Handling an instance of outlook

I have a form which loads an instance of outlook.

When the form is closed I quit the instance.

It all works fine but what I would like is some way of checking whether the user has outlook open when I load the form and then act accrdingly when I close the form.

At present my code unloads outlook regardless of its state when the form loaded

i.e

Function InitOutlook() As Integer

On Error Resume Next

InitOutlook = False

statBar.Panels(1).Text = "Creating Outlook application link...."
Set appOut = CreateObject("Outlook.Application")
If appOut Is Nothing Then
  Set appOut = New Outlook.Application
End If
statBar.Panels(1).Text = ""

If appOut Is Nothing Then
  MsgBox "Error instantiating outlook" & Err.Description
  Exit Function
End If

statBar.Panels(1).Text = "Creating Outlook Namespace...."
Set mNS = appOut.GetNamespace("MAPI")
If Err Then
   MsgBox "Error creating NameSpace " & Err.Description
   Exit Function
End If

statBar.Panels(1).Text = ""
InitOutlook = True

End Function

Then on unload

set mNS = nothing
appout.quit
set appout = nothing