OTTAWA, Sept. 19 (UPI) -- About 1-in-6 Canadians say they needed mental healthcare -- mostly counseling -- last year, officials at Statistics Canada say.
The 2012 Canadian Community Health Survey on mental health was based on a national sample of more than 25,000 people age 15 or older in the 10 provinces.
The need for mental healthcare was mainly for counseling, the survey suggested, but other mental healthcare needs were for medication and information, the CBC reported.
"An estimated 600,000 had a perceived unmet mental healthcare need, and more than 1 million had a partially met need," the report's authors said.
About 17 percent of Canada's population age 15 or older reported having had a mental healthcare need in the past 12 months and of these:
-- 67 percent said their needs were met.
-- 21 percent said their needs were partially met.
-- 12 percent said their needs were unmet.
"The presence of a mental disorder, higher distress, and chronic physical conditions were positively associated with perceiving a mental healthcare need, many of which were unmet or only partially met," the report's authors said. "As well, higher levels of distress predicted a greater likelihood that needs would be unmet or partially met."
About 75 percent of those with a mood or anxiety disorder such as depression or bipolar disorder reported a need for mental healthcare, compared with 25 percent of those with a substance disorder.
