The national recurrent expenditure on mental health services in
2006-07 was estimated to be $4.7 billion, according to a report
released today by the Australian Institute of Health and Welfare
(AIHW).
The national recurrent expenditure on mental health services in
2006-07 was estimated to be $4.7 billion, according to a report
released today by the Australian Institute of Health and Welfare
(AIHW).
'Of this total, 62% ($2.9 billion) came from state and territory
governments, 34% ($1.6 billion) from the Australian Government and
the remaining 4% ($177 million) from private health insurance
funds,' said Mr Gary Hanson of the AIHW's Mental Health Services
Unit.
Funding increased by just over 5% per year on average between
1997-98 and 2006-07.
Funding by the state and territory governments and by the
Australian government both increased by 5.3% per year.
'General practitioners are often a first contact point for
people with mental health concerns,' Mr Hanson said.
An estimated 12 million GP-patient encounters in 2007-08
involved management of a mental health issue, with the number of
encounters growing by an annual average of 4.4% since 2003-04.
The majority of these encounters were not claimed as Medicare
mental health-specific items, and therefore are not included in the
estimated national expenditure on mental health-related
services.
Community mental health and hospital outpatient services
provided close to 6 million mental health-related service contacts
to mental health consumers in 2006-07, an increase of more than 5%
from 2005-06.
According to the report, Mental health services in Australia
2006-07, there were 20 million mental health-related
prescriptions subsidised through the Pharmaceutical Benefits Scheme
in 2007-08 accounting for just over one in ten of all prescription
claims.
The number of prescriptions decreased by 0.4% per year, on
average, from 2003-04.
Spending on these mental health-related prescriptions was over
$700 million with prescriptions for antipsychotics and
antidepressants accounting for just over 90% of the total.
From 2002-03 to 2006-07, the number of beds in specialised
psychiatric wards of public hospitals increased on average by just
over 3% to around 4,200 beds, while over the same period,
stand-alone public psychiatric hospitals beds decreased by 1.6% to
just over 2,200 beds.
Estimates from the Australian Bureau of Statistics' 2007
National Survey of Mental Health and Wellbeing suggest that one in
five Australians experienced symptoms of a mental disorder in the
12 months prior to the survey.
Thursday 27
August
Further information: Mr Gary Hanson, AIHW, 02
6244 1052, mob. 0407 915 851.
For media copies of the report: Publications
Officer, AIHW, tel. (02) 6244 1032.
Availability: Check the AIHW Publications area
for the availability of Mental health services
in Australia 2006-07.