Madam Speaker, regarding the referrals for health care matters, communities have health centres. Health centres have a certain degree of expertise, supplemented by visiting medical doctors. If the care cannot be given at that level, they refer it on. All the communities, except for three very small communities, have a health centre. Thank you, Madam Speaker.

Thank you. Final supplementary, Mr. Gargan.

Thank you. Madam Speaker, again to the Premier, are there any differences in access to treatment, depending on the child's ethnicity at age of diagnosis. Let me just rephrase the question. Is there any difference in treatment depending on whether the child is native or non-native?

Thank you. Madam Premier.

Madam Speaker, once a certain condition has been identified, in terms of treatment, according to whatever is required for that individual patient...Once a treatment is identified, there would not be any differentiation. The only differentiation would be who pays for it. Thank you, Madam Speaker.

Thank you. Item 6, oral questions. The honourable Member for Inuvik, Mr. Koe.

Thank you. Minister of Health and Social Services, Ms. Cournoyea.

Madam Speaker, I don't know if the Member wants me to repeat myself. At the point of entry, a person, for their own purposes -- because I presume once a person is 19, they would be making decisions for himself or herself -- would report to a health station or a health centre in a community and discuss the problems they might be having. Then they would take the same process in accessing medical care either from a visiting doctor, depending on the circumstances, or being referred to a regional centre or to a further specialist whether they're at a regional centre or a point of referral. Thank you, Madam Speaker.

Thank you. Supplementary, Mr. Koe.

Mahsi, Madam Speaker. I'm asking the question so I assume the Minister responsible will answer. Whether she has to repeat herself or not is her prerogative. My supplementary to the Minister is what specific programs are available to assist special needs adults or the families who support them.

Thank you. Madam Premier.

Madam Speaker, it's really dependent on the particular condition that individual finds himself in and what is being prescribed or suggested as they go through the process. Thank you, Madam Speaker.

Thank you. Supplementary, Mr. Koe.

Mahsi, Madam Speaker. What has the government done to encourage communities to take more responsibility for providing services for special needs adults?

Thank you. Madam Premier.

Madam Speaker, in terms of special areas of needs and also conditions, we try to make sure the community is informed about the various areas of health care that is available to them. I know certainly if you read the statistics and number of people who access health care centres and are referred, when a person is of age, I would assume we do expect that individual to make more decisions for themselves and access the services we have in those communities.

For example, in terms of the community health representatives in many of our communities, one of their functions is to work in the preventative health care area where people have knowledge. For example, for a child who is nursing from a bottle, there is a great deal of effort to make parents more aware of not having their children sucking on a bottle that has a degree of sugar, in feeding that child. The awareness part of the community delivery system is very important.

I know the nurses who are in the community try very hard to make sure as much of their time can be spent in the schools, with the cooperation of the schools. I know there are posters put up in the schools to try to bring awareness of certain things like AIDS or fetal alcohol syndrome. All these types of things are bringing knowledge to people so they, in turn, can begin their process of trying to link up with the services that are available, whether they're available in the community or at a larger regional centre or elsewhere. Thank you, Madam Speaker.

Thank you. Item 6, oral questions. The honourable Member for Nahendeh, Mr. Antoine.

Thank you, Madam Speaker. The question is for the Minister of Health and Social Services. The Minister mentioned fetal alcohol syndrome. There have been dire predictions of the level of FAS and the fetal alcohol effect, as well, to be found amongst the north's young people today. The Special Committee on Health and Social Services recommended gathering baseline clinical information on fetal alcohol syndrome and fetal alcohol effect in the Deh Cho region as a start to help us understand the extent of the problem and to begin to determine ways to deal with it. The question for the Minister is, has such a baseline study been undertaken. Thank you.

Thank you. Minister of Health, Madam Premier.

Madam Speaker, I believe the gathering is in process at this time. Thank you.

Supplementary, Mr. Antoine.

Thank you, Madam Speaker. I'd like to ask the Minister, where is this gathering of information taking place.

Thank you. Madam Premier.