Grant: Travel Awards - Institute Community Support

Introduction: Opioid-dependence is a major health issue in the province of Ontario, Canada; and as of 2015, there are over 42,000 people enrolled in opioid-agonist therapy (OAT; using methadone or buprenorphine). In Ontario, OAT is the standard of care for opioid dependence but there is a recognized need for access to supportive programming to address concurring health issues. This study to a recent characterized the health service utilization for patients with opioid-dependence and co-occurring mental health issues. The purpose of this paper is to further characterize health service utilization for patients in Opioid Agonist Treatment (MMT/BMT) receiving concurrent mental health services in a primary care setting across the province of Ontario. Results: We demonstrated that patients in MMT/BMT are using physician and emergency services more frequently than the general mental health patient population and that this trend has increased over time. Our findings also denote that MMT/BMT patients in are younger, are more likely to be in the lowest income quintile when compared to the general population of patients accessing mental health services in Primary Care. In addition we were able to demonstrate that health service use patterns are district for patients in MMT/BMT in northern regions of the province. The northern cohort saw their physicians more frequently for non-mental health issues and saw their primary care physician more frequently for mental health issues, visited the emergency department and were hospitalized more frequently compared to the southern cohort. Conclusion: Findings from this study suggest that patients in MMT/BMT accessing mental health services in a primary care setting in Ontario, Canada have unique needs in regards to the way they access services. Understanding these factors offers the potential to improve the service climate for this patient population.