Immigrant, refugee youth most likely to visit emergency departments with new, crisis mental health problems

Canadian Medical Association Journal
Published October 9, 2018 00:15 EDT (News release from CMAJ)
Refugee and immigrant youth in Ontario face barriers to accessing mental health services through primary care. Rather than presenting first to primary care, 61.3 per cent of refugee youth, 57.6 per cent of non-refugee immigrants, and 51.3 per cent of non-immigrant youth presented to the emergency department with a mental health crisis. Having a family doctor who practised as part of a team (versus a walk-in clinic) was associated with better rates of receiving outpatient mental health care prior to presenting in crisis to the emergency department.

Lead author: Natasha Ruth Saunders, Sick Kids Hospital and University of Toronto – natasha.saunders@sickkids.ca