Grant: Travel Awards - Institute Community Support

Background: The current supply and distribution of child psychiatrists in Ontario is unknown, making it difficult to effectively conduct mental healthcare planning. We aimed to create a data-driven definition of a child psychiatrist, then summarize the characteristics and location of child psychiatrists and their practices in Ontario in 2023 compared to non-child psychiatrists. Methods: A cross-sectional study was employed using administrative data from ICES. All practicing Ontario-based psychiatrists, defined as those submitting at least one billing claim to OHIP in the years 2013-2023, were included. Child psychiatrists were defined as those with 50% or more of their patients were <19 years of age. Characteristics (age, sex, rurality, and outpatient practice characteristics) of child (compared with non-child) psychiatrists were summarized descriptively. Results: In 2023, there was a total of 259 child psychiatrists and 2099 non-child psychiatrists in Ontario. Child psychiatrists were younger (55.8 ± 9.34 (mean ± SD) vs. 60.1 ± 11.5), more likely to be female (52.1% vs. 41.9%) and less likely to work in rural regions than non-child psychiatrists. Both subspecialties, on average, saw a similar number of patients overall (276.7 ± 265.9 vs. 329.3 ± 403.1), but child psychiatrists saw more outpatients (132.5 ± 160.8 vs. 91.0 ± 163.5). Just over 20% of child psychiatrists saw <40 outpatients in 2023 compared to 53% of non-child psychiatrists. Average outpatient visit frequency per patient per physician was one visit per year for both subspecialties, but a greater proportion of patients seen by child psychiatrists had 4 or more visits per year. Conclusions: There are relatively few child psychiatrists in Ontario, particularly in rural regions. While child and non-child psychiatrists have similar outpatient practice characteristics, child psychiatrists are less likely to have small practices, and their patients are slightly more likely to have longitudinal care.