This is page numbers 5457 - 5492 of the Hansard for the 16th Assembly, 5th Session. The original version can be accessed on the Legislative Assembly's website or by contacting the Legislative Assembly Library. The word of the day was care.

Topics

Tom Beaulieu

Tom Beaulieu Tu Nedhe

Mr. Speaker, I have a couple of situations in Tu Nedhe that need immediate assistance. I have a disabled couple taking care of an elderly uncle who’s I believe in his nineties. Could the Minister tell me what kind of assistance would be available for family members caring for people today? Thank you.

Sandy Lee

Sandy Lee Range Lake

In situations like that, the Yellowknife Health and Social Services Authority, which is responsible for Tu Nedhe, would do an assessment on that individual and the family and provide either home care assistance, occupational therapy assistance, and work out a care plan for the family. Where there is a respite care program like Yellowknife, they could access those. But where there isn’t, home care and local health and social authorities would look to assist the family. Thank you.

Tom Beaulieu

Tom Beaulieu Tu Nedhe

Mr. Speaker, the situations in Tu Nedhe where individuals are being cared for by family, that’s happening without any compensation to the family, and what’s happening is the elders are now getting to a point where they feel that they’ve become a burden because they recognize that the family is doing this, taking shifts doing this on their own. Some seniors are even refusing care because there’s no money to support the families that are trying to help them.

Does the Minister and the health authority, I suppose, acknowledge the fact that respite care would, in the long run, save a lot of money for the government? Thank you.

Sandy Lee

Sandy Lee Range Lake

In the long run we will always need support of the families to take care of our elders and we’ll always have to rely on the families who look after children with disabilities and all kinds of family members who need assistance, which is why respite care is important to these families. It gives them a little bit of breathing room and helps them cope with the challenge of the extra responsibilities that they have. So I don’t think the government will ever be in a place where we could do 24-hour care for everybody.

We need to work together with the families. In cases of elders and persons with disabilities, government works to provide home care programming. Home care is very multi-faceted. Sometimes it’s nursing coverage and sometimes it’s light housework. So the program is different. Where there is a respite care program, it just gives the families a break while they take care of their loved ones.

The Speaker

The Speaker Paul Delorey

Thank you, Ms. Lee. Final supplementary, Mr. Beaulieu.

Tom Beaulieu

Tom Beaulieu Tu Nedhe

Mahsi cho, Mr. Speaker. In Tu Nedhe we still have more seniors in institutional care than we do in some sort of respite care, even though there is no money with the respite care. There are still individuals taking care of their aged and disabled family members. Does the Minister acknowledge that disabled and aged people have a better quality of life with family members under respite care rather than institutional care? Thank you.

Sandy Lee

Sandy Lee Range Lake

Absolutely. Institutional care is always more expensive, usually far away, it’s less humane and less personal. So in all ways, we should, as a government, minimize that. We do also accept, though, there are situations where there is no choice but to give institutional care for some of our elderly and some of our residents because their needs are so acute and so expansive that no individual or families can provide that. This is why we have under the Foundation for Change action plan as a goal to enhance and expand home care and respite care. Thank you.

The Speaker

The Speaker Paul Delorey

Thank you, Ms. Lee. The honourable Member for Yellowknife Centre, Mr. Hawkins.

Robert Hawkins

Robert Hawkins Yellowknife Centre

Thank you, Mr. Speaker. The Minister has put on record clearly that respite is a valuable and needed service. I thank her for that because it certainly makes some of these questions a lot easier.

She’s told the House repeatedly that THAF was extended by two years, which carries this government into the budget years of 2011-12. So THAF funding -- which is the Territorial Health Access Fund, for anyone who doesn’t know what THAF stands for -- started in 2009-2010 and is carried into the second year, which is the 2010-11 and, of course, now we are really coming down to what’s happening in the third and final year.

Mr. Speaker, I thought the question as to who cut the money was very relevant because it goes simply to my question. Did the Minister of Health and Social Services provide direction, instructions, a directive or any message to cut, trim or change the scheduled funding for respite services at all in any form? If not, is she tracking the person down who did make this instructional choice to do this, to freeze any changes until we find a solution for this problem? Thank you, Mr. Speaker.

