Summary
The latest National Survey of Mental Health and Wellbeing conducted in 2007 by the Australian Bureau of Statistics (ABS 2008a) estimates that 3.2 million Australians, or 20%, of the adult population experienced symptoms of a mental disorder in the 12 months before the survey. This report on Australian mental health services provides detailed information on the national response to the mental health care needs of Australians using a range of AIHW and other data sources.
Service provision
- Overall, services for people with mental health care needs continue to show a steady increase, generally above the rate of population growth.
- General practitioners (GPs) are often a first contact point for mental health concerns. In 2008-09, the Bettering the Evaluation and Care of Health survey of general practice activity estimated that over 13.2 million GP-patient encounters involved management of a mental health issue, an increase on average of 5.7% each year from 2004-05.
- In 2008-09, there were about 4.6 million Medicare claims for subsidised psychiatrist, psychologist and other mental health-related allied health services, compared with 3.9 million claims in 2007-08, an increase of 17.4%. This sustained growth reflects the continuing uptake of the Better Access to Psychiatrists, Psychologists and GPs through the Medicare Benefits Schedule initiative introduced in November 2006. Mental health-specific GP service items constituted another 1.6 million claims made in 2008-09.
- Community mental health care services and hospital outpatient services also provide care for mental health consumers, with close to 6.4 million service contacts in 2007-08, a 6.8% increase from 2006-07.
- Mental health care is provided to admitted patients in public acute, public psychiatric and private hospitals. In 2007-08, there were nearly 213,000 mental health-related separations for admitted patients, compared with about 209,000 separations in 2006-07, an increase of 1.7%.
Expenditure and resources
- In 2007-08, there were 16 public psychiatric hospitals with 2,156 beds (an average annual decrease of 2.0% from 2003-04), and 141 public acute hospitals with a specialised psychiatric unit or ward with 4,395 beds (an average annual increase of 4.0%). A clear trend can be seen in the provision of public sector specialised mental health hospital beds, with beds in specialised psychiatric units or wards within public acute hospitals replacing beds in public psychiatric hospitals.
- Expenditure on state and territory mental health services increased by an annual average of 5.9% (adjusted for inflation) between 2003-04 and 2007-08, to $3,323 million. Public acute hospitals with specialised psychiatric wards and community mental health care services reported annual average increases in expenditure of 7.7% and 7.0% respectively. At the same time, public psychiatric hospital expenditure decreased by 1.2% per year, again reflecting the transfer of mental health beds to specialised psychiatric units or wards within public acute hospitals.
- In 2008-09, the Australian Government paid $666 million in benefits for Medicare-subsidised mental health-related services provided by psychiatrists, GPs, psychologists and other allied health professionals. Nationally, Medicare benefits paid for these services averaged $30.78 per person. Between 2004-05 and 2008-09, Australian Government expenditure on MBS mental health-related items increased by an annual average of 26.8%, reflecting, in part, the introduction of items for psychologists during that period.
- In 2008-09, 21.4 million mental health-related prescriptions subsidised under the Pharmaceutical Benefits Scheme and Repatriation Pharmaceutical Benefits Scheme cost the Australian Government over $742 million. They comprised mainly antipsychotics (51%) and antidepressants (41%) and accounted for over 1 in 10 of all prescription claims.
Preliminary material: Foreword; Acknowledgments;
1. Introduction
1.1 Report structure
1.2 Definition of mental health-related services
1.3 Background on mental health in Australia
1.4 National policies for mental health
1.5 Additional information
2. Mental health-related care in general practice
2.1 Introduction
2.2 Bettering the Evaluation and Care of Health survey data
2.3 Mental health-related encounters
2.4 Additional general practice activity
2.5 Mental health-specific Medicare Benefits Schedule items for general practice
2.6 Proportion of people with a mental illness with a GP care plan
3. Mental health-related care in emergency departments
3.1 Introduction
3.2 Mental health-related emergency department occasions of service
3.3 Mental health-related emergency department care
4. Community mental health care and hospital outpatient services
4.1 Introduction
4.2 States and territories
4.3 Type of service contacts
4.4 Duration of service contacts
4.5 Mental health legal status
4.6 Patient demographics
4.7 Principal diagnosis
4.8 Change over time, 2003–04 to 2007–08
4.9 Public sector community mental health services
4.10 Additional data
5. Ambulatory-equivalent mental health-related admitted patient care
5.1 Introduction
5.2 States and territories and hospital type
5.3 Mental health legal status
5.4 Patient demographics
5.5 Principal diagnosis
5.6 Procedures
5.7 Change over time, 2003–04 to 2007–08
5.8 Additional data
6. Medicare-subsidised psychiatrist and allied health services
6.1 Introduction
6.2 People accessing MBS-subsidised psychiatrist and allied mental health services
6.3 MBS-subsidised psychiatrist and allied health services
6.4 Private sector mental health services
7. Admitted patient mental health-related care
7.1 Introduction
7.2 Change over time, 2003–04 to 2007–08
7.3 Specialised admitted patient mental health care
7.4 Non-specialised admitted patient mental health care
7.5 Separations with mental health-related additional diagnoses
7.6 Additional data
8. Residential mental health care
8.1 Introduction
8.2 States and territories
8.3 Change over time, 2004–05 to 2007–08
8.4 Mental health legal status
8.5 Patient demographics
8.6 Principal diagnosis
8.7 Length of episodes and residential stays
8.8 Additional data
9. Mental health-related Supported Accommodation Assistance Program services
9.1 Introduction
9.2 SAAP clients with mental health-related closed support periods
9.3 SAAP mental health-related closed support periods
10. Support services for people with psychiatric disability
10.1 Introduction
10.2 CSTDA services overview
10.3 Residential services
10.4 Non-residential services
11. Mental health-related prescriptions
11.1 Introduction
11.2 PBS/RPBS-subsidised prescriptions
11.3 PBS/RPBS-subsidised patients
11.4 Non-subsidised prescriptions
12. Profile of specialised mental health care facilities
12.1 Introduction
12.2 Mental health care facilities
12.3 Specialised mental health service organisations
12.4 National Standards for Mental Health Services
12.5 Number of available beds
12.6 Patient days
12.7 Staffing of state and territory specialised mental health care facilities
12.8 Private psychiatric hospitals
13. Mental health workforce
13.1 Introduction
13.2 Psychiatrists
13.3 Mental health nurses
14. Expenditure on mental health services
14.1 Introduction
14.2 Recurrent expenditure on state and territory specialised mental health services
14.3 Private psychiatric hospital expenditure
14.4 Australian Government expenditure on Medicare-subsidised mental health-related services
14.5 Australian Government expenditure on mental health-related medications
14.6 Total Australian Government expenditure on mental health-related services
14.7 Sources of funding for state and territory specialised mental health services
14.8 Funding and expenditure for all mental health-related services
15. State and territory summary tables
15.1 New South Wales
15.2 Victoria
15.3 Queensland
15.4 Western Australia
15.5 South Australia
15.6 Tasmania
15.7 Australian Capital Territory
15.8 Northern Territory
15.9 Australia
Appendixes
- Appendix 1: Data sources
- Appendix 2: Technical notes
- Appendix 3: Classifications used
- Appendix 4: Codes used to define mental health-related general practice encounters and mental health-related hospital separations
- Appendix 5: National Healthcare Agreement performance indicators—mental health-related
End matter: Abbreviations; References; List of tables; Index