Involuntary hospital admissions Data dictionary

Number of involuntary hospital admissions per 100,000 people with disability¹.

2021–22

2020–21

People with disability.^1,2

Number of hospital separations for people with disability who were involuntarily admitted to hospital.^3,4

Number of people with disability.

Number of hospital separations for people with disability who were involuntarily admitted to hospital, divided by the number of people with disability.

The proportion is expressed as a rate per 100,000 people.

100,000 x (Numerator ÷ Denominator)

1. Data for this measure came from the National Health Data Hub (NHDH). For more information, see Data source – National Health Data Hub. 

2. People with disability include individuals who received disability-related government payments or services between 2020–21 to 2021–22. This does not represent all people with disability. As a result, people with disability who did not receive these disability-related government payments or services are counted as people without disability in these data. It is an interim method agreed for use through the National Disability Data Asset co-governance arrangements until data improvement initiatives make more suitable additional data available. More information can be found here: Disability Indicators Explanatory Notes | NDDA.

3. Involuntary admissions were identified where 'mental health legal status' was recorded as involuntary. Episodes where 'mental health legal status' was not reported were treated as voluntary. More information on this variable can be found here: Episode of care—mental health legal status, code N.

4. This analysis excludes hospital admissions and the population from Western Australia and the Northern Territory due to data availability. For 2021–22 data, ACT data are unavailable.

5. Resources to assist with the interpretation of this measure can be found here:

• AIHW (2024) Involuntary treatment, Mental Health Online Report, AIHW website, accessed 4 December 2024.
• Daws T (2018) Obtaining consent for non-psychiatric treatment of persons detained under mental health legislation in Australian and New Zealand: is there cross-jurisdictional consistency? Australasian Psychiatry, 26(5), 486–490, doi: 10.1177/1039856218797444