Mental health
Admitted patient care mental health-related care – state and territory data
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Rates per 10,000 population in 2023–24:
Queensland had the highest rates of same-day hospitalisations with specialised psychiatric care across both public (15) and private (115) hospitals.
South Australia and Tasmania had the highest rate of overnight hospitalisations with specialised psychiatric care for public hospitals (both 55); Queensland and Victoria had the highest rates for private hospitals (20).
The Northern Territory had the highest rate of public hospitalisations without specialised psychiatric care across both overnight (69) and same day (53) admissions.
A separate section focusing on state and territory data can be found on the following page – Admitted patients mental health-related care.
This section presents state and territory-level data on admitted patient mental health-related hospitalisations from Australian public and private hospitals. When receiving mental health hospital care, a patient may be admitted to hospital for part of a day (same day admitted care), or for one or more overnight stays (overnight admitted care).
Spotlight data
Spotlight data summarising admitted patient mental health-related hospitalisation activities for states and territories, 2014–15 to 2023–24.
Source: Admitted patients mental health-related care State and territory data 2023–24: Table AC.2.
Patients can receive specialised psychiatric care in a psychiatric hospital or in a specialised mental health unit in a general hospital. Patients with mental illness may also be admitted to other areas of the hospital for medical and/or surgical care, or a general ward in a hospital without a specialised mental health unit, where health care workers may or may not have received specific mental health care training. This could occur, for example, if a patient is admitted to a regional general hospital that does not have a psychiatric ward, but they are under the care of a visiting consultant psychiatrist during their admission. These admissions to hospitals are classified as being without specialised psychiatric care.
Throughout this section, with or without specialised psychiatric care are referred to as care settings. Data are categorised according to sector and separation type, and are reported as hospitalisations (separations), procedures, patient days, or psychiatric care days. Further detail can be found in the data source section.
Stays in public hospitals with specialised psychiatric care take place in either acute or psychiatric hospitals. Throughout this report, these two types have been combined because of the number of standalone psychiatric hospitals.
Private hospital-based same day admitted mental health care is provided in either private hospitals with psychiatric beds or private psychiatric hospitals (APHA 2024).
Overnight hospitalisations
Public hospitals
In 2023–24, rates (per 10,000 population) of public overnight hospitalisations with specialised psychiatric care ranged from 40 (Victoria and Queensland) to 55 (South Australia and Tasmania). Rates without specialised care ranged from 30 (New South Wales) to 69 (Northern Territory). Over the decade 2014–15 to 2023–24, the rates with specialised care remained relatively stable for all jurisdictions. The rates without specialised care had more variation, increasing in Tasmania (from 19 to 33) and more than doubling for the Northern Territory (from 33 to 69).
In 2023–24, rates of procedures (per 10,000 population) delivered during hospitalisations with specialised psychiatric care ranged from 37 (Northern Territory) to 181 (South Australia). Over the decade 2014–15 to 2023–24, the rates increased across all jurisdictions, with Victoria and South Australia more than doubling and Western Australia nearly doubled. The rates without specialised care ranged from 62 (Western Australia and Northern Territory) to 103 (South Australia). Between 2014–15 to 2023–24, the rates increased across all jurisdictions and more than doubled in Queensland, South Australia and the Northern Territory (Figure APCST.2 and Table ACST.1).
Private hospitals
In 2023–24, rates (per 10,000 population) of private overnight hospitalisations with specialised psychiatric care ranged from 5 (South Australia) to 20 (Victoria and Queensland), while rates without specialised care were lower, ranging from 1 (South Australia) to 7 (Queensland). These patterns have remained broadly consistent across jurisdictions over the decade 2014–15 to 2023–24.
In 2023–24, rates of procedures (per 10,000 population) with specialised psychiatric care ranged from 25 (South Australia) to 101 (Victoria). Rates increased across all jurisdictions with Western Australia and Victoria more than doubling since 2014–15. In contrast, rates of procedures for hospitalisations without specialised care ranged from 3 (South Australia) to 11 (Queensland), remaining relatively stable between 2014–15 and 2023–24 (Figure APCST.2 and Table ACST.1).
