Three-year physician treated prevalence rate of mental disorders in Alberta.

Objective: To examine the rate at which adults seek services for mental disorders from different categories of physicians.

Method: The study used billing data from all physicians during a 3-year period for the total adult population of the province of Alberta.

Results: During the 3-year period, 35% of adults consulted a physician and were given a mental disorder diagnosis.

The impact of integrating mental and general health services on mental health's share of total health care spending in Alberta.

Objective: In April 2003 the Alberta government integrated specialized mental health services, formerly organized independently, with the health regions, which are responsible for general health services. The objective of this article is to determine whether the transfer was associated with an increase or decrease in the share of resources in the region allocated to mental health care relative to total spending for health care.

Methods: The measure of the share for mental health care is the total costs for mental health care resources as a percentage of total health care spending.