Again, thank you, Mr. Spooker. So Mr. Spooker, yesterday in my Member's statement I talked about autism. And we know that there are professionals, family members are leaving the North because of the lack of ability to either get diagnosed or services for autism, Mr. Speaker. So my questions will be targeted to the Minister of Health and Social Services.
Now, the Canadian average says 2 percent of the population has autism, or I should say has been diagnosed. And if you use a standard deviation, that's 900 people in the Northwest Territories. My question is, does the health department know how many people in the NWT region by region are identified as having a diagnosis of autism? Thank you, Mr. Speaker.
Thank you, Member from Yellowknife Centre. Minister of Health and Social Services.
Thank you, Mr. Speaker. Mr. Speaker, I don't have that level of detail here today. Thank you, Mr. Speaker.
Mr. Speaker, does the Minister of Health and Social Services have an idea as to how many assessments are done on young people to, again, diagnose them as officially having autism? Thank you.
Thank you, Mr. Speaker. Mr. Speaker, again, that level of detail, you know, if there are -- information at that level of detail, I can get the information for the Member and get back to him on that. Thank you.
Thank you, Mr. Speaker. Does the Minister -- I'll accept the Minister's offer.
Does the Minister know or is aware of what services are provided to people who have autism in the context of physio, speech, etcetera? Does she know -- is she aware of the resources and what is available to those parents? Thank you.
Thanks, Mr. Speaker. Mr. Speaker, autism has a wide range of needs, and so every case would be assessed and identified as to what their needs are and then they would be, you know, referred to those appropriate services within the health authority to do further assessments. However, a lot of the services in those areas, we have a lot of vacancies and so there are -- there might be wait times for those services to be assessed. Thank you, Mr. Speaker.
Thank you, Minister of Health and Social Services. Final supplementary. Member from Yellowknife Centre.
Thank you, Mr. Speaker. Properly assessing young people with -- or diagnosing, I'll say it that way, my apologies, properly assessing the diagnosis of autism is a very specialized field, and families have told me they struggle to get a diagnosis and then therefore they do not get the supports and treatments, which early intervention would make the world of difference. Does the Minister know what the average wait time is for diagnosis of autism using a specialist? Thank you.
Thank you, Mr. Speaker. Mr. Speaker, again, I don't have that level of details here in the House, so I will have to get back to the Member with that information. Thank you, Mr. Speaker.
Thank you, Minister of Health and Social Services. Oral questions. Member from Inuvik Boot Lake.