The table below presents changes in rates per 10,000 population for public and private hospital overnight hospitalisations and procedures, with and without specialised psychiatric care (SPC), across states and territories between 2014–15 and 2023–24.
| Rate (per 10,000 population) change | NSW | Vic | Qld | WA | SA | Tas | ACT | NT | ||
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Measure | Sector | Care setting | ||||||||
| Hospitalisations | Public | With SPC | -5 | +1 | -3 | -5 | +8 | -5 | n.a. | +5 |
| Without SPC | -5 | +10 | +13 | +7 | +5 | +14 | n.a. | +36 | ||
| Private | With SPC | +3 | +2 | +1 | -3 | -3 | n.p. | n.p. | n.p. | |
| Without SPC | -2 | +1 | +2 | +1 | -1 | n.p. | n.p. | n.p. | ||
| Procedures | Public | With SPC | +32 | +55 | +27 | +72 | +105 | +16 | n.a. | +17 |
| Without SPC | +16 | +30 | +53 | +28 | +53 | +32 | n.a. | +37 | ||
| Private | With SPC | +36 | +58 | +38 | +41 | +7 | n.p. | n.p. | n.p. | |
| Without SPC | -3 | +3 | +2 | +2 | 0 | n.p. | n.p. | n.p. | ||
Notes
n.a. data not available
n.p. data not published
Source: Admitted patient mental health-related care State and territory data 2023–24: Table AC.2
Same day hospitalisations
Public hospitals
In 2023–24, public same day hospitalisations rates (per 10,000 population) with specialised psychiatric care ranged from zero (Northern Territory) to 15 (Queensland). Over the decade 2014–15 and 2023–24, rates for most states were broadly consistent, though the rates for New South Wales and Victoria halved (from 8 to 4 and from 2 to 1 respectively) and the rate for Western Australia more than doubled (from 2 to 5). In 2023–24, rates for hospitalisations without specialised psychiatric care ranged from 4 (New South Wales) to 53 (Northern Territory). Between 2014–15 and 2023–24 rates declined in New South Wales (from 10 to 4) and increased in Queensland (from 18 to 23) and Northern Territory (from 49 to 53).
In 2023–24, rates (per 10,000 population) of procedures with specialised psychiatric care ranged from zero (Victoria and Northern Territory) to 12 (Queensland). Between 2014–15 and 2023–24, these rates remained relatively steady across all jurisdictions. Rates in 2023–24 for procedures without specialised care ranged from 3 (New South Wales) to 37 (Tasmania). In contrast to the overnight procedures across both care settings which all increased between 2014–15 and 2023–24, same day procedure rates in public hospitals were generally lower and stable across all jurisdictions over this period. Exceptions to this were the Western Australia same day procedure rate with specialised care which increased from 2 to 8 and the Northern Territory rate without specialised care which increased from 2 to 9 (Figure APCST.2 and Table ACST.2).
Private hospitals
In 2023–24, rates (per 10,000 population) of private same day hospitalisations with specialised psychiatric care ranged from 3 (Western Australia and South Australia) to 115 (Queensland). Over the decade 2014–15 to 2023–24, Queensland and New South Wales recorded overall increases in rates, while Victoria, Western Australia and South Australia reported decreases. Rates in Western Australia and South Australia remained consistently low throughout this period. In 2023–24, rates for hospitalisations without specialised care ranged from 1 (South Australia) to 12 (Queensland). Between 2014–15 and 2023–24, the New South Wales rate more than halved from 13 to 6.
In 2023–24, rates (per 10,000 population) of procedures with specialised psychiatric care ranged from 6 (Western Australia and South Australia) to 129 (Queensland). Between 2014–15 and 2023–24, Queensland recorded the largest increase in rates (from 72 to 129) while Victoria recorded the largest decrease (from 22 to 15). The rates without specialised care ranged from 1 (South Australia) to 13 (Queensland). Between 2014–15 and 2023–24, New South Wales and Victoria reported a decrease in rates, while Queensland, Western Australia and South Australia all reported an increase (Figure APCST.2 and Table ACST.2).
The table below presents changes in rates per 10,000 population for public and private hospital same day hospitalisations and procedures, with and without specialised psychiatric care (SPC), across states and territories between 2014–15 and 2023–24.
| Rate (per 10,000 population) change | NSW | Vic | Qld | WA | SA | Tas | ACT | NT | ||
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Measure | Sector | Care setting | ||||||||
| Hospitalisations | Public | With SPC | -4 | -1 | +3 | +3 | -1 | +1 | n.a. | 0 |
| Without SPC | -6 | +1 | +5 | -1 | +2 | +3 | n.a. | +4 | ||
| Private | With SPC | +21 | -10 | +26 | -3 | -1 | n.p. | n.p. | n.p. | |
| Without SPC | -7 | +3 | +2 | +3 | +1 | n.p. | n.p. | n.p. | ||
| Procedures | Public | With SPC | +1 | 0 | -2 | +6 | -1 | n.p. | n.a. | 0 |
| Without SPC | -1 | -3 | +5 | -1 | +4 | +13 | n.a. | +7 | ||
| Private | With SPC | +10 | -7 | +57 | -3 | -2 | n.p. | n.p. | n.p. | |
| Without SPC | -14 | -3 | +3 | +4 | +1 | n.p. | n.p. | n.p. | ||
Notes
n.a. data not available
n.p. data not published
Source: Admitted patient mental health-related care State and territory data 2023–24: Table AC.2
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Although there are national standards for data on admitted patient care, the results presented here may be affected by variations in admission and reporting practices between states and territories.
