Thank you very much, Mr. Chair. Health and Social Service issues are another one of the high-demand concerns in all the communities in my riding. I’ve got six small communities.
Maybe at this time I’d just like to say thanks to the Minister, as well. We conducted a tour of all the communities in early May of this year. The tour went really well. We went to all the communities. I just want to touch on many, many of the issues that we talked about when we visited the communities.
I’ll just begin with the one that I’ve been pursuing for some time now: the nursing position in Wrigley. The Minister was with me in the community of Wrigley and saw the need and urgency of having that professional service there. As well, with the
corresponding policing issues that the community has been requesting for some time, it’s still an urgent need. I say again to the Minister that I continue to advocate on behalf of Wrigley, that this nursing position is important and that we must seek to fill it. In fact, we should start to spend as much time as we can with the positions that we have in Fort Simpson, getting them into Wrigley on a more regular service.
I know that in the last couple of months we had one individual in Wrigley. She was there for about two weeks, and the community was very happy that there was some stability. They’re developing a good working relationship with that nurse. It goes a long way with making the community feel that they’re safe, that there’s good health care in the community, that there’s a good provider in the community. That’s all the people ask for, Mr. Chair. When we talk about improving the lives of our people, this is one simple aspect of it. That simple act of having a nurse present goes a long, long way in providing that necessity.
One of the things that we heard as we travelled around my riding was the need to use the telephone to contact the regional centre, which is in Fort Simpson. There are lots of Tele-Care health issues. People are aware of it, and they have been using it. But they need to get in contact with the Fort Simpson district office, because there are appointments that have to happen. There are specialists that travel to Fort Simpson, and sometimes they require people in the outlying communities to travel into Fort Simpson. The issue here is that people have to pay for their own phone charges to get hold of the health centre, and it’s often difficult in small communities. The phone is often strapped, and they’re using calling cards and they’re running out of minutes, et cetera. So it’s very difficult for them to call to the outside, even to Fort Simpson. One of the requests that came out of several communities to the Minister’s office is: is there a 1-800 number even for a district like Fort Simpson? How can we call the Fort Simpson office to talk about these needs of ours?
As well, I do have to commend, of course, Health and Social Services for the improvement in training for our CHRs in all the communities. Once again, I would advocate and support the continued training and improve the skill level. These people are home-grown people in our communities, and the improved service benefits our small communities and our people.
Another thing that was prevalent in the smaller communities is that the people are saying, “Well, you know, the doctors and nurses come here, but they’re only staying a couple of hours, and they’re missing some people.” When that happens, people with needs often have to wait an additional month. Sometimes, if they didn’t make the visit — if they
get weathered out — then often you’re talking like two months with no health professionals in the smaller communities. So more effort has to be shown to the communities that we want to go there, that if there’s a missed visit or circumstances beyond anybody’s control, like weather, then we’ll continue the following week to make that effort to get back in there. And when they are there, longer visits — even an overnight visit — is all they ask for. That will improve the service once again. Even that little overnight visit stimulates that small community — even like Jean Marie. You’re paying a room for one night, and it goes a long way in the small communities to stimulating the economy with that one little act, again.
Some of the other things that we heard, particularly in Fort Liard…. They are saying that there has to be more resources in Health and Social Services to ensure a healthy workforce. They’re running into addiction problems and alcohol problems in Liard. If there are more resources available, more mental health workers and more visits by them, we should be able to intercede and stop some of this…. Well, actually be there for the people when they want to heal themselves. Particularly Fort Liard is a resource-based economy, and the people are the backbone of that economy. Because they’re struggling with their addictions issues, we should be there for them and provide as many resources as we can.
Some of the ways are not always department-oriented. The bands and local groups do have their own ground-based proposals that they would like support on. It goes back to some of the fundamental issues that many, many MLAs speak about. Even with some of the existing supported programs, there are no increments for cost-of-living increases to existing staff, and that’s something that we have to continually be aware of. People are doing good work, but if they’re not paid accordingly or are trying to keep up to the increased cost-of-living pressures, we must help them meet those to keep those people there.
As well, in Fort Liard they spoke quite heartily about using B.C. facilities to help ease some of the costs of travel for them. Often they are travelling to Fort Simpson and then getting on a plane and coming to Yellowknife. Then the doctors here are telling them, “Yes, you’ve got a bad knee, and we’ll set up another appointment.” Then they have to go all the way back to Liard. That’s three days’ travel. They’re saying, “Look, Kevin, we go to Nelson every couple of days. Couldn’t we see the doctor there, get an assessment, get diagnosed? Then we’ve got no problem going to Yellowknife for the treatment.” But to come all the way here to get diagnosed, to them it seems fruitless, like “What’s the point?” Because that’s a long, long way to travel for them.
Often, too, Fort Liard is a largely aboriginal community, and a lot of them look to translation — people travelling with them for translation services — and sometimes they don’t get that.
Just with regard to translation services, Mr. Chair, I spoke quite a bit in the 15th Assembly about cross-
cultural training. I believe that Health and Social Services has to look at it again. One of the reasons is that people are telling me that they’re still going to the health centre — our elder population is going there — and they’re still not being adequately served because they’ve got broken English. I always say there’s a lot of head movement in our elders. They go “uh-huh” lots, like in the affirmative. But when the doctor or nurse is talking to them — “Are you okay?” — they’ll go, “Uh-huh,” and all this time they’re very sick with pneumonia.
There are some bad cases out there in not only my region, but people get misdiagnosed, and it’s only because they’re not understanding some of the cultural things. That’s just one of them that they must understand: that a lot of the elders do tend to say yes a lot. They really don’t understand what’s going on, and they keep saying yes, and the doctors or nurses are saying, “Well, this person is obviously fine. Here, go home.”
But I think that cross-cultural training has to be…. I don’t know what happened to it. It’s got to be reinstituted. It will be a benefit not only to our health care professionals but also the community.
One other issue I’m going to speak about now is midwifery in Nahendeh. There was a Member’s statement about it earlier today. It’s something my region has been asking about, as well, for some time now, and hopefully we’ll work towards it. I know that it’s a success in some other regions, and only because people get to stay home. That’s the key thing. Right now, for safety reasons, everybody’s got to go to Yellowknife. Someone who’s had a couple of children already is saying, “Well, what’s the point? Why am I going there?” Anyway, midwifery is an important concern that was raised in a couple of communities.
With that, Mr. Chair, I’ll just note the time and allow some other Members to speak, but I do have some more opening remarks to speak to. Thank you.