Canadian journal of psychiatry. Revue canadienne de psychiatrie
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To examine current concerns that in the Canadian single-payer mental health care system, the "rich worried well" (that is, wealthy individuals who are worried yet mentally well) may overuse psychiatric services, while low-income, uninsured mentally ill individuals may remain undertreated. The current study focuses on the mental health care in the Canadian region of Ottawa-Carleton, where a single-payer system provides universal access to mental health services, to assess how psychiatric services are provided by psychiatrists in private practice. ⋯ Our results suggest that outpatient psychiatric care delivered by private psychiatrists in a Canadian single-payer system targets primarily individuals with major psychiatric disorders and does not seem to favour "the worried well." Larger epidemiological studies with independent assessments of psychiatric populations are necessary to confirm our findings.