Thank you, Mr. Speaker. In follow-up to my Member’s statement today, I have questions for the Minister of Health and Social Services. In a budget document that we have just been considering during this session, there is an item under program detail called residential care, adults and children, and that number of $45.807 million is for children and adults who are receiving care for an extended period of time to meet their physical, emotional, spiritual and psychological needs, and it includes such things as long-term care facilities, group homes for adults and residential care both inside and outside of the Northwest Territories. I believe that there is also a supplementary appropriation being proposed to actually cause that number to go higher.
I’d like to ask the Minister of Health and Social Services to break down that number, if he could, between northern and southern placements.
Thank you, Mrs. Groenewegen. The Minister of Health, Mr. Abernethy.
Thank you, Mr. Speaker. The budget for ’14-15 was $17.6 million for southern placements, and that covers 69 adults and 37 youth.
I think everybody would agree that that is a very substantial sum of money that this government pays out to southern facilities for the care and keeping of Northerners.
I’d like to ask the Minister of Health and Social Services, when is the last time that repatriation opportunities for some of these 69 adults and 37 children were contemplated and considered by his department? Thank you.
Last fiscal year the Members actually requested that we do that work, and the director of territorial services did conduct a review of all the individual files of all of our residents who happen to be in the South looking for similar conditions or similar treatment requirements so that we could repatriate a block of individuals. Unfortunately, the cases are so unique and so many of them are of such high demand we weren’t able to identify a similar group that would be reasonable to repatriate.
But I will say that we do review the files of our individuals biannually to see if there is any opportunity to repatriate the individuals whether or not or regardless of a similar condition where we can repatriate a block of individuals at one time. Thank you.
I’d like to also ask, in the facilities that we do have here in the Northwest Territories, could he tell us on any given day, like today, are there vacancies available in those facilities, or are we completely maxed out and couldn’t it be that referrals that are made to the South are actually, in fact, because there is no room in the facilities we have here? Thank you.
I’d actually have to have the department do a bit of an analysis. There are so many facilities that we support, whether it’s hospitals or the type of facility that the Member brought up in her statement, I couldn’t say for certain what our vacancy rate is on those.
I will say for an individual to be eligible for out-of-territory placement they must meet specific criteria. One of the following: they must have a diagnosis of a mental illness or a traumatic brain injury; a genetic disorder or a significant development or physical disability; they must have a serious emotional, behavioural, psychological or medical needs that can’t be met here in the Northwest Territories; they must require a higher level of care or services that are not available in the Northwest Territories; they must require residential or institutional services as the result of being declared not criminally responsible, and this is something we work on with the Department of Justice; or they must require regular psychiatric hospitalization services, services that aren’t available here in the Northwest Territories. If we can deliver it here in the Northwest Territories, we do, and if we don’t have the capacity, we do have to ship our residents south from time to time.
As I said, the director did a thorough review of all the files and we were really looking for an opportunity to bring a bulk or similar-type conditions north, keep the money in the North, employ in the North. But given the huge variety and the different conditions, we weren’t able to find a like condition or patients with similar conditions that could be accommodated in a facility here in the Northwest Territories. Thank you.
Thank you, Mr. Abernethy. Final, short supplementary, Mrs. Groenewegen.
Thank you, Mr. Speaker. Specifically with regard to group homes for adults and children, are there any vacancies currently available here in the Northwest Territories in the group homes that already exist? It only makes sense to me that if there is no vacancy, the tendency would be to have to send them to southern placements. Thank you
I’ll commit to get that information on our current vacancies. They change from time to time. But once again, I go back to my previous comments about the specific individual conditions that an individual must have and it’s for services that aren’t available here in the Northwest Territories, you have to meet those conditions. So if we can provide it in the Northwest Territories, we do our best to provide it here in the Northwest Territories. Unfortunately, we do have individuals with incredibly high needs, 24/7 care that we can’t meet. We don’t have the expertise to provide those services here. Thank you.
Thank you, Mr. Abernethy. The Member for Nahendeh, Mr. Menicoche.
