Madam Speaker, I am pleased to rise in support of my colleague, the member for Thornhill, in terms of the motion to develop a national strategy on Alzheimer's disease and related dementias. I also want to congratulate the member for pushing the issue in the House. We can see by some of the debate tonight that there is very strong support for pushing ahead and calling on the Minister of Health and the cabinet to move forward with a national strategy on Alzheimer's.
As mentioned by the member for Thornhill earlier, a report released in 2004 by the National Advisory Council on Aging called for the development of such a strategy involving not only the provinces but all stakeholders involved in addressing this serious issue.
The report put forward some 28 recommendations and a couple of key recommendations relate to my own province of Prince Edward Island. I want to go to that report for a moment because this is one of the key recommendations in the report.
The report recommended that the federal government ensure that the catastrophic drug coverage plan include coverage of people with Alzheimer's disease and related dementias. According to the report, P.E.I. is one of four provinces where “Medications approved by Health Canada to treat Alzheimer's disease are not available”. The other provinces are British Columbia, Nova Scotia and New Brunswick.
It is essential that, as advances are made in the treatment of Alzheimer's disease and effective medications are approved by the federal government, all provinces make these medications available through their drug benefit plans. We have experienced that before in my province of Prince Edward Island with other drugs that are covered by other provinces. It really puts the citizens in that province at an even worse disadvantage.
It further recommended that the federal government collaborate with provincial and territorial governments through the common drug review to make approved medications for Alzheimer's disease and related dementias accessible to all Canadians in all provinces by ensuring these drugs are part of provincial drug formularies and that the criteria to assess them are appropriate and consistent, meaning from hospitals, long term care institutions and home care, et cetera. That is a strong recommendation that leadership in my own province needs to take into consideration.
The other recommendation, on a more positive note as it relates to Prince Edward Island, is that the federal and provincial governments work to establish a common national definition of a set of home care services and that those services be fully insured under the Canada Health Act.
One of the areas where we are making progress in Prince Edward Island on Alzheimer's is with the Alzheimer's Society of Prince Edward Island. It is a leader, not only nationally but internationally, in the area of elder care medication. This is a pioneering and innovative program designed in Prince Edward Island and provided to families with Alzheimer's victims free of charge which, through the assistance of a mediator for the family, assists families through the difficult experience of caring for a member of the family suffering from Alzheimer's. This is the kind of initiative that we believe should be incorporated within a national strategy.
I congratulate the Alzheimer's Society of Prince Edward Island for that move because it is an appropriate move. As was mentioned by numerous speakers here tonight, the difficulty with Alzheimer's disease is not only for the individual with the disease, but the stress and the effects on the family as well.
To conclude, the member for Thornhill spoke of her personal experience when the disease hit close to home. Others have spoken about that here tonight as well. I am fully supportive of the endeavour and encourage all members to support the member in developing and pushing for this national strategy.