Demographics of mental healthcare presentations in a northwest Ontario emergency department.

Objectives: Providing emergency mental health services for populations in remote rural areas of Canada is challenging. Program needs are distinct. We describe the emergency mental health workload and service needs at the Sioux Lookout Meno Ya Win Health Centre (SLMHC) in northwest Ontario.

Epidemiologic features of medical emergencies in remote First Nations in northern Ontario: a cross-sectional descriptive study using air ambulance transport data.

Background: For about 25 000 Ontarians living in remote northern First Nations communities, seeing a doctor in an emergency department requires flying in an airplane or helicopter. This study describes the demographic and epidemiologic characteristics of patients transported from these communities to access hospital-based emergency medical care.

Methods: In this cross-sectional descriptive study, we examined primary medical data on patient transportation from Ornge, the provincial medical air ambulance service provider, for 26 remote Nishnawbe Aski Nation communities in northern Ontario from 2012 to 2016.