Mental health
Mental health services
Mental health services
is an Australia's health
topic
On this page:
What are mental health services?
Mental health services provide health care interventions and other support services for people with mental illness across a range of settings and service types. There are a range of funding sources including government, private health insurance and individual contributions. Organisations delivering mental health services may be public, private or not-for-profit.
Broadly, mental health services can be categorised as specialised services and general services. Specialised services include care provided in specialised psychiatric units in hospital (by staff with specialised qualifications in mental health) and general services include care provided by general practitioners.
Specialised and general services include:
- specialised admitted hospital units
- hospital emergency departments
- care in residential or domestic-like settings (for example, specialised residential mental health services)
- care teams for people in the community (for example, specialised community mental health services)
- private health care and specialist clinicians, which may attract rebates under private health insurance or Medicare
- general practitioners and Primary Health Networks
- pharmacies to dispense medications.
Other community and specialist services for people with mental health issues include:
- digital support, such as Lifeline, Kids Helpline, Beyond Blue, Head to Health and ReachOut
- homelessness support
- psychosocial disability support from the National Disability Insurance Scheme (NDIS)
- alcohol and other drug treatment support.
Health care workers that provide treatment, care and support to people in mental health services include:
- general practitioners (GPs)
- psychiatrists and other medical practitioners
- psychologists
- nurses
- social workers
- occupational therapists
- Aboriginal and/or Torres Strait Islander (First Nations) health workers
- consumer and carer workers
- other care staff such as home or ward attendants that provide assistance for personal care.
Why collect data about mental health services?
Information about services, and the people who access those services, can provide insights into how the mental health system operates. Data taken consistently over time can also reveal how services are responding to changing population needs and events, such as the COVID-19 pandemic, natural disasters and policy changes.
Service activity data
Mental health care provided to Australians is reported by the Australian Institute of Health and Welfare in the Mental health online report. Figure 1 provides an overview of the reported data.
Figure 1: Mental health care accessed by Australians in one year
Interactive visual of mental health service activity data in one year for medications, Medicare, service setting types, digital and other support.
Sources: Medications data from Pharmaceutical Benefits Scheme and Repatriation Pharmaceutical Benefits Scheme maintained by the Australian Government Department of Health and Aged Care; Medicare data from Medicare Benefits Scheme maintained by the Australian Government Department of Health and Aged Care; Hospitals data from the National Hospital Morbidity Database and National Non-Admitted Patient Emergency Department Care Database; National Community Mental Health Care Database; National Residential Mental Health Care Database; Digital support data provided by Beyond Blue, Head to Health, Kids Helpline, Lifeline and Reach Out; Other support data from National Disability Insurance Agency Business System and Specialist Homelessness Services Collection.
Note: Data is presented for the latest available year. The most recent year may be different for different measures.
Medications in one year
- 4.8 million people (18% of Australians) were dispensed 45.6 million mental health-related prescriptions.
- 73% of mental health-related prescriptions dispensed were for antidepressant medications.
Data for the year 2022–23. Prescriptions were dispensed under the Pharmaceutical Benefits Scheme (PBS) and Repatriation Pharmaceutical Benefits Scheme (RPBS) with costs subsidised and/or under co-payment.
For more information, go to Mental health-related prescriptions.
Medicare-subsidised services in one year
- General Practitioners (GPs) provided 3.5 million Medicare-subsidised mental health services to 2.2 million people.
- Psychiatrists, allied health practitioners and psychologists provided 9.7 million Medicare services to 1.9 million people.
MBS data is for the year 2022–23. These services are billed as mental health-related items, which underestimates the total mental health-related activity, especially for services provided by GPs. For more information, go to Medicare subsidised services.
Hospital mental health services in one year
There were an estimated:
- 205,200 hospitalisations for overnight care
- 52,100 hospitalisations for same day care
- 287,500 mental health-related presentations in public emergency departments. This is 3% of all presentations.
Overnight and same day data for the year 2021–22. Emergency department data for 2022–23.
More information is available at the following pages:
- Admitted patients mental health-related care
- Mental health services provided in emergency departments
Community services in one year
- An estimated 468,800 people had 9.6 million contacts with community service teams.
- This is an average of 20 contacts per person.
Community mental health care data for the year 2021–22.
For more information, go to Community mental health care.
Residential services in one year
- An estimated 7,100 patients in residential mental health care had 9,000 episodes of care.
- 58% of these episodes lasted less than two weeks.
Residential mental health care data for the year 2021–22.
For more information, go to Residential mental health care.
Digital crisis and support services in one year
- Beyond Blue answered 205,905 contacts, Kids Helpline answered 138,970 contacts and Lifeline answered 870,710 contacts.
- Head to Health had an average of 2,874 website users per day and ReachOut had an average of 6,713 website users per day.
- Lifeline answered contacts includes phone calls.
- Beyond Blue answered contacts includes phone, webchat and email.
- Kids Helpline answered contacts includes phone, webchat, email and outbound contacts.
Data for the year 2022–23.
For more information, go to Mental health services activity monitoring.
Other support services in one year
Psychosocial disability support services
- Australians with severe mental illness may also have a psychosocial disability – a disability that results from mental illness.
- 62,011 people with a psychosocial primary disability were active participants of the National Disability Insurance Scheme (NDIS).
Specialist homelessness services
- Around 85,300 clients with a current mental health issue received help from specialist homelessness services.
- Main reasons for accessing services: 13% inadequate/inappropriate dwelling conditions, 19% domestic and family violence and 21% housing crisis (e.g. eviction).
Psychosocial disability support service data as at 30 June 2023. Specialist homelessness services data for the year 2022–23.