The large decline in patient days associated with public hospital mental health-related hospitalisations from 2016–17 to 2017–18 occurred after large increases from 2014–15 to 2016–17. The rise in patient days is substantially impacted by long stay mental health patients, primarily in specialised psychiatric care settings, who can individually account for hundreds of days. These fluctuations are likely to also be related to the introduction of the Mental health care type from 1 July 2015. For example, to change the care type of patients receiving mental health care, Queensland (2015–16) and New South Wales (2016–17) discharged and readmitted patients, causing the rise in hospitalisations and patient days counted in those years. The subsequent decline in patient days seen in 2017–18 is impacted by days accrued before the change in care type being counted in an earlier year.
In 2023–24, private hospital data disaggregated by state and territory was suppressed for the Australian Capital Territory and the Northern Territory due to small numbers of private hospitals in these jurisdictions.
National Hospital Morbidity Databases
Overnight and same day admitted mental health-related care data are sourced from the National Hospital Morbidity Database (NHMD), a collation of data on admitted patient care in Australian hospitals defined by the Admitted Patient Care National Minimum Data Set (APC NMDS) 2023–24.
The NHMD is a compilation of episode-level records from admitted patient morbidity data collections in Australian hospitals. Items includes demographic, administrative and length of stay data for each hospitalisation. Clinical information such as diagnoses, procedures undergone, and external causes of injury and poisoning are also recorded. For further details on the scope and quality of data in the NHMD, refer to the Admitted patient care NMDS 2023–24
Specialised mental health-related care is identified by the patient having one or more psychiatric care days recorded – that is, care was received in a specialised psychiatric unit or ward during that hospitalisation. In public acute hospitals, a specialised hospitalisation may comprise some psychiatric care days and some days in general care. Care from a public psychiatric hospital is deemed to comprise psychiatric care days only and to be specialised, unless some care was given in a unit other than a psychiatric unit, such as a drug and alcohol unit.
Due to the relatively small number of admitted patient mental health-related hospitalisations without specialised psychiatric care from public psychiatric hospitals, these have been combined with the public acute hospitals for reporting purposes.
Private hospital data disaggregated by state and territory was suppressed for Tasmania, the Australian Capital Territory and the Northern Territory due to the small number of private hospitals in these jurisdictions.
The principal diagnosis refers to the diagnosis established after observation by medical staff to be chiefly responsible for the patient’s episode of admitted patient care. For 2022–23, diagnoses are classified according to the International Statistical Classification of Diseases and Related Health Problems, 10th revision, Australian Modification (ICD-10-AM 12th edition) (IHACPA 2023). Further information on this is included in the technical information section.
For 2023–24, procedures are classified according to the Australian Classification of Health Interventions, 11th edition. Further information on this classification is included in the technical information section. More than one procedure can be reported for a separation and not all hospitalisations have a procedure reported.
Further information on admitted patient care can be found in the AIHW Hospitals report Admitted patient care 2023–24 (AIHW 2025), which contains data for hospitalisations that occurred between 1 July 2023 and 30 June 2024. Admitted patient hospitalisations that began before 1 July 2023 are included if the separation date fell within the collection period. A record is generated for each hospitalisation (separation) rather than each patient. Therefore, those patients who had more than one hospitalisation in the reference year will have more than one record in the database. It is possible for individuals to have multiple hospitalisations (separations) in any given reference period.
Change to same day private admitted care data from PPHDRAS to NHMD
Between 2016–17 and 2021–22, private hospital same day admitted mental health care data was sourced from the Australian Private Hospitals Association Private Psychiatric Hospitals Data Reporting and Analysis Service (PPHDRAS) and was not directly comparable with data from the NHMD. From 2024 (2022–23 collection year), the data source for same day private hospitalisations has reverted to the NHMD. This change has been reflected in the current reporting period and all time-series tables have been updated to reflect this change for the years presented. It should be noted that PPHDRAS reported episodes and patients, but the NHMD reports hospitalisations (separations).
Australian Institute of Health and Welfare (AIHW) (2025) Admitted patient care, AIHW, Australian Government, accessed 28 July 2025.
Australian Private Hospitals Association (APHA) (2024) Private Hospitals-based Psychiatric Services 1 July 2023 to 30 June 2024 APHA, accessed 28 July 2025.
Independent Hospital and Aged Care Pricing Authority (IHACPA) (2023) ICD-10-AM/ACHI/ACS Twelfth Edition, IHACPA, accessed 28 July 2025.
Data coverage includes the time period 2014–15 to 2023–24.