The Speaker

The Speaker Paul Delorey

Thank you, Mr. Hawkins. The honourable Minister of Health and Social Services, Ms. Lee.

Sandy Lee

Sandy Lee Minister of Health and Social Services

Thank you, Mr. Speaker. The fact is we are getting distracted by how this information was communicated. I would rather focus on moving forward.

Mr. Speaker, the federal government gave us $50 million and we have to plan on budgeting accordingly. Both THAF and THSSI -- and Member Bisaro asked what are we going to do with that money -- it’s important for everybody to know that that money is spent as part of our health care budget. We pay nurses, nurse practitioners, midwives, doctors, diagnostics, we pay for health care out of that THAF funding. There is a two-year time limit. We need to find ways to change the way we deliver programs and that is why we need to use some of that money on the Foundation for Change action plan.

The reason why I say it’s really unfortunate how this was communicated in that way is because if this government is going to provide a respite care program, it’s going to provide a respite care program. We need to come up with the money to do that. Everybody knows we have limited resources, so this is why it is important for us to have a territorial respite care program. We need to use the resources of the department and find ways to continue to provide respite care programs for families in Yellowknife as well as outside of Yellowknife. This is why we need to do a territorial respite care program. Thank you.

Robert Hawkins

Robert Hawkins Yellowknife Centre

I kind of find it unfortunate that the Minister keeps saying it’s unfortunate that it was brought to us in this method. To be quite honest, Mr. Speaker, if this message of respite care wasn’t brought to us by constituents, it would be so unfortunate it would have been long gone before we ever found out.

Mr. Speaker, the Minister keeps saying it’s a distraction about trying to find out what happened. I think that’s kind of the blueprint of finding out what we can do. Mr. Speaker, where is the money for the budget year 2011-12 going to be allocated to? In short, Mr. Speaker, it has been allocated to two years towards respite care. So we are trying to track down where this money is now going to. Why isn’t the Minister agreeing in this House to stabilize the money for respite? Thank you.

Sandy Lee

Sandy Lee Minister of Health and Social Services

The Member knows that in the February budget session we debate the 2011-2012 budget. Thank you.

Robert Hawkins

Robert Hawkins Yellowknife Centre

It’s really sad we can’t debate this line item very clear here in the House, because it’s unfortunate. It won’t be tabled before the House until February. Mr. Speaker, how much has the Minister committed to respite services to date and how much will she be committing going forward to demonstrate respite services will be protected and enshrined in our health system? Thank you.

Sandy Lee

Sandy Lee Minister of Health and Social Services

The Member knows that we will be debating the 2011-2012 budget. We just had a preview of that and there is a respite care program in there that we approved. The respite care program under THSSI is handled differently because it’s federal funding and we did it through a supplementary appropriation. I look forward to the support of the Members on the other side when we work to develop a program on respite care. Thank you.

The Speaker

The Speaker Paul Delorey

Thank you, Ms. Lee. Final supplementary, Mr. Hawkins.

Robert Hawkins

Robert Hawkins Yellowknife Centre

Thank you, Mr. Speaker. I don’t doubt that the Minister has a passion for this issue. I wouldn’t doubt that the Minister cares about this particular issue, but everything seems to be hurry up, let’s wait. Stop distracting the issue, just wait. Well, unfortunately, we’ve got a lot of families who can’t wait and proceed on blind faith.

Mr. Speaker, the Minister has allowed -- and, as she said, she takes full responsibility for the department – she has allowed this cut to be proposed and she is defending the cut. So what is her plan to bridge through this cut? She could make that very clear here, because we have four months until the February session to work through and we’ve got families waiting to find out what the plan is. Mr. Speaker, that is the question, to ensure that these families are protected. Thank you.

Sandy Lee

Sandy Lee Minister of Health and Social Services

Let’s just be clear that this House will debate the budget for 2011-2012. I will include the money from the federal government.

