Thank you, Mr. Speaker. Mr. Speaker, following up on my statement earlier today, does the department of health -- and these questions are for the health Minister. Does the department of health have a system navigation or cross-departmental service access function which could receive clients with disabilities or their families and help coordinate access to services across programs and departments for them? Thank you.
Minister of Health and Social Services.
Thank you, Mr. Speaker. Mr. Speaker, no. Persons with disability access supports, like any other Northwest Territories resident, based on what their assessed needs are. So within health, if they have certain needs, then health will look within their system to support those needs. Many GNWT departments provide supports, so this is not just a health services area. Thank you, Mr. Speaker.
Thank you, Mr. Speaker. Mr. Speaker, the 2023 supported living review recommended wraparound case management as a key systemic change needed. Has the department made any progress enacting this recommendation?
Thank you, Mr. Speaker. Mr. Speaker, this is on the work plan; however, as I said last week, the health care sustainability unit is analyzing and looking at the supportive living program as it is, so we have paused any of this work until we get the outcomes of that because we don't want to be investing into areas where there's a higher need that may come through the analysis through the healthcare system sustainability unit. Thank you, Mr. Speaker.
Thank you, Minister of Health and Social Services. Final supplementary. Member from Frame Lake.
Thank you, Mr. Speaker. Mr. Speaker, I consider this health sustainability unit more of a fiscal responsibility exercise. I mean, the department has had a number of years with that review and the recommendations from it. Mr. Speaker, would the Minister consider establishing a systemic support role similar to the integrated service delivery team at EIA for persons with disabilities and supported living clients or working with the Premier to see if such a role could be added to the ISD team that exists? Thank you.
Thank you, Mr. Speaker. Mr. Speaker, as per the -- you know, the comments about, yes, this is a -- it's going to analyze -- it's analyzing because of the overspend in the supportive living area. Every year, we're spending, you know, millions and millions of dollars on supportive living, and so when we got this report it's also recommending to spend many, many more millions. So we have processes that we need to go through for that in order to implement all those recommendations; however, we have -- within health, we have child and family services recommendations, we have health care, you know, hospital service recommendations, we have primary care recommendations. So I am trying to balance all of those recommendations as to implementing the highest needs. But at this time, you know, what I can do is I can have a conversation with the Premier and with EIA as to how we could establish or work together better. But not at this time we won't be establishing that within health because it is across the board. Thank you, Mr. Speaker.
Thank you, Minister of Health and Social Services. Oral questions. Member from Great Slave.
