Individuals who belong to racialized groups who seek out services for mental health or addiction issues experience marginalization both for their mental health or addiction issues as well as for their race. For these individuals, use of the emergency department (ED) increases when there are big life changes, such as to their housing or employment. Although some make these ED visits by choice, others do not, for example when they are brought in by service providers or the police. On March 26, 2013, the Racialized Populations and Mental Health and Addictions Community of Interest (CoI) held a think tank on exploring mental health- or addictions-related emergency department (ED) use by racialized populations in Ontario.
More than 90 participants gathered to listen to presentations focused on four themes:
- Factors that influence the use of EDs by racialized individuals with mental health and addictions issues, including the social determinants of health (social factors that can affect a person’s health)
- The provincial health system
- The relationship between hospitals and community organizations, and
- The ED itself.
In our latest Research Report Round-up, we provide a brief overview of the CoI’s report summarizing the think tank.
You can read the full report on the EENet website. Research Report Round-ups are brief summaries of research reports, presented in a user-friendly format.