Glen Abernethy

Thank you, Madam… Holy cow! Thank you, Mr. Chair. You’re so different. When did that happen?

I can’t even remember what I was going to say. We don’t really have an update. I’ll get that information for the Member. I know we’re moving some of our people around, you know, to help backfill where possible and we’re looking at doing some staffing, but we don’t have a full answer for that. I’ll get that information for the Member.

Thank you, Mr. Chair. We actually have the new Aboriginal health and community wellness division, and the wellness workers that we have within that division, that is their exact job.

It’s too early to say whether Hay River is going to roll into this new authority immediately or whether it’s going to be transitioned over time. We are doing that work and I’m certainly happy to have continued discussions with the Member on that. In the meantime, I will work with the public administrator in Hay River and have the department work with the CEO to see how we can reduce some of the wait time in Hay River.

Thanks, Madam Chair. I am happy to answer the question now. We did send the draft Medical Travel Policy to the Standing Committee on Social Programs to provide us with input. We are just tweaking it right now at which point we’ll be sending it to the executive for final consideration. At the same time, we are also working on the individual pillars that fall under the Medical Travel Policy and right now we’re actually doing the work on patients, supports and escorts that began in 2014, December. Our consultants have travelled to communities like Hay River, Inuvik, Tuk and Behchoko. They’ve gone...

Thank you, Mr. Chair. I would be pleased to meet with committee and provide them with an update on where we are with the Early Childhood Development Action Plan. From a health point of view, maybe we should probably have a joint meeting with Health and Social Services as well as Education where we can go through the items with committee.

Actually, the Member for Yellowknife Centre answered that question earlier. We do have a 1-800 Helpline that is available 24/7 for individuals who need to talk to somebody if they’re experiencing some level of crisis. We also have the Dalhousie psychiatry program here in the Northwest Territories. It does take a referral to get to that program, but individuals can access that as a way and means of getting support they need when they may not be able to get an in-person visit. We do have community counsellors, as well, through most of the communities, and I do encourage people to follow up with...

The Department of Health and Social Services has just recently put in 32 indicators to monitor the effectiveness of the health and social services system here in the Northwest Territories. But we also rely on information that other organizations are putting together to help us make informed decisions here in the Northwest Territories, organizations such as CIHI. Any nationally recognized organization that is doing this type of an analysis, we do get the information and we do look at it. We’re always looking for ways to improve our reporting mechanisms. So, we will certainly look at that, and...

Actually, Stanton already did consider this. They explored it and there were a couple concerns that they raised. Number one, it’s not particularly culturally sensitive. It also doesn’t really articulate or recognize the fact that sometimes people are missing appointments for reasons beyond their control such as medical travel, flight delays. A lot of the people utilizing the speciality clinic are coming in from other communities to receive those services. Also, in a time of fiscal restraint and being prudent with our dollars, there is also a cost to it, a cost that has to come from somewhere...

Thank you, Mr. Chair. That is still in place. We have had some difficulties over the year with some specific issues, but for the details, I will go to the deputy for that.

I’m not prepared to commit to a standard today. We’d have to do some analysis and research to see what would be reasonable. I will say that throughout the Northwest Territories the wait times do vary. For instance, in Yellowknife it’s two to three months for counselling, two months for adult psychiatry and it could be two or three months for child and youth psychiatry, and these are for non-urgent issues. In the Sahtu, in Tulita it’s two months. In Deline it’s, surprisingly, turned out to be about two weeks; Colville Lake, one month. In the Deh Cho, Fort Providence is about three weeks, Fort...