Mental health
Consumer perspectives of mental health care
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This page shows data about consumer-rated experiences of care in Australian public mental health services using the nationally developed Your Experience of Service (YES) survey. Service settings include ambulatory (non-admitted) services, admitted (hospital) services and residential (overnight) services.
Key points
In one year in Australia, the Your Experience of Service survey was used for:
3 jurisdictions – New South Wales, Queensland and Victoria
25,410 surveys from consumers
87 mental health services
Spotlight data
Many survey respondents report having a positive experience of Australian mental health care. A positive experience of service is more commonly reported for people who received care from ambulatory (non-admitted) services compared with admitted services.
Infographic containing a map of Australia highlighting New South Wales, Queensland and Victoria who contributed Your Experience of Service (YES) survey data for 2022–23 and doughnut charts showing the proportion of survey respondents with a positive experience of service in admitted and ambulatory care for each state. At least 51% of consumers in admitted care reported a positive experience of service. At least 74% of consumers in ambulatory care reported a positive experience. Refer to Table CP.5.
Notes
- An individual consumer may have completed the Your Experience of Service (YES) survey more than once in the reporting period.
- The experience of service score is the average of survey questions 1–22 multiplied by 20. A score of 80 and above (out of 100) indicates a positive experience.
- In NSW, consumers are offered the YES survey throughout the year, while in Vic and Qld, consumers are offered the YES over a particular time of year. Comparisons between jurisdictions should be made with caution.
Source: Your Experience of Service Survey Database; Table CP.5.
The Your Experience of Service (YES) survey collects information from people receiving public mental health care about their experience of care. New South Wales, Victoria and Queensland are the only jurisdictions that currently provide data to the AIHW for national reporting.
Since 2015–16 the findings from the YES survey show higher proportions of respondents reporting a positive experience of service than not. A higher proportion of respondents (consumers) have consistently reported a positive experience of service:
- in ambulatory or residential mental health care compared with admitted settings
- if the person was receiving care under Voluntary status rather than Involuntary mental health legal status.
About 1 in 20 rated their experience of service as 'Poor' in admitted care and ambulatory care. The survey was designed to help Australian mental health services and consumers work together to improve 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 have indicated that they are planning to roll out the YES survey in their specialised mental health services in coming years.
The YES survey was developed primarily for use in Australian public services that specialise in providing mental health care. The survey aims to help services and consumers work together to build better services.
Mental health consumers are invited to complete the survey when they access a service, where they rate their experience of the service they received across 26 questions using a 1–5 response scale. The survey also includes some questions about consumer demographics (such as age, gender and Aboriginal and/or Torres Strait Islander origin).
The majority of survey respondents accessed admitted and ambulatory (non–admitted) care settings with a smaller number in residential care. This is consistent with the respective scales of these settings (as reported in the section Specialised mental health care facilities). Just over 2% of surveys were collected from residential services. Figure CP.1 shows the number of surveys collected from consumers in public mental health services and from which service setting.
Figure CP.1: Number of Your Experience of Service surveys collected in Australian public mental health services. Most surveys were collected from New South Wales and from consumers of admitted or ambulatory care.
Figure CP.1.1: vertical bar graph showing the number of surveys completed by mental health consumers during 2022–23 for each state, by service setting. In New South Wales the number of surveys completed is highest in admitted care. In Victoria and Queensland the number of surveys completed is highest in ambulatory care. In all states the number of surveys is lowest for residential care.
Figure CP.1.2: line graph showing the number of surveys completed from 2015–16 to 2022–23 for each state. New South Wales collects a much higher number than Queensland and Victoria. Refer to Table CP.1.
Notes:
- An individual consumer may have completed the survey more than once in the reporting period.
- In NSW, consumers are offered the YES survey throughout the year, while in Vic and Qld, consumers are offered the YES during a particular time of year. Comparisons between jurisdictions should be made with caution.
- The COVID-19 pandemic impacted mental health services from early 2020 onwards. The number of surveys received across all states remains lower than before the pandemic.
Source: Your Experience of Service Survey Database; Table CP.1.
Table CP.2 shows how long YES respondents reported receiving care across the different care settings.
In admitted mental health settings, care typically lasts for a period up to a couple of weeks. The average lengths of stay for public mental health hospitalisations are:
- 15 days for mental health-related issues
- 5 days for non-mental health issues (AIHW 2024a, Table AC.1).
