Glen Abernethy

Thanks. The Member is exactly right. There are increasing numbers of seniors in the Northwest Territories and we are actually projecting increased costs to our already existing budget but we’re in the process of trying to monitor that and figure out what those costs are so that we can project them effectively given that we have a growing population. I imagine at some point, once we get a better grasp of what those future costs are going to be, we will be coming back to the FMB as well as to committee.

Thanks, Mr. Chair. Just to go back in time, there was never any money budgeted for midwifery services. Yellowknife Health and Social Services chose to re-profile some of their internal funding and they created a Midwifery Program that was only funded for one position. I don’t believe one position makes a midwifery program. In fact, I would suggest it would be dangerous for the incumbent to have a one-incumbent-based midwifery program because they would get burnt out.

In the proposed design in the midwifery report it suggests that for a territorial program based out of Yellowknife there would...

Just going back to the first part of the comment before the question, the $4.3 million estimate was based on the numbers obtained from the NWT Bureau of Statistics by the Supplementary Health Benefits Working Group in 2010, and it’s been updated for new information. But $4.3 million is the estimate, which, as a note, is a significant amount of money in these fiscally challenging times. I do believe, and I think many Members believe, that this is an area that needs some work, and I would like to see that work done, which is why I’d like to make it a priority for the transition document.

With...

Mr. Chair, it has taken a while to recruit, while we’re still proving to be unsuccessful in Fort Smith and we continue to move there.

We can’t recruit midwives in Yellowknife without job descriptions. Given that it’s going to be a territorial model and the midwives are going to have some responsibility not just in Yellowknife but on a territorial level, it is going to require different job descriptions because the scope of work is going to be different. We need to have job descriptions. We need to outline and clarify what that scope of work is going to be and how it’s going to work so we can...

Thank you, Mr. Chairman. Medical physicians, family practitioners are actually trained to provide this assessment, as well, so if they’re working with somebody who’s in a medical detox and it’s determined that the person is now fit and they have concluded their medical detox, they can choose to discharge them or offer them other options that might be appropriate for them given their current situation. If they think the person has some psychiatric problems, they can refer them to a psychiatrist.

There are two positons at Stanton by way of example, but we’ve also got distant psychiatry and a...

Thank you, Mr. Chair. It still exists; it’s still ongoing. We have speech-language pathologists come into all the communities in the Sahtu on a regular basis, but they’re also providing follow-up services through telehealth and they’re partnering with the schools. So, it’s a great relationship that we have with Education, Culture and Employment and the individual district education authorities to actually help facilitate that. We’re very excited by that partnership and that relationship that we have there and we’re happy that we’re able to get it in.

The department is doing an evaluation of...

Just going back to the first part where, you know, individuals who can’t see individuals. The Med-Response team has highly competent professionals and the CHRs and the CHWs in the communities will articulate what they see. I believe they’ll err on the side of caution, which is the expectation. We don’t want to put people at risk. So if individuals are in need of medical detox and the doctor on the line determines it’s necessary, they’ll come in.

With respect to how long medical detox would be required for, it’s going to depend on medical direction. When they’re in either Inuvik or Yellowknife...

Thank you, Mr. Chair. Recognizing the increased cost of providing the Day Shelter here in Yellowknife, I did send letters to a number of different organizations, including government departments, and the Department of Justice and the Department of Education responded positively for ’14-15, one-time funding of $20,000 each to help cover the costs in the ’14-15 fiscal year. There’s no ongoing funding.

In the communities where there are health facilities, individuals can go to those health facilities and get referral and be brought in, through medical travel, to utilize the detox beds in either Inuvik or Yellowknife, whichever happens to be closer. For the smaller communities that don’t have nurses, we do have other types of professionals in those communities like CHRs, CHWs that we can have conversations with and they can get a doctor involved to make a referral so that an individual could come out and receive withdrawal management services in either Stanton or Inuvik, whichever happens to...

Thank you, Mr. Chair. On my left is Jeannie Mathison who is the director of finance and on my right is Debbie DeLancey who is the deputy minister.