Creating Primary Care Access for Mental Health Care Clients in A Community Mental Health Setting

Successful support of persons living with a mental illness in the community is challenged by the lack of primary care accessible to this population. The Canadian Mental Health Association–Windsor Essex County Branch explored options to provide mental and physical health care, initially creating an integrated primary care clinic and later a larger community health clinic co-located with its mental health care services and staffed by a multidisciplinary team. A retrospective review of 805 charts and a client satisfaction survey were conducted in 2001 to evaluate this service. Findings indicate that access to primary care and mental health care co-located at a community-based clinic has reduced the number of emergency room visits and admissions, and length of stay in hospital, for individuals with moderate to serious mental illness. A client survey in January 2008 supports these preliminary findings.