For more information, go to Psychosocial disability support services and Specialist homelessness services.
Funding and resources data
Data are available about how much money has been spent on mental health services in Australia and the number of facilities available.
Figure 2: Mental health service spending, facilities and workforce
Note: 2021–22 refers to the financial year from 1 July 2021 to 30 June 2022. Workforce data refers to the calendar years 2022 and 2023.
Safety and quality data
Safety and quality are important in all areas of the health system. A safe and high-quality health system provides the most appropriate and best-value care, while keeping patients safe from preventable harm.
Data are available that can be used to measure safety and quality in the Australian mental health care system. Aspects generally considered to be indicators of good safety and quality under Australian and international frameworks (AIHW 2022) include:
- positive patient-rated experiences of care
- positive change in consumers' clinical outcomes after care
- low or no use of restrictive practices, such as seclusion, restraint and involuntary treatment.
For more information and data go to Mental health performance indicators.
Patient-reported experiences of care
Measures of patient-reported experience collect patients’ views and observations on aspects of the care they have received. The Your Experience of Service (YES) survey has been implemented in specialised mental health services in a number of states and territories. To date, the AIHW has received data for national reporting from New South Wales, Victoria and Queensland.
In total, more than 24,500 YES survey responses were collected from 86 mental health service organisations during 2021–22. Each state has a method of administration that best suits local needs, so comparisons between jurisdictions should be made with caution. About 82% of collected surveys were from services in New South Wales.
- A positive experience of admitted care services was reported by 69% of respondents in New South Wales, 51% in Victoria and 47% in Queensland.
- A positive experience of ambulatory (community) care services was reported by 78% of respondents in New South Wales, 70% in Victoria and 80% in Queensland.
- A positive experience of residential care services was reported by 80% of respondents in Victoria and 77% in Queensland.
For more information and data go to Consumer perspectives of mental health care.
Consumer outcomes of care
Clinical measures that capture information about the health and wellbeing of people during mental health service use can be used to report on whether consumers improve after receiving care. The National Outcomes and Casemix Collection includes data on outcome measures from publicly funded or managed specialised mental health services in Australia.
Information for more than 200,000 people was recorded during 2021–22, representing 42% of consumers. Clinician ratings using standardised measures showed Improvement outcomes for patients in:
- admitted (inpatient) care, at 58% (aged 11–17), 72% (aged 18–64) and 73% (65 and older) of episodes.
- ambulatory (community) care, at 54% (aged 11–17), 50% (aged 18–64), and 47% (65 and older) of episodes.
For more information and data go to Consumer outcomes in mental health care.
Seclusion and restraint
Reducing and, where possible, eliminating the use of seclusion and restraint in Australian mental health care is a policy priority and has been supported by changes to legislation, policy and clinical practice (RANZCP 2021).
The Mental Health Seclusion and Restraint Database includes data on the use of seclusion and restraint in acute public hospital mental health units in Australia (Figure 3).
Figure 3: Seclusion and restraint in Australian public sector acute mental health hospital services, 2009–10 to 2022–23
Three line graphs showing seclusion rate (events per 1,000 bed days) in Australia from 2009–10 to 2022–23 and mechanical and physical restraint rate from 2015–16 to 2022–23.
Source: National Seclusion and Restraint Database, Table SECREST.1.
For more information and data go to Seclusion and restraint in mental health care.
- Seclusion is when a person is placed alone in a room and cannot leave by themselves.
- The national seclusion rate (events per 1,000 bed days) halved from 14 in 2009–10 to 6 in 2022–23. This is a large change in how services used seclusion.
- Mechanical restraint is when items are used on a person’s body to stop them moving freely, such as belts or straps.
- Mechanical restraint is relatively low, with a national rate of 2 events per 1,000 bed days in 2015–16 and 1 in 2022–23.
- Physical restraint is when staff use their hands or body to stop a person moving freely.
- The physical restraint rate has stayed consistent at 10 to 12 events per 1,000 bed days since 2015–16.
Involuntary treatment
Involuntary treatment is compulsory assessment or treatment of people in mental health services without the person’s consent being given. This is a restrictive practice and can be legally approved under certain conditions.
Involuntary treatment is used in Australian mental health services for about:
- 15% of community care contacts
- 16% of residential care episodes
- 45% of hospitalisations in acute units
- 29% of hospitalisations in non-acute units.
For more information and data go to Involuntary treatment in mental health care.
Where can I find more information?
The AIHW’s Mental health online report website describes the activity and characteristics of Australia’s health and social care services accessed by people for mental health related concerns.
- For more information about mental health and the impact of mental illness and distress, go to Prevalence and impact of mental illness, Stress and trauma, and Physical health of people with mental illness.
- For more information about mental health services, go to Australia’s mental health system and various Topic areas of the AIHW Mental health online report site.
- For more information about safety and quality indicators of mental health services, go to Mental health performance indicators.
If you or someone you know needs help, these resources are available:
- Lifeline (Phone 13 11 14)
- Kids Helpline (Phone 1800 55 1800)
- Beyond Blue (Phone 1300 22 4636)
- Head to Health mental health portal
AIHW (Australian Institute of Health and Welfare) (2022) Health care safety and quality, AIHW, Australian Government, accessed 13 February 2024.
RANZCP (Royal Australian and New Zealand College of Psychiatrists) (2021) Position Statement 61: Minimising and, where possible, eliminating the use of seclusion and restraint in people with mental illness, RANZCP website, accessed 17 January 2024.
WHO (World Health Organisation) (2022) ATC: Structure and principles, Oslo: WHO Collaborating Centre for Drug Statistics Methodology, accessed 17 January 2024.
This section was last updated on 24 July 2024.