The YES data are in line with this range—just over half (52%) of respondents received admitted care for a period of 1 day to 2 weeks. For more information about mental health-related hospitalisations visit the Admitted patients section.
The length of care received by YES respondents might not be representative of the length of care typically received in residential and ambulatory (non-admitted) settings in general.
In residential care:
- Respondents most often received care for a period of 1 day to 2 weeks (33% of surveys). This is lower than non-survey data on residential mental health care episodes showing 53% of completed residential episodes during 2022–23 were between 0 and 2 weeks (AIHW 2024d, Table RMHC.3).
- More than a quarter of respondents received care for more than 6 months (28%). This is higher than non-survey data showing about 1 in 20 completed residential episodes during 2022–23 were longer than 6 months (AIHW 2024d, Table RMHC.3). For more information about residential mental health care visit the Residential services section.
In ambulatory (non-admitted) care:
- About half of respondents received care for a period of more than 6 months. This is higher than non-survey data on the length of treatment in community mental health care services, which shows 37% of consumers received treatment of longer than 3 months during 2022–23 (AIHW 2024b, Table CMHC.3). For more information about community mental health care visit the Community services report.
Figure 2 shows demographic and other characteristics of YES survey respondents. Higher proportions of surveys were received from people aged between 25 and 54 years (all settings) and from females (except in residential services).
Mental health legal status refers to whether or not a person received care under the relevant state or territory mental health legislation compulsory treatment provisions. In admitted care, 5,562 (48%) surveys were from respondents with an Involuntary status recorded. There were 1,958 (28%) respondents in ambulatory care and 159 (32%) in residential care who also had an Involuntary status recorded.
- More information about the impact of involuntary treatment on experiences of care is presented in the ‘Who rates a positive experience of service?’ section below.
- For more information about involuntary treatment in Australian mental health care, visit the Involuntary treatment section.
Figure CP.2: Characteristics of consumers who completed Your Experience of Service surveys.
Horizontal bar graph showing the per cent of surveys by consumer characteristics (age group, gender and mental health legal status) and service setting for 2022–23. Refer to Table CP.3.
Notes:
- An individual consumer may have completed the survey more than once in the reporting period.
- Indigenous data are not currently available.
Source: Your Experience of Service Survey Database; Table CP.3.
Figure CP.3: Overall ratings of service experience. In ambulatory and residential service settings, a higher proportion of consumers rated their experience as ‘Excellent’ than any other category.
| State/Territory | Poor | Fair | Good | Very good | Excellent |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| New South Wales | 6% | 9% | 21% | 26% | 38% |
| Victoria | 13% | 15% | 26% | 20% | 25% |
| Queensland | 10% | 14% | 24% | 22% | 30% |
| State/Territory | Poor | Fair | Good | Very good | Excellent |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| New South Wales | 6% | 5% | 12% | 26% | 51% |
| Victoria | 6% | 8% | 20% | 26% | 40% |
| Queensland | 3% | 5% | 17% | 25% | 50% |
| State/Territory | Poor | Fair | Good | Very good | Excellent |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| New South Wales | n.a. | n.a. | n.a. | n.a. | n.a. |
| Victoria | 1% | 6% | 16% | 31% | 46% |
| Queensland | 2% | 3% | 21% | 24% | 49% |
Notes:
- An individual consumer may have completed the survey more than once in the reporting period.
- Response to question, 'Overall, how would you rate your experience of care with this service in the last 3 months?'.
Source:
Your Experience of Service Survey Database; Table CP.4
In admitted care during 2022–23:
- a higher proportion of respondents rated the care they received as ‘Excellent’ (in New South Wales and Queensland) or as ‘Good’ (in Victoria) compared with ratings of ‘Very Good’, ‘Fair’ or ‘Poor’
- 85% of respondents in New South Wales rated the care they received as ‘Good’, ‘Very Good’, or ‘Excellent’, higher than Victoria (71%) and Queensland (76%).
In ambulatory care during 2022–23:
- a higher proportion of respondents rated their care as ‘Excellent’ than other categories in all states
- in Queensland, 92% of respondents rated the care they received as ‘Good’, ‘Very Good’, or ‘Excellent’; 89% of respondents in New South Wales and 86% of respondents in Victoria also gave these ratings. These proportions are higher than those observed for admitted care.
In residential care during 2022–23:
- a higher proportion of respondents rated their care as ‘Excellent’ than other categories
- in Queensland, 94% of respondents rated the care they received as ‘Good’, ‘Very Good’, or ‘Excellent’ and 93% of respondents gave these ratings in Victoria. These proportions are higher than those observed for admitted care.
