Thank you, Mr. Speaker. Mr. Speaker, today in my first set of questions the Minister of Health and Social Services talked about dental therapists and hygienists. I guess that leads me to this second set of questions I have today. In the height of dealing with dental therapy in that we used to have positions in there, can the Minister tell us how many dental therapy positions were in NWT at the height of it? Thank you, Mr. Speaker.
Masi. Minister of Health and Social Services.
Thank you, Mr. Speaker. In the past, our oral health services delivery model consisted of 12 dental therapists in nine communities across the Northwest Territories. There were three positions established in Behchoko, two in Inuvik, one in Deline, Fort Good Hope, Simpson, Tuktoyaktuk, Aklavik, Fort McPherson, and Fort Smith. These individuals got their training from a dental therapy training program at the University of Saskatoon. It once upon a time was delivered in Fort Smith, and it was a federally funded program. It was moved to Saskatoon. It was discontinued in 2011.
We no longer have a supply or a training mechanism to train dental therapists at the point in time, Mr. Speaker, we only have four dental therapists left. One of the things we are doing with the oral health strategy is looking at a new way of providing oral health to our youth and to our residents across the Northwest Territories. Thank you, Mr. Speaker.
It looks like the Minister had all my questions here and was able to answer them all. The answer to the question on how many communities are out there: basically, we have five communities that don't have dental therapists in place. Is the government seriously looking at trying to fill these vacant positions, and if they are, how are they looking at doing this?
Since the program was discontinued at the University of Saskatoon, like I said, we no longer have a supply of the individuals with the appropriate training to fill the role of the dental therapists. In investigating the role of the dental therapists and looking at providing better quality oral health for residents of the Northwest Territories, what became clear is that dental therapists were a school-based position. There was a gap that we were missing, and that was the youth or the children from zero to five were not getting support from the dental therapist positions, which were primarily school-based positions.
What we are looking at doing through the oral health strategy is actually changing it. We are striving to improve the use of our existing resources and changing to more of an oral health -- integrating oral health as part of our overall primary care services and suite of services that are available at the community level. This means working with our community health reps, with our local community health nurses, and providing them with additional tools so that they can provide more oral health services to our residents, and not having it as a separate service but being part of our primary care. That is the work being done right now.
I thank the Minister for that answer. It looks like we are trying to do some good stuff and I applaud the department for that. Is the government looking at maybe working with Aurora College, looking at developing something in this area for the strategy?
In developing the oral health strategy, we have actually contracted a local dentist here in the Northwest Territories to provide some oversight and direction on that. We also have some staff members involved. We are looking at changing the way that we provide oral health services. Some of the things we are hoping to accomplish is to create an integrated oral health program for children within the NWT at all ages, not just the ones in the school system.
We are looking at delivering more prevention/promotion activities with an emphasis on oral health as a part of the overall health, not as a separate program. We are looking at working with our existing staff and providing them with the resources and tools they need and incorporating with other programs like the healthy family program so the information is getting out there and is seen as overall health and the incredible value that maintaining good oral health has on your overall health. It is a change in direction. It is working with our staff to provide more resources. We are not at this point in time looking to train people to occupy the dental therapist positions. We think we are evolving into a better system that is going to provide better results for all residents, especially youth zero to five and in the school system, as well.
Masi. Oral questions. Member for Nahendeh.
Thank you, Mr. Speaker. I thank the Minister for that answer. I guess my concern, though, is: we are still not dealing with it. We have small communities that have this issue. I have been listening to people. They basically would like to see some dental therapists in the smaller communities, like Fort Providence, Fort Liard, some of these smaller communities, to give these residents from zero to 20 years old the opportunity to get this treatment. Will the Minister look at the smaller communities, at training the staff and getting people in these places? Thank you, Mr. Speaker.
Masi. Minister of Health and Social Services.
Thank you, Mr. Speaker. Mr. Speaker, that is actually part of the oral health strategy that we are working on, training our local people to do some of that work, especially some of our existing staff, whether it is community health reps or community health nurses. I indicated previously I did have an opportunity to meet with the dean of the medical program at the U of A, and we did have some conversation about whether or not there is an opportunity for some of their dental hygienist students to possibly come to the Northwest Territories, in particular to small, rural, remote communities to do some practicum placements and do some of the dental hygienist work in the communities. That is education, but also some treatments, fluoridation, and those types of things. We are pursuing that as an opportunity. That is above and beyond the work we are doing with training our local staff to do some of this work as well. We are trying to get it from a number of different angles. Thank you, Mr. Speaker.
