Thank you, Mr. Speaker. This morning I spoke about an incident that occurred at the Woodland Manor in Hay River, and I have some questions for the Minister of Health and Social Services about that incident and, I guess, about violence at longterm care facilities in general. Has this incident spurred the department to look into how they can take safeguards to avoid these types of incidents in the future? Thank you, Mr. Speaker.
Masi. Minister of Health and Social Services.
Thank you, Mr. Speaker. Mr. Speaker, the Member is aware, as I know the Assembly is, that I can't talk about specific individual cases, so I'll talk in more general terms about the types of things we do when there is an incident. When an incident does occur within a longterm care facility, regardless of where it happens to be in the Northwest Territories, immediate measures are taken to ensure that residents are safe and staff are safe. That's our first priority. The next process is to actually do an investigation.
We do an investigation of all situations in longterm care facilities where a safety has been put in jeopardy. This is intended to help us learn from these incidents so that we can put in measures or safeguards to make sure that these types of things don't happen again. Our goal is to prevent future incidents.
As a note, our new longterm care facilities are designed with cameras in the hallways and other safety measures, such as doors that can be locked down to lock off or isolate areas to keep individuals who might have a difference of opinion or some aggression towards each other separated. So there are things that exist in some of our more current facilities. But we try to learn from these incidents. We do investigations so that we can make appropriate changes to ensure that these types of things don't happen again across the Northwest Territories.
I understand that in the new facilities there are going to be some physical barriers, some cameras, measures like that. Are there options currently available to remove someone who might be violent from the facility they're in? Is there a secure location that they can be placed in? I know that residents aren't prisoners, but we do have to think about the safety of the other residents. So are there options to remove violent individuals and somewhere to put them?
Mr. Speaker, as somebody is admitted into a longterm care facility, there is a comprehensive functional assessment done of the individual to determine what their needs are. This information assessment is used to actually develop individual care plans which address the individual's mental health issues and other challenges. These are the things that we do to build individual case plans that will hopefully help us avoid violent incidents within our system. But it has happened. The Member is aware of, certainly, the incident that has recently happened, and we know from review across Canada and by listening to what's happening in other jurisdictions, violence is happening. So we certainly have to address that.
However, moving an individual can prove complicated. If there is a resident showing some violent tendencies or aggression, we have the ability to take them out of the facility and send them to a hospital where we can actually obtain a medical or a psychiatric assessment to determine if there are some underlying issues with the client that are leading to these aggressive or violent behaviours. Since residents are placed in a longterm care facility and have an individual care plan, those care plans can be amended and other resources can be brought to bear to help avoid future incidents.
There has been suggestion that we need to look at the ability to move somebody out of longterm care and into home care. Mr. Speaker, this isn't practical. If somebody is in longterm care, an assessment has been done to determine that they are unable to take care of themselves in a community setting where home care already exists; they need the additional supports of a longterm care facility.
We will work with them. It might require moving to a different facility. It might require other opportunities. In really complex cases, Mr. Speaker, we may have to look at southern placement, where higher levels of support can be provided that we are currently unable to provide here, in the Northwest Territories. As I said previously, when incidents occur, every incident is investigated thoroughly, and we learn from those incident to make sure that we can put in mechanisms that can help us avoid these types of situations in the future. Thank you, Mr. Speaker.
I thank the Minister for his thorough answers. He's answered a couple of my questions, so this might be my last one. I know that cameras are going into new facilities. Has the department looked into installing cameras in existing facilities, particularly Woodland Manor, and does the department have a price on that? Thank you, Mr. Speaker.
Currently, all of our new longterm care facilities are designed with cameras in public spaces, not in individual rooms as that would be seen as a breach of individuals' privacy. There is no current plan to put cameras in existing facilities, but, if the facilities were to approach us and wish to do that, we're certainly supportive of finding a way to make that happen within some of our existing facilities. Thank you, Mr. Speaker.
Thank you, Mr. Speaker. To follow up on what the Minister said, he said he would find ways to make it happen, I guess, basically, or to work with the authority to get cameras in facilities. Does that mean helping maybe with the payment or something like that, or is this just come out of the authority's budget as it is? Thank you, Mr. Speaker.
Mr. Speaker, the Member and the House are aware of, obviously, the fiscal challenges that we're facing, so we would have to be looking within. But it doesn't mean, Mr. Speaker, that we're not interested in doing this, but the way our current facilities are designed, some of them are more open concept, it may prove unnecessary to have cameras in some of our facilities. We need to look. We need to talk to the longterm care facilities that exist and get their ideas of where this might be appropriate and where it may be unnecessary. So it's certainly not all longterm care facilities, but we're absolutely open to discussion, and we will certainly have to find some room within to put cameras if that is ultimately the desire of some of these longterm care facilities. Thank you, Mr. Speaker.
Masi. Item 7, oral questions, Member for Mackenzie Delta.
