Consumer outcomes

This page shows information about the mental health-related problems experienced by consumers of Australian public mental health services and whether they show improvement, no change, or deterioration in their clinical status and functioning from receiving care. Clinical outcomes are just one aspect of a consumer’s treatment and recovery.

Information is collected using clinical measures that have been completed by clinicians or by consumers. Service settings include ambulatory (community) services and inpatient (admitted hospital) services.

Key points

In one year in Australia:

Source: National Outcomes and Casemix Collection Database, 2021–22

Data downloads

Spotlight data

Horizontal stacked bar chart, showing per cent of completed episodes with clinician-rated outcome types for consumers, by consumer group, during 2021–22. Each tab shows information for a specific age band. People aged 11 and older showed significant improvement more often after admitted than ambulatory care. Most people aged 11–64 years showed significant improvement after care in completed episodes in both admitted and ambulatory settings. Generally, people aged 65 and older showed no significant change after ambulatory care. Data source: National Outcomes and Casemix Collection (NOCC), refer to NOCC Tables 21, 23 and 25.

Who is included in the NOCC?

Figure NOCC.1: Demographic characteristics of consumers

Figure NOCC.1: Horizontal bar chart including 95% confidence intervals, showing the per cent of consumers included in the National Outcomes and Casemix Collection (NOCC) by consumer demographics, during one year, 2014–15 to 2021–22. Refer to NOCC Table 2.

Notes:

  1. Black bars representing 95% confidence intervals are displayed. For more information, refer to Notes to interpret the data. 
  2. Per cent of consumers in the NOCC.
  3. Children aged 10 years and under account for 3% of all consumers in the NOCC. As this is a relatively small number of consumers, the ability to undertake comprehensive reporting and disaggregation is limited. As such, data relating to children aged 10 years and under are not further reported in this section. Reports can be generated via other NOCC reporting products (Web Decision Support Tool and Reports Portal).

Figure NOCC.2: Proportions of involuntary mental health care are higher for acute inpatient care compared with ambulatory care

Figure NOCC.2: Horizontal bar chart including 95% confidence intervals, showing the per cent of discharge collection occasions in the National Outcomes and Casemix Collection (NOCC) where mental health legal status was recorded as involuntary, by age band and setting during one year, 2014–15 to 2021–22. Acute inpatient collection occasions had higher proportions of involuntary mental health legal status than ambulatory care. Refer to NOCC Table 11.

Notes: 

  1. Black bars representing 95% confidence intervals are displayed. For more information, refer to Notes to interpret the data.
  2. Per cent of discharge collection occasions where mental health legal status was recorded as involuntary.

Clinical issues for consumers

Figure NOCC.3: Self-injury, Hallucinations and Substance misuse are more commonly rated as significant problems for consumers in acute inpatient settings compared with ambulatory settings

Interactive NOCC.3: Interactive horizontal bar graph including 95% confidence intervals showing the per cent of admission collection occasions in the National Outcomes and Casemix Collection (NOCC) where clinically significant problems were recorded using the clinician-rated Health of the Nation Outcome Scales for the appropriate age band, by age band and setting, during one year, 2014–15 to 2021–22. Refer to NOCC Tables 8, 9 and 10.

Notes:

  1. Black bars representing 95% confidence intervals are displayed. For more information, refer to Notes to interpret the data.
  2. Per cent of admission collection occasions where clinically significant problems were recorded using the clinician-rated Health of the Nation Outcome Scales for the appropriate age band. 

Clinical diagnoses for consumers

Figure NOCC.4: Depressive episode remains among the five most common principal diagnoses but its frequency has decreased over the past 8 years

Interactive NOCC.4: interactive horizontal bar graph with 95% confidence intervals showing the per cent of discharge collection occasions in the National Outcomes and Casemix Collection (NOCC) where principal diagnosis was recorded for the 5 most commonly reported principal diagnoses, by age band and setting, during one year, 2014–15 to 2021–22. Refer to NOCC Table 12.

Notes: 

  1. Black bars representing 95% confidence intervals are displayed. For more information, refer to Notes to interpret the data.
  2. Per cent of discharge collections occasions where principal diagnosis was recorded using the International Classification of Diseases (ICD-10-AM).

Clinical outcomes of care

Figure NOCC.5: Number of episodes to calculate consumer outcomes is very low for consumer-rated measures compared with clinician-rated measures

Interactive NOCC.5: Interactive doughnut chart showing the number of in-scope episodes in the National Outcomes and Casemix Collection (NOCC) with and without matched pairs of collection occasions, by age band and consumer group during one year, 2014–15 to 2021–22. The user can choose to display episodes for clinician-rated or consumer-rated measures. Overall, clinician-rated measures show a greater proportion of in-scope episodes with matched pair collection occasions compared with consumer-rated measures. Refer to NOCC Tables 15­ to 20.

Notes:

  1. Clinical outcomes can only be calculated for episodes with a matched pair of collection occasions. For more information, refer to Data methods download.
  2. The per cent of in-scope episodes with and without matched pair collection occasions are represented by the coloured rings. The number of episodes with matched pair collection occasions is displayed in the centre of the ring for each age band and consumer group.

Figure NOCC.6: Clinician- and consumer-rated outcomes for consumers. The highest proportions of Improvement compared to other clinical outcomes were for consumers who completed acute inpatient care

Interactive NOCC.6: Interactive vertical bar chart with 95% confidence intervals showing consumer outcomes (significant improvement, no significant change, significant deterioration) calculated from the National Outcomes and Casemix Collection (NOCC), by age band and consumer group, during one year, 2014–15 to 2021–22. The user can choose to display outcomes for clinician-rated or consumer-rated measures. Refer to NOCC Tables 21 to 26. 

Notes: 

  1. Black bars representing 95% confidence intervals are displayed. For more information refer to Notes to interpret the data
  2. Per cent of episodes that contain completed measures for two collection occasions that form a matched pair.

Where can I find more information?

You may also be interested in:

More detailed data are available via the National Outcomes and Casemix Collection Web Decision Support Tool and Reports Portal.

Notes to interpret the data

Data coverage includes the time period 2014–15 to 2021–22 for collection occasions and episodes and 2014–15 to 2020–21 for coverage of consumers. This section was last updated in October 2023.