Who rates a positive experience of care?
An experience of service score is calculated using a method developed to reflect each respondent’s experience across multiple survey questions.
Figure CP.4: Consumer-rated positive experiences of care over time and by consumer characteristics. In all states, higher proportions of consumers indicated a positive experience of a mental health service than not in ambulatory (non-admitted) and residential settings.
Figure CP.4, Interactive line graph showing the per cent of consumer surveys with an experience of service score of 80 and above indicating a positive experience, by state and setting, in 2015–16 to 2022–23. Refer to Table CP.5.
Figure CP.4.1, Interactive horizontal bar graph showing the per cent of consumer surveys with an experience of service score of 80 and above, indicating a positive experience of service, by setting and state, and age group, gender and mental health legal status in 2022–23. Refer to Tables CP.6 and 7.
Notes:
- An experience of service score of 80 and above (out of 100) indicates a positive experience.
- The experience of service score is the average of survey questions 1–22 multiplied by 20.
- An individual consumer may have completed the survey more than once in the reporting period.
- Indigenous data are not currently available.
Source: Your Experience of Service Survey Database; Figure CP.4.1 - Table CP.5, Figure CP.4.2 - Tables CP.6 and 7.
During 2022–23, a higher proportion of respondents indicated a positive experience of care than not, in all service settings and jurisdictions (Figure CP.4).
In all 3 states, ambulatory care and residential care had a higher proportion of respondents who rated their experience positively than admitted care.
- In admitted care, 69% of respondents in New South Wales reported a positive experience of care, 51% in Victoria and Queensland.
- In ambulatory care, New South Wales had 81% of respondents with a positive experience of care, Victoria had 74% and Queensland 80%.
- In residential care, 82% of Victorian respondents and 74% of Queensland respondents had a positive experience of care.
When comparing age groups, respondents aged 65 years and older usually reported the highest proportions of people with a positive experience of care. This was observed for all jurisdictions for admitted care and for New South Wales and Victoria for ambulatory care.
Proportions of respondents with a positive experience of care were lower for consumers who identified as Other gender compared with Males and Females. This was observed for admitted care for New South Wales and Victoria and for ambulatory care for New South Wales and Queensland. (Figure CP.4.1).
These data raise a potential area for services to explore quality improvement initiatives. The relatively small number of respondents who identified as Other gender should be taken into consideration when interpreting these results.
During 2022–23, the proportions of respondents with a positive experience score were higher for those with a Voluntary mental health legal status than Involuntary status, for all service settings and states. Percentages varied by setting and state with a quarter of surveys (25%) from respondents who marked their mental health legal status as ‘Not reported’.
Where do I find more information?
Involuntary treatment in mental health care
Many people improve clinically after care from public mental health services. Improvement is seen after about 72% of hospital care episodes and 50% of community care episodes according to clinician-rated measures for 18–64 year olds (AIHW 2023c). More information is in the Consumer outcomes section.
If the information presented raises any issues for you, these resources can help:
Notes to interpret the data
Monitoring mental health consumer and carer experiences of service has been a long-term goal of the National Mental Health Strategy (for example, the Australian Government Department of Health and Aged Care’s National Mental Health Policy 2008). In 2010, under the Fourth National Mental Health Plan (Commonwealth of Australia 2009), the Department of Health and Aged Care funded the National Consumer Experiences of Care project to develop a survey for use in public mental health services (Victorian DHHS 2013). This project resulted in the development of the YES survey, which was finalised in 2014. The survey instrument was developed by the Victorian Department of Health and Human Services under the auspices of the former Mental Health Information Strategy Standing Committee (MHISSC). Implementation of the survey and national reporting of the data has been a key action under the Fifth National Mental Health and Suicide Prevention Plan (CHC 2017).
A measure of carer experiences has also been developed. The Mental Health Carer Experience Survey (MHCES) aims to measure the experiences of carers, such as family members, partners or friends of people who access mental health services. New South Wales implemented the survey in 2018 and Queensland implemented the survey in 2019 (NSW Ministry of Health 2019; Queensland Health 2020). Victoria implemented this survey in 2021.
The YES survey instrument is made available by the Department of Health and Aged Care for use by appropriate mental health organisations that enter a licensing agreement specifying conditions of use which are aimed at promoting consistency of use and reducing the risk of multiple versions being used.
