Many Canadians reluctant to seek mental health treatment
Even though universal health insurance is available in Canada, manyCanadians still seem reluctant to seek mental health services, according to astudy in the September Canadian Journal of Psychiatry.
The lead researcher was Helen-Maria Vasiliadis, Ph.D., a CanadianInstitutes of Health Research postdoctoral fellow at the Harvard School ofPublic Health.
Canada’s first national survey on mental health and well-being wasconducted in 2002 and included detailed questions about service use. It wascalled the Statistics Canada Canadian Community Health Survey: Mental Healthand Well-Being. Vasiliadis and colleagues have now analyzed service-use datafrom that survey.
Most Canadians with a mental disorder, including dependence on illicitdrugs, did not seek help for it during the year preceding the survey,Vasiliadis and coworkers found.
Only 34 percent of respondents with depression reported past-year use ofprofessional mental health services. The corresponding percentages were 42percent for mania, 38 percent for panic disorder, 29 percent for socialanxiety, and 29 percent for agoraphobia, and 37 percent for drugdependence.
Women, single persons, and divorced individuals were more likely to seekhelp for a mental disorder than were men and individuals with partners. Peoplewith less education and people born outside of Canada were found to take lessadvantage of mental health services than individuals with more education andborn within Canada.
The article, Service Use for Mental Health Reasons: Cross-Provincial Differences in Rates, Determinants, and Equity of Access (Helen-Maria Vasiliadis, PhD, Alain Lesage, MD, Carol Adair, PhD, Richard Boyer, PhD) was published in the September issue of the Canadian Journal of Psychiatry.