Summary
Key points
- 29,019 consumer-rated experience of service surveys were collected during 2020–21 in New South Wales, Victoria and Queensland.
- An experience of service score is calculated for each survey using the consumer’s responses to 22 survey questions. Using this calculation, a positive experience of service was reported during 2020–21 by:
- 71% of respondents in New South Wales, 53% in Victoria and 51% in Queensland in admitted care; and
- 81% of respondents in New South Wales, 75% in Victoria and 82% in Queensland in ambulatory (non-admitted) care.
- In admitted and ambulatory care, a higher proportion of respondents with Voluntary mental health legal status reported a positive experience of service than respondents with Involuntary legal status.
Three jurisdictions, New South Wales, Victoria and Queensland, have implemented the Your Experience of Service (YES) patient experience survey in their public specialised mental health services and supply data for annual national reporting under the YES National Best Endeavours Data Set.
During 2019–20 and 2020–21, Australians and Australian mental health services have been impacted by the COVID-19 pandemic. Victoria did not conduct the YES survey in 2019–20 and the number of surveys received across all states during 2020–21 is lower than 2018–19 before the pandemic.
During 2020–21, a higher proportion of consumers reported a positive experience of service:
- in ambulatory or residential mental health care compared to admitted settings (with the exception of consumers aged 65 and older in Victoria), and/or
- if the person was recorded as receiving care under Voluntary status rather than Involuntary mental health legal status, and/or
- if the person reported they were not of Aboriginal and/or Torres Strait Islander origin and received ambulatory care.
Generally, during 2020–21, higher proportions of consumers who completed the YES survey had a positive experience of service than not. However, consumers rated their experience of service as Poor in 861 surveys in admitted care (about 4.6%) and 383 surveys in ambulatory care (about 3.9%). YES was designed to help Australian mental health services and consumers work together to build better services. The jurisdictions that have implemented the survey advise they have developed local practices to translate the data received from consumers completing YES to drive quality improvement in their services.
Other states and territories are planning to roll out YES in their specialised mental health services. It is anticipated that YES data will become progressively available from additional jurisdictions in the coming years.
Spotlight data: Do consumers report having a positive experience of Australian mental health care?