Mental health and seeking professional help: a Canadian longitudinal study

Depression decreases quality of life and is a leading cause of disability. Immigrants to Canada experience different challenges than the general population where their physical health declines as short as two years post-immigration and becomes closer to that of the general population. This decline is believed to be the result of several health care access barriers and other factors. Studies need to further investigate the health and mental health of older immigrants and their access to health services compared to the general population. From the Baseline data, our preliminary results show an association with immigrant status and chronic diseases. Using the Follow-up 1 data, we would like to further explore the temporal association between immigrants’ health, mental health and access to health care services compared to the general population.