Quality mental health care depends on matching the level of care provided to clients’ psychosocial needs. Previous studies have shown that fewer than half of people with mental disorders will seek treatment, leading to high levels of unmet need. In addition, of those who seek services, many will receive a level of care that’s less than what’s required.
Recently, researchers looked at service access and match in south-eastern Ontario (following investments from Ontario’s Ministry of Health and Long-Term Care). Their goal? To determine if there had been improvements. Their findings suggest that a more targeted and systematic approach to care planning is required to shift system-wide resources to client groups who have the greatest need.
To learn more, check out EENet’s Research Snapshot of the article, “Funding Growth and Service Match: Doing More of the Same, or Doing Things Better?” by Heather Stuart and others. It appeared in the Canadian Journal of Community Mental Health, vol. 29, no. 5: 97-109. The Snapshotis available here.
Research Snapshots are brief, clear language summaries of research articles, presented in a user-friendly format. To read EENet’s clear language summary of this article and others, visit www.eenet.ca.