The latest Health Quality Ontario report, Income and Health: Opportunities to achieve health equity in Ontario, finds that the poorer you are in Ontario, the more likely you are to face health risks and worse health outcomes, and the less likely you are to get quality health care. For example:
- The poorest Ontarians are almost twice as likely to report multiple chronic health conditions as the richest Ontarians
- While about six of 10 of the poorest Ontarians report insurance for prescription medications compared with almost nine of 10 of the richest Ontarians
- The rate of hospitalization for conditions that can be managed outside hospital for people in Ontario’s poorest neighbourhoods is 2.5 times higher than those of the richest neighbourhoods
- Half of the poorest Ontarians report their health as excellent or very good, compared with almost three quarters of the richest Ontarians
- On average, women in Ontario’s poorest neighbourhoods die more than two years earlier than those in Ontario’s richest neighbourhoods, while men in the poorest neighbourhoods die more than five years earlier than men in the richest neighbourhoods.
When it comes to mental health and addictions, HQO finds that between 2010/11 to 2012/13, the poorest Ontarians made almost twice the number of visits (104,494) than the richest Ontarians (54,457) to the Emergency Department (ED) for mental health or addictions reasons. Additionally, the poorest Ontarians made significantly more visits to the ED as the first point of contact for their mental health issue or addiction (31,942) than the richest Ontarians (19,409).
The report includes stories about four Ontarians. These stories highlight the ways mental health and addictions intersect with poverty, as well as the importance of the Ontario Disability Support Program for low income Ontarians.
CMHA Ontario’s Advancing Equity in Ontario framework was referenced in the HQO section on mental health and addictions. To read more about how poverty and mental health intersect in Ontario, read our framework.