Tag: Ontario

Reading of the Week: Hospitalizations and Ethnicity (and Stigma)

August 25, 2016 /

From the Editor

Younger and sicker.

This week, we look at a new paper published in The Journal of Clinical Psychiatry considering ethnicity and hospitalizations. Drawing on Ontario data, researchers looked at psychiatric hospitalizations for people of Chinese and South Asian descent, finding that they were younger and more ill at the time of admission.

Hospitalizations, ethnicity… and access

Lead author Maria Chiu of the Institute for Clinical Evaluative Sciences told the Toronto Star:

Cultural factors play a big role in these findings. While Asian people tend to have stronger family support, they are also faced with a higher level of stigma and it prevents people from seeking help early. Families may try to cope and keep the illness within the family until there is no choice but to go to hospital.

This paper is well designed. It’s also important, speaking to larger issues about access, stigma, and ethnicity.

DG Continue reading

Reading of the Week: Dr. Kurdyak’s Paper on Psychiatry and Practice

April 16, 2015 /

A few months ago, a patient walked into my office and immediately broke down. He explained that he had waited so long to see a psychiatrist that he was overwhelmed to finally meet me. For the record, he had never spoken to me before and knew nothing about me – except that I was a psychiatrist and that he needed to see one.

The surprise is that anyone would be surprised by such a story.

Patients often face long wait lists in our health care system. The wait for psychiatric care seems particularly long. But here’s the question: do we have a shortage of psychiatrists in Ontario – or do we have a shortage of creative thinking on how psychiatrists practice in Ontario? The week’s Reading asks this important question, with a surprising conclusion: “increasing psychiatrist supply will have little impact on patients’ access.” Continue reading