Glen Abernethy

Mr. Speaker, we have a certain number of staff in the department who are doing a large amount of work, and more and more priorities are coming at them on a regular basis. We have seen clearly that we are capped with resources, and I want this work to be done and I want it to be done as quickly as possible, but we often go out and seek additional resources to help with the reviews and analysis and there are people who can help us do this in a timely manner, so this isn’t unusual, but given the timelines, we want to make sure that we get this done. I feel it’s important to expedite the section...

We are making progress with the wellness court and we are hopeful and actually anticipate that anticipation of the wellness courts later this year will help the courts better address these exact situations by providing supports. As far as expediting, we have a plan in place to start rolling out the wellness court in the fall and we would be ready to start providing those services then.

In the meantime, if there are individual cases that Members are aware of, Justice and Health and Social Services are always willing to work together to try to find solutions in the interim. Thank you, Mr. Speaker...

Cognitive behavioral assessments for adults are completed by psychologists, psychiatrists, neurologists upon referral from a physician, community health nurse or a community social worker. In the Northwest Territories, we use the Fetal Alcohol Spectrum Disorder Canadian guidelines for diagnosis, which were developed in 2005. There are a significant number of supports that individuals with FASD can access within the Government of the Northwest Territories. So I would say we are far from not caring for these individuals. We are not stacking against them. We have social workers who can deal one...

I commit to getting that information for the Member. As far as providing BiliBlankets in the additional communities, we need to figure out what the rate of prevalence of this particular condition is and figure out the cost balance analysis. Thank you.

Thank you, Mr. Speaker. In most cases the neonatal jaundice is treated with light therapy and the BiliBlanket is one of the tools that may be used to support individuals that are suffering from jaundice. It’s a clinical choice by the physician providing the service, providing the treatment, whether they use the BiliBlanket or another source. We don’t direct the physicians to use any particular tool. However, I have talked to the department and I have asked for some specific information on the number of BiliBlankets that are available to residents of the Northwest Territories. As soon as I get...

It depends on the timing. If the family has made a choice to put their children with grandparents or another family member and the system is unaware and hasn’t been involved, we don’t have the ability to engage. If the family had indicated that they’re having problems and they’re struggling and they weren’t meeting the needs and they engage the system through a voluntary mechanism and then through a plan of care it was decided that the children would benefit from spending time with the grandparents while the parents work on their challenges, in that scenario we would be able to provide support...

Thank you, Mr. Speaker. The Department of Health and Social Services does become involved with children at risk when they enter the system and access the Child and Family Services Act. When that occurs, whether it’s voluntary or through identification, we do try to keep children with families as much as possible. When a child needs to be placed, we obviously like to approach families to see if they’d be willing to foster. If they’re willing to foster, we’ll put them through the process. If that happens, they will receive remuneration that is consistent with all other foster families. Thank you...

What I’m referring to is the overarching policy with respect to medical travel and how it operates and functions. It will be available to the authorities, it will be available to all individuals. We will make sure that people understand the Medical Travel Policy. Thank you.

With respect to Stanton, there has been a significantly complex process where we’ve involved many professionals including health practitioners who are currently using the building so that we can have a really solid plan of care as part of our planning study and so that the building would meet our future and current needs. We’ve built hospitals and health centres before and we recognize that there are challenges in doing that.

By way of example, we did a major upgrade to the health centre in Fort Smith, and it was like this project given that we continued to provide services in that building...

Thank you. Through the Pharmacy Act, with the amendment to the Pharmacy Act we’ll be able to track what has been dispensed. The interpretation of that data will have to be done and we’ll have to come up with some policies to figure out how to do the interpretation of that data so that we can try to understand where the abuses are occurring. Thank you.