Pediatric mental health visits to the emergency department by First Nations and socioeconomic status, 2002–2008
| Characteristic | No. of visits (%) | |||
|---|---|---|---|---|
| First Nations | Family receiving welfare | Government-sponsored subsidy | No subsidy | |
| No. of visits | 4 230 | 1 972 | 5 739 | 18 715 |
| Age at time of visit, yr | ||||
| 0–4 | 44 (1.0) | 32 (1.6) | 62 (1.1) | 199 (1.1) |
| 5–9 | 116 (2.7) | 142 (7.2) | 365 (6.4) | 752 (4.0) |
| 10–14 | 1 329 (31.3) | 674 (34.2) | 2 021 (35.2) | 5 811 (31.0) |
| 15–17 | 2 741 (64.8) | 1 124 (57.0) | 3 291 (57.3) | 11 953 (63.9) |
| Age, yr, mean ± SD | 14.7 ± 2.5 | 14.2 ± 3.1 | 14.2 ± 2.8 | 14.6 ± 2.6 |
| Female | 2 458 (58.1) | 1 084 (55.0) | 3 377 (58.8) | 11 024 (58.9) |
| Main ambulatory diagnosis | ||||
| Mental or behavioural disorder due to substance abuse | 1 515 (35.8) | 395 (20.0) | 1 210 (21.1) | 4 355 (23.3) |
| Behavioural or emotional disorder or syndrome | 301 (7.1) | 377 (19.1) | 1 085 (18.9) | 2 244 (12.0) |
| Mood disorder | 477 (11.3) | 300 (15.2) | 873 (15.2) | 3 443 (18.4) |
| Anxiety- or stress-related disorder | 967 (22.9) | 490 (24.8) | 1 434 (25.0) | 5 098 (27.2) |
| Schizophrenia or other psychotic illness | 145 (3.4) | 65 (3.3) | 133 (2.3) | 416 (2.2) |
| Intentional self-harm | 742 (17.5) | 300 (15.2) | 855 (14.9) | 2 779 (14.9) |
| Personality related | 75 (1.8) | 38 (1.9) | 137 (2.4) | 343 (1.8) |
| Unspecified | 8 (0.2) | 7 (0.4) | 12 (0.2) | 37 (0.2) |
| CTAS score | ||||
| 1 (resuscitation) | 40 (0.9) | 9 (0.5) | 19 (0.3) | 98 (0.5) |
| 2 (emergent) | 431 (10.2) | 194 (9.8) | 660 (11.5) | 2 295 (12.3) |
| 3 (urgent) | 1 286 (30.4) | 793 (40.2) | 2 242 (39.1) | 6 997 (37.4) |
| 4 (semiurgent) | 1 111 (26.3) | 492 (24.9) | 1 371 (23.9) | 4 336 (23.2) |
| 5 (nonurgent) | 248 (5.9) | 89 (4.5) | 281 (4.9) | 1 003 (5.4) |
| Unavailable | 1 114 (26.3) | 395 (20.0) | 1 166 (20.3) | 3 986 (21.3) |
| Length of stay, median (IQR)* | 2h 27m (1h 5 m–5 h 40 m) | 2h 59m (1h 31m–5h 35m) | 3h 7m (1h 34m–5h 32 m) | 3h 0m (1h 30m–5h 21m) |
Note: CTAS = Canadian Triage and Acuity Scale, IQR = interquartile range, SD = standard deviation.
↵* Unknown for 131 visits for First Nations children, 61 visits for children in the welfare group, 219 visits for children in the government-sponsored subsidy group and 685 visits for children in the no subsidy group.