How Norwegian casualty clinics handle contacts related to mental illness: A prospective observational study

Table 4 Use of onwards referral in GP registered contacts related to substance misuse or mental illness

	Total n = 853		Substance abuse n = 292		Mental illness n = 361		Mental illness/ substance abuse n = 200
	n	%	n	%	n	%	n	%	p-value
No onwards referral	428	50.2	154	52.7	190	52.6	84	42.0	0.03
Onwards referral
Out-patient treatment	121	14.0	45	15.4	54	15.0	22	11.0	0.33
Somatic services	49	5.7	38	13.0	9	2.5	2	1.0	<0.001
Regular GP	34	4.0	6	2.1	20	5.5	8	4.0	0.08
Psychiatric services	31	3.6	1	0.3	23	6.4	7	3.5	<0.001
Addiction treatment	1	0.1	0	0.0	0	0.0	1	0.5	N/A
Others	6	0.7	0	0.0	2	0.6	4	2.0	N/A
In-patient treatment	290	34.0	87	29.8	117	32.4	86	43.0	<0.01
Psychiatric wards	131	15.4	6	2.1	78	21.6	47	23.5	<0.001
Medical wards	114	13.4	53	18.2	30	8.3	31	15.5	0.001
Surgical wards	31	3.6	22	7.5	5	1.4	4	2.0	<0.001
Community based wards	7	0.8	1	0.3	3	0.8	3	1.5	N/A
Other somatic wards	6	0.7	4	1.4	1	0.3	1	0.5	N/A
Addiction treatment	1	0.1	1	0.3	0	0.0	0	0.0	N/A
Police custody	19	2.2	6	2.1	4	1.1	9	4.5	0.03

Onwards referral from the casualty clinics in GP registered contacts related to substance misuse or mental illness (n = 853). The columns add to more than 100% because some patients were referred to several services. Percentage denotes percentage of all patients in given category. Group differences were tested with Pearson’s chi-squared test. N/A marks when Pearson’s chi-squared test was non-applicable due to low expected cell-count.

ISSN: 1752-4458