Glen Abernethy

Thank you, Mr. Speaker. Based on the reality that we have high rates of diabetes in the Northwest Territories, I would say our rate is high. I’m agreeing with the Member. Unfortunately, I don’t have any statistics available on hand to indicate what the consumption of sugar is in the Northwest Territories. Thank you, Mr. Speaker.

Thank you, Mr. Speaker. I have received a letter from the NWT Association of Naturopathic Doctors and I have agreed to meet with them to discuss their concerns to see what kind of forward direction we can develop working together. Obviously our goals are the same. We are interested in the best interest and safety and well-being of our patients and residents. So I am going to have that meeting with the association. Thank you, Mr. Speaker.

Yes, we will do a review; yes, we will work with our Members; yes, we will work with the community and try to find solutions that work for them, recognizing that we do have some limitations in place or limitations affecting our ability to get actual nurses permanently located in the communities.

We are focused on and we believe in better health, better care and better results for our residents. We will do a review of the ISDM. Thank you, Mr. Speaker.

I did get a briefing this this morning and it’s my understanding that there was no disruption in services.

Thank you, Mr. Speaker. The community of Wrigley falls under the Tlicho Health and Social Services Authority, so the department has obviously been working with them to try to find a… Sorry, Dehcho Health and Social Services. Everyone looked at me all of a sudden. That can’t be a good thing, right?

It falls under the responsibility of the Dehcho Health and Social Services Authority. We have been working with them in the same way that we’ve been working with the Beaufort-Delta to try to find solutions for the small communities, Wrigley being one of them.

I can say that right now a community...

Thank you, Mr. Speaker. I will answer that question, but I just want to give a little bit of background first. The Canadian Mental Health Association, the NWT division, made a decision to discontinue the NWT Helpline as well as other services while reviewing their current operations. To avoid any disruptions, the Department of Health and Social Services has been working with the NWT division to transfer ownership of the NWT Helpline, the phone number and the website, to the department.

The Department of Health and Social Services has an interim contract in place with Sykes Assistance Services...

The bottom line is we know we have an aging population. We know that with an aging population we have additional challenges on our health care system, as well, on the supports that we do provide to seniors throughout the Northwest Territories. As the population ages, the costs will go up. We have to find ways to control our costs within the system. One of the ways we’re proposing is to support more aging in place and providing mechanisms to help seniors stay in their own homes for as long as they can before they have to transition into independent living or extended care or something like a...

Mr. Speaker, Hay River currently provides accommodation for 25 long-term care residents. The Woodland Manor currently operates at 15 and the hospital there currently has 10. We are taking the 10 out of what is the old hospital. We are putting the addition onto Woodland and we’re increasing capacity, or maintaining capacity at 25 in Hay River.

As far as future facilities, we are doing the Aging in Place Strategy, which is going to help inform where we go from here with respect to care facilities in the Northwest Territories, and we will continue to work with the Housing Corp, who has done a...

Thank you, Mr. Speaker. The department has a good relationship with the NWT Seniors’ Society. We also have statistics on the ages of all residents of the Northwest Territories. We work closely with the local seniors’ societies, as well, to make sure that we’re aware of what’s going on in the communities, and we are doing a number of things to make sure that seniors throughout the Northwest Territories are informed. We did work closely with the NWT Seniors’ Society on the development of a Seniors’ Handbook, which basically outlines a lot of the different types of programs and services that are...

Mr. Speaker, we will work with communities; we will work with Members; we will work with committees to find ways to enhance and improve services for all residents of the Northwest Territories, including those in the small communities of the Northwest Territories. Thank you, Mr. Speaker.