Mental health in Australia
Mental health care services
What is Mental Health?
The National Health Priority Areas Report on Mental Health defined mental health as 'the capacity of individuals and groups to interact with one another and the environment, in ways that promote subjective wellbeing, optimal development and the use of cognitive, affective and relational abilities'. A diverse range of social, environmental, biological and psychological factors can impact on an individual's mental health. In turn, people can develop symptoms and behaviours that are distressing to themselves or others, and interfere with their social functioning and capacity to negotiate daily life. These symptoms and behaviours may require treatment or rehabilitation, even hospitalisation.
How many people in Australia have a mental health disorder?
The National Survey of Mental Health and Wellbeing was conducted by the Australian Bureau of Statistics [external link] in 2007 using a nationally representative sample of 8,841 respondents aged between 16 and 85.
The symptoms of a mental disorder were experienced at some time during the twelve-month period prior to the survey by an estimated 3.2 million people (20% of the population aged between 16 and 24), while 7.3 million (45%) reported a lifetime mental disorder.
Women were more likely than men to have experienced symptoms of a mental disorder during the previous twelve-months (22% of women compared to 18% of men) and young women reported the highest rates (30% for those women aged 16 to 24).
Women were more likely than men to report the symptoms of anxiety disorders during the previous twelve-months (18% of women compared to 11% of men). Women were also more likely to report affective disorders, such as depression (7% of women compared with 5% of men). Men were more than twice as likely to report the symptoms of substance use disorders (7% of men compared with 3% of women). Young men reported the highest rate of substance use disorder, 16% for those men aged 16-24.
Young people were much more likely to report a mental disorder in the previous twelve-months (26%) and there was a steady reduction in this rate with increasing age.
As well as measuring the prevalence of mental disorders, the National Survey of Mental Health and Wellbeing also collected data on the extent of use of mental health services.
Just over a third (35%) of people with a 12-month mental disorder had accessed services for mental health problems. General practitioners provided the service most frequently used and women were more likely than men to have consulted any service.
People with affective disorder were much more likely to use health services than those with an anxiety or substance use disorder and those experiencing multiple disorders were also much more likely to use health services than those with only one disorder.
The National Minimum Data Sets (NMDSs) for Mental Health Care are a set of mental health care-related data elements that have been agreed for collection each year by Australian State and Territory governments. A fundamental strength inherent in any NMDS is that all data element definitions have been agreed in detail by the National Health Information Standards and Statistics Committee (NHISSC) to ensure that they are consistent with national health data standards. This provides a mechanism by which the data set can attain high levels of internal consistency and comparability.
The NMDSs for Mental Health Care are composed of four component data sets:
- Admitted patient mental health care data set. This data set includes demographic, clinical and administrative data on patients receiving admitted patient mental health care such as in psychiatric hospitals and psychiatric units.
- Mental health establishments data set. This data set includes workforce, expenditure and activity data from all specialised mental health services managed or funded by state or territory health authorities.
- Community mental health care data set. This data set includes demographic, clinical and administrative data on clients of community mental health care services.
- Residential mental health care. This data set includes demographic, clinical and administrative data on residents of residential mental health care services.
Specific details on individual data elements in the NMDSs can be found in AIHW's Metadata Online Registry METeOR
How are the NMDSs for Mental Health Care collected and reported?
The NMDSs for Mental Health Care data are collected by State and Territory health authorities from their mental health care services. This collection occurs over a financial year. The data are collated and validated by State and Territory health authorities prior to supply of the data sets to the AIHW.
Once at the Institute, the data undergo an additional series of agreed validation processes and preparation for analysis. The NMDS data are formally released and published annually in the Mental Health Services in Australia publication series.
Are mental health care clients identified in the NMDS data?
State and Territory health authorities supply the AIHW with NMDS data on their mental health care patients and clients. The data supplied to the AIHW does not include identifying information such as names and addresses.
In addition, the NMDS data collated by AIHW is protected under specific AIHW legislation. This provides a range of strict safeguards in terms of security, accountability to data providers and confidentiality.