Abstract
Objectives:
To investigate the shared mental health care experience of the psychiatry department of a small urban general hospital, which serves an ethnoculturally diverse population.
Methods:
A chart survey was undertaken of all patients referred by community physicians to a new shared care program between January 1991 and December 1995. Selected demographic and diagnostic characteristics were collected and analyzed.
Results:
Seven hundred and thirteen patients were assessed. They were principally female, ethnoculturally varied, and highly comorbid. The most striking association involved mood and substance-related disorders.
Conclusion:
The Doctors Hospital experience shows that the shared care approach can reach large numbers of patients through a multiplier effect. Additionally, this approach has the potential to enhance access for ethnoculturally varied and diagnostically complex groups.
MeSH terms
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Ambulatory Care* / organization & administration
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Ambulatory Care* / statistics & numerical data
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Cooperative Behavior
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Cross-Sectional Studies
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Cultural Diversity
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Female
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Health Care Surveys
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Humans
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Male
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Mental Disorders / epidemiology*
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Mental Disorders / therapy
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Mental Health Services* / organization & administration
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Mental Health Services* / statistics & numerical data
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Models, Organizational*
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Mood Disorders / epidemiology
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Mood Disorders / therapy
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Ontario / epidemiology
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Outpatient Clinics, Hospital / organization & administration
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Outpatient Clinics, Hospital / statistics & numerical data
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Patient Care Team / organization & administration
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Primary Health Care / organization & administration
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Primary Health Care / statistics & numerical data
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Psychiatry / organization & administration
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Psychiatry / statistics & numerical data
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Referral and Consultation / organization & administration
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Referral and Consultation / statistics & numerical data*
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Retrospective Studies