Health care utilization for emotional problems: results from a community survey

A survey was conducted in which 865 randomly selected adult household residents of Edmonton, Alberta were interviewed to obtain information about health care in the preceding year. Eighty percent of the sample had seen a family physician, and eight percent of visits to family physicians involved a mental or emotional problem. Thirteen percent of the sample received professional help for a mental or emotional problem from some type of caregiver. The most frequently consulted professional was the family physician (eight percent of the sample), followed by psychologists and psychiatrists (each seeing two percent of the sample). Family physicians accounted for the greatest number of consultations for mental or emotional problems (41%), followed by psychologists (16%), social workers (12%) and psychiatrists (nine percent). Women were 27% more likely to seek a consultation than men, and consultation rates were highest in the group ranging in age from 35 to 44 years. There was also a strong relationship between having recent psychiatric symptoms and having had a consultation in the past year.