Glen Abernethy

Mr. Speaker, the Government of the Northwest Territories has a mandate commitment to foster healthy families by focusing on wellness, prevention, and improved nutrition. To achieve this commitment, the Department of Health and Social Services has made it a priority to support community wellness initiatives in communities across the NWT with funding provided through Indigenous Services Canada.

The department is currently working with communities to renew their wellness plans to prepare for the new five-year funding cycle for 2019-2024. Based on these community wellness plans, the Government of...

Mr. Speaker, I wish to table the following three documents entitled "Annual Report 2016/17 Hay River Health and Social Services Authority"; "NWT Health and Social Services System Annual Report 2016-2017"; and "Northwest Territories Health and Social Services Authority 2016-2017 Annual Report." Thank you, Mr. Speaker.

I look forward to getting a letter from committee making that request, and I look forward to following up with them in response.

Thank you, Mr. Speaker. Mr. Speaker, we take the protection of privacy of the NWT residents seriously, and we understand the importance of protecting the personal health information, the custody and control of information. We have enhanced training for all of our custodians. We are making sure that all of our people are trained, to make sure that they understand their obligations under the Health Information Act.

There were a number of recommendations that came forward from the Privacy Commissioner. We are looking at those. We accept those recommendations. We are trying to make improvements. I...

The Member did indicate a few systems, Vital Stats and a few others as an example. Those continue to exist. They are collecting data for a different reason, and the inputs are coming from a different mechanism. Electronic medical record is a system where individuals' records are kept and maintained. It does provide some statistical data so that we, as Members, can make informed decisions. We have 32 indicators that we are monitoring and reporting on, on a regular basis.

Thank you, Mr. Speaker. Mr. Speaker, the system I was making reference to was the electronic medical record system that we have incorporated in the Northwest Territories. I have had some further discussions. We believe that we will be able to put a system in that will allow our residents to block some individuals from seeing their information. We have not formulated that or put that in place yet, but we believe it can happen.

The answer is no, there is no mandatory time. Really, it is entirely dependent upon the severity of the stroke and the condition of the individual and what treatments have been provided in order to stabilize or treat the individual. That can be different for every person every time. I can say that the doctors and the nurses will obviously want to keep the patient in until they are confident that leaving the health or the hospital will not put them at adverse risk, but there is no set time because every case is unique.

The crisis response network is one thing, and the supports that we are providing at a community, territorial, and regional level, they interrelate, but they have a different role. The suicide prevention and crisis response network will take a whole-community approach, involving relevant community partners who are figuring out who is in the community, who can be part of that network, and will focus on prevention, intervention, but also look at responses after an incident has occurred. The work will also include supporting community-level plans that can be developed to meet the needs of...

Thank you, Mr. Speaker. Mr. Speaker, during the development of the action plan the Member has referenced, and we actually engaged with youth from across the Northwest Territories, and they made it very clear that privacy is of particular interest and importance to them. Youth have been very vocal about the fact that they do not feel that their privacy is always respected when using the healthcare system, so ensuring proper protection and rights of privacy and confidentiality is an extremely important part of the work that the health and social services system is doing. We want to make certain...

Mr. Speaker, our government made a mandate commitment to ensure that effective supports and programs are in place for persons with disabilities. The NWT Disability Review and Renewal Project is part of that commitment. Through this work, the government has identified the challenges residents with complex disabilities, such as autism or fetal alcohol spectrum disorder, or FASD, have in accessing assessment and diagnostic services across the territory. Identifying these challenges is an important step towards putting effective supports in place for persons with these disabilities.

Children living...