Health and wellness

The Government of Yukon recognizes that current Yukon laws establishing parentage often rely on biological connections and may be based on binary assumptions of gender and sex. This outdated language does not reflect the reality of many Yukon families, particularly families with parents who are 2SLGBTQIA+, and families who may use assisted human reproduction or surrogacy.

To understand how Yukoners experience barriers, burdens and inequities in the current system, we want to:

The Government of Yukon, in partnership with the Yukon Type 1 Diabetes Support Network, was seeking public input on the development of a type 1 diabetes strategy for the territory. 

How would you measure wellbeing? We want to hear your thoughts about measuring what matters and defining what a high quality of life looks like in Yukon.
 

The Government of Yukon is preparing a new regulation to prevent workplace violence and harassment. As well, the Occupational Health and Safety Regulations will see a related amendment designed to improve workplace hazard assessments.

Violence and harassment are serious health and safety hazards to which no Yukon worker should be exposed. The Government of Yukon is taking action to support Yukon employers and workers to foster workplaces that are free from violence and harassment.

How are Yukoners really doing right now? In these challenging times, we need more than just economic data to help answer that question.

The Community Wellbeing Survey will provide a territory-wide snapshot of Yukoners’ wellbeing and provide the needed population-level data to support informed decision making to best meet the unique and changing needs of Yukoners. The COVID-specific questions at the start of the survey will inform next steps in the pandemic response.

The Government of Yukon is developing a 10-Year Fetal Alcohol Spectrum Disorder (FASD) Action Plan. This Plan will focus on awareness, prevention, and supporting people with FASD and their families to reach their full potential. We are engaging with First Nations, community representatives and many stakeholders to develop this plan.

The public engagement process was led by an FASD Interagency Advisory Committee, made up of government and non-government service providers, First Nations partners, caregivers and an individual with FASD. It ran from May 2017 through March 2018.

A recent study on air quality in Whitehorse found four neighbourhoods (Kopper King, Hidden Valley, Range Road North and Riverdale) had higher levels of pollution during cold winter months when air gets trapped in valleys.

The study suggested this was due to residential wood smoke.

The Government of Canada made changes to family caregiving and parental leave benefits under the federal Employment Insurance program.  

Yukon, as with most other jurisdictions, typically provides leave periods that align with the benefits provided under Canada’s Employment Insurance program. Yukon is considering making changes to the amount of parental leave and leave for people to care for critically ill family members. We wanted to know if Yukoners have any concerns or feedback on these changes.

The Government of Yukon is working to regulate, fund and integrate midwifery into Yukon’s healthcare system. Our goal as a government is to provide Yukoners additional options within a range of healthcare services that support healthy pregnancies, birthing experiences, and care after childbirth.

The plan we presented to participants during the engagement proposed the following:

In November 2018, an Independent Expert Panel was appointed to conduct a review of Yukon’s health and social services systems. The panel is made up of Yukoners and health systems experts from outside the territory.

Working together, we have to figure out how we can better allocate our existing resources (people and money), improve services, make things more efficient and find creative solutions to meet our needs today and tomorrow. To do that, the panel needs to hear from Yukoners about their experiences using our health and social services system.