The role of Afro-Canadian status in police or ambulance referral to emergency psychiatric services.
OBJECTIVE
This study tested the hypothesis that among patients admitted to a hospital with psychosis, Afro-Canadian patients would be more likely than Euro-Canadian or Asian-Canadian patients to be brought to emergency services by police or ambulance.


METHODS
Data on psychotic patients admitted to the psychiatry ward in 1999 were extracted from records of a general hospital in Montreal. Logistic regression models examined the relationship between being Afro-Canadian and being brought to the emergency service by police or ambulance, while controlling for age, gender, marital status, and number of psychotic symptoms.


RESULTS
Of the 351 patients with psychosis, 59 percent were Euro-Canadian, 11 percent were Afro-Canadian, and 18 percent were Asian Canadian. Most Afro-Canadian patients in the study were immigrants from the Caribbean and Africa. Being Afro-Canadian was independently and positively associated with police or ambulance referral to emergency services.


CONCLUSIONS
Afro-Canadians admitted to the hospital with psychosis are overrepresented in police and ambulance referrals to emergency psychiatric services.
Eric Jarvis
G
G
Jewish General Hospital, 4333 Cote Street, Catherine Road, Montreal, Quebec, Canada H3T 1E4. eric.jarvis@staff.mcgill.ca.
Kirmayer
Laurence J
LJ
Jarvis
George K
GK
Whitley
Rob
R
D000328:Adult; D000368:Aged; D000552:Ambulances / Q000706:statistics & numerical data*; D044466:Asian People / Q000706:statistics & numerical data; D044383:Black People / Q000706:statistics & numerical data*; D003431:Cross-Cultural Comparison; D004637:Emergency Services, Psychiatric / Q000706:statistics & numerical data*; D004641:Emigration and Immigration / Q000706:statistics & numerical data; D005260:Female; D006801:Humans; D016015:Logistic Models; D008297:Male; D008875:Middle Aged; D016495:Police; D011618:Psychotic Disorders / Q000208:ethnology*; D011792:Quebec; D012017:Referral and Consultation / Q000706:statistics & numerical data*; D044465:White People / Q000706:statistics & numerical data