Mr. Speaker, let’s be clear about one more thing, which is that we are committed, this government is committed to having one territorial respite care program for families in need of a respite care program, which would include Yellowknife families. Thank you.

The Speaker

The Speaker Paul Delorey

Thank you, Ms. Lee. The honourable Member for Mackenzie Delta, Mr. Krutko.

David Krutko

David Krutko Mackenzie Delta

Thank you, Mr. Speaker. In regard to my Member’s statement, I mentioned the lack of respite care services in a lot of our communities. In the communities I represent -- Aklavik, Fort McPherson and Tsiigehtchic -- in Aklavik alone I have 24 people identified as disabled; Fort McPherson, 10, and one individual in Tsiigehtchic. Mr. Speaker, that’s 35 individuals in the Mackenzie Delta riding that are disabled. These individuals are asking for nothing less and nothing more than what’s being provided in the larger centres.

I, for one, sit here listening to the discussions here in the House. Mr. Speaker, we have individuals in our communities that are stuck taking care of their elderly parents, people with disabilities, special needs in our communities that are 24-hour care, 365 days a year, and the only program we have for respite care is they’ll take the elders out of our home communities and send them to the Inuvik hospital and put them in the long-term care facility or the Joe Greenland Centre.

Mr. Speaker, I’d like to ask the Minister why we are having to send our elders away or individuals from our communities for respite care to the regional hospitals and not assist them and keep them in our home communities and support the families.

The Speaker

The Speaker Paul Delorey

Thank you, Mr. Krutko. The honourable Minister responsible for Health and Social Services, Ms. Lee.

Sandy Lee

Sandy Lee Range Lake

Thank you, Mr. Speaker. The Member is absolutely right. He’s talking about the situation that we deal with every day. We have unlimited demand for services in our communities. There are lots of program needs across the NWT, especially in small communities. This is the reason why the government has used the Strategic Initiatives committee Building Our Future funding to introduce and expand respite care programs in communities outside of Yellowknife for three years.

What I said this morning is that the government wants to keep moving forward with that and include Yellowknife programs into that program, and I would need support from the other side to institute this program. How far we expand and how much we can do would depend on the priorities we need to make on our budget, and everybody here knows that our budget is under pressure from all fronts. Thank you.

David Krutko

David Krutko Mackenzie Delta

Mr. Speaker, also in my statement I made reference to the elders in our communities. In Fort McPherson alone, I mentioned we have 66 elders over the age of 70 to 97 years old. Those elders we want to keep in our communities. The facility in Inuvik, the long-term care, is full. There are 25 beds. It’s full. We have eight beds in the Joe Greenland Centre. The only place those individuals can go is either to Inuvik, but if it’s full, they will have to send them to other facilities such as Yellowknife and elsewhere, and that’s not what we want, Mr. Speaker.

I’d like to ask the Minister exactly what are we doing to enhance the elder care programs in our communities such as home care, respite care and, more importantly, care facilities and care professions in our communities to take care of those most vulnerable in our communities.

Sandy Lee

Sandy Lee Range Lake

That is the challenge of this government and all governments across the Territories for the next 10 to 20 years. There is no simple one-word answer to that. We need to work on prevention. We need to work on a long-term care facility strategy so that we have the right facilities in all different regions. We need to enhance support in small communities, especially for home care and respite care while we wait and while we don’t have all of the programs that are readily available in larger communities. This is why this department, and for the last three years I, as the Minister, have introduced and expanded respite care programs in small communities. But it’s meeting very, very small needs right now, so we need to look at this program and the program in Yellowknife and programs outside of Yellowknife as one program and find economy, find efficiencies, make our dollar stretch so that we can serve more communities and more families in need of respite care which is present everywhere in the Territories. Thank you.

David Krutko

David Krutko Mackenzie Delta

Mr. Speaker, I know the Minister is making reference to the territorial-wide program and expanding the program outside of Yellowknife to include all 33 communities in the Northwest Territories. I’d like to ask the Minister exactly when are you intending to roll out this program to all 33 communities in the Northwest Territories.