The Northern Health Region continues to see twice as many hospitalizations for mental health disorders compared to the rest of the province.
That’s according to a recent study done by the Canadian Institute for Health Information, which says the rate of hospitalizations in our area is 1087 children hospitalized per 100,000 thousand population – that’s up from last year’s rate of 921.
Manager of Health Reports, Liudmila Husak told Vista Radio the north easily surpasses both the provincial and national figures.
“So this is a bit higher. For British Columbia, the rate is 543 and in terms of the national average the rate is 495.”
Over the past decade, hospitalizations for mental health disorders between the ages of 5 to 24 in Canada grew by 65% while hospitalizations for all other conditions decreased by 24%.
“In terms of hospitalizations for Canada, the top three are other disorders so that includes eating disorders because those are more severe conditions that keep leading to hospitalizations, second place goes to mood disorders and the third spot goes to schizophrenic disorders.”
When it comes to emergency department visits in the country the top three include anxiety disorders, substance related disorders due to drugs or alcohol and rounding out the top three was mood disorders.
Today (Tuesday) is also Child and Youth Mental Health Day in BC.