing that I’ve brought up in this House over the years is the duty to report and whether or not that’s something this government would like to implement as a policy for our senior care staff, or even the RCMP or anybody that works with seniors, that if they believe there’s abuse occurring that they have a duty to report that abuse.
Is there any update on that duty to report policy, or something that the government is looking at creating? Thank you.
There is no duty to report policy at this point in time, but if that’s something the committee is interested in, it certainly sounds like an interesting idea and I’d certainly be willing to have some discussions with committee on that topic. Thank you.
As we go through the budget, we understand that there are going to be some seniors homes that are being built in some of the communities across the Northwest Territories.
Is the Minister working with the communities to look at how we can train some of our local residents to take those jobs in those seniors’ homes when they’re up and ready to run? Is he starting now to get the proper training for our local residents so they can have the jobs in those homes? Thank you.
Thank you. We provide training or, rather, we partner in training for individuals that are taking or interested in resident care. Its primary focus right now is on the facilities, but that training is something that certainly we can look at expanding to other individuals to provide that type of support in communities throughout the Northwest Territories. So, resident care as well as home support workers. Thank you.
Thank you, Mr. Abernethy. Final, short supplementary, Mr. Moses.
Thank you, Mr. Speaker. As I mentioned earlier in my Member’s statement, I did speak with some people in the airports that were here for some training last week. I’m not sure if it was in partnership with Health and the Seniors’ Society, but it’s a great support system that we have for people who do this job.
My last question is in terms of the Care Mobility Program that the Housing Corporation is putting out there in this upcoming budget where the Housing Corp goes out to the communities and they help build the homes for seniors.
I’d like to ask, has the Minister had any input or given any direction on how these houses could be more adapted to seniors so they can live a more independent lifestyle in their homes? Has he had any discussions with the Housing Corporation and the architects to make sure that these houses are more adaptable living for senior citizens? Thank you.
Thank you. The Department of Health and Social Services continuing care and health systems planning staff actually have worked closely with the NWT Housing Corporation infrastructure services staff in the development of independent living models to support the community’s ability to meet seniors’ needs in the areas of socialization, nutrition and hygiene. This includes ensuring that there is some public space or some program space in each of these independent living units that can be utilized by Health and Social Services staff when they come in to meet with the residents of those buildings. Thank you.
Thank you, Mr. Abernethy. The honourable Member for Deh Cho, Mr. Nadli.
