People with serious mental health and substance use issues face unique barriers when they try to access primary care. These videos demonstrate those barriers. The skits are based on research by Dr. Lori Ross and her team, who interviewed 85 service users and 16 service providers in the Toronto and Ottawa areas.
Project overview
Dr. Lori Ross, Jennifer Chambers, Myera Waese and Tucker Gordon give an overview of the Access to Primary Care Project.
Track marks
In this dramatization, a service user with a history of drug use runs into barriers when she visits a nurse practitioner about her flu symptoms.
Access via service providers
In this dramatization, a service user faces barriers when trying to access an inpatient program.
The doctor's office
In this dramatization, we see how visiting the doctor's office may create problems for people with mental health or substance use issues.
It's a dog bite
In this dramatization, we see what can happen when a person with mental health or substance use issues visits a doctor for an unrelated problem – a dog bite.