For further information on use of the YES survey and/or to apply for a licence to use the survey in your organisation, please visit the Australian Mental Health Outcomes and Classification Network website.
The YES survey comprises 26 questions about a mental health consumer’s perceptions of their treatment and the care they received. Respondents answer each question using the following response scales:
- For questions 1–17, respondents indicate how often the service did a range of things during their care (1—Never, 2—Rarely, 3—Sometimes, 4—Usually, 5—Always). Examples include: ‘You felt welcome at this service’, ‘Staff showed hopefulness for your future’, and ‘Your opinions about the involvement of family or friends in your care were respected’.
- For questions 18–26, respondents indicate how well the service performed during their care (1—Poor, 2—Fair, 3—Good, 4—Very Good, 5—Excellent). Examples include: ‘Explanation of your rights and responsibilities’, ‘Access to peer support’, and ‘The effect the service had on your overall well-being’.
The YES survey was developed primarily for use in public specialised mental health services. Currently three jurisdictions have implemented the survey and provide data for annual national reporting.
- In New South Wales consumers are offered the survey throughout the year.
- In Victoria and Queensland consumers are encouraged to complete the survey at a particular time in the year.
This difference in methodology should be considered when interpreting data from different states. More information is in the Data Quality Statement.
New South Wales has publicly reported their survey data since 2015–16 (NSW Ministry of Health 2024).
Victoria has publicly reported their survey data in their Annual Mental Health Services Report from 2016–17, including information on their early 2016 survey for 2015–16. Victoria did not run the survey in 2019–20 due to the COVID-19 pandemic and so could not publish results for that year (Victorian DHHS 2023).
Queensland has publicly reported survey data for the collection periods in 2015 to 2017 and 2019 (Queensland Health 2016, 2017a, 2017b, 2020).
An experience of care score is calculated to reflect each respondent’s experience across multiple survey questions.
The score for each respondent is equal to the average response of questions 1–22 multiplied by 20. The resulting overall score converts the individual question responses into a score out of 100. A threshold score of 80 and above is used to indicate a positive experience of service.
The proportion of respondents with an experience of care score of 80 and above on the YES was developed as the metric (indicator) to be used for the Fifth National Mental Health and Suicide Prevention Plan to monitor consumer experience of service, as agreed by the former MHISSC (CHC 2017). The Mental Health and Suicide Prevention Data Governance Forum (MHSPDGF) adopted this approach to report consumer and carer experience of care under the National Mental Health and Suicide Prevention Agreement (Australian Government 2022).
The treatment of missing data in calculating the experience of care score differs between NSW and the AIHW. Therefore, the numbers reported by NSW Health and the AIHW’s Mental Health Online Report may differ.
Data in this report are supplied under the YES National Best Endeavours Data Set (YES NBEDS) agreement. The YES NBEDS was developed to collect and monitor consumers’ experiences of service over time. Participating jurisdictions agree to provide data to the YES NBEDS through their state/territory representative.
Data Quality Statements are published for the YES data collection on the Metadata online repository, METEOR. Statements provide information on the institutional environment, timeliness, accessibility, interpretability, relevance, accuracy and coherence. Refer to the Your Experience of Service NBEDS 2019-: Your Experience of Service Database, 2023; Quality Statement.
Australian Government (2022) The National Mental Health and Suicide Prevention Agreement, accessed 25 September 2024.
AIHW (Australian Institute of Health and Welfare) (2024a) Admitted patients mental health-related care 2022–23, Mental Health Online Report, accessed 2 October 2024.
AIHW (2024b) Community mental health care services 2022–23, Mental Health Online Report, accessed 2 October 2024.
AIHW (2023c) Consumer outcomes in mental health care 2021–22, Mental Health Online Report, accessed 3 October 2024.
AIHW (2024d) Residential mental health care services 2022–23, Mental Health Online Report, accessed 2 October 2024.
CHC (COAG [Council of Australian Governments] Health Council) (2017) The Fifth National Mental Health and Suicide Prevention Plan, Department of Health, Australian Government.
Commonwealth of Australia (2009) Fourth National Mental Health Plan—An agenda for collaborative government action in mental health 2009–2014, Attorney-General’s Department, Australian Government.
NSW Ministry of Health (2024) Government partners in your health care, accessed 3 October 2024.
Queensland Health (2016) Your Experience of Service—-2015 Statewide Report.
Queensland Health (2017a) Your Experience of Service—-2016 Statewide Report.
Queensland Health (2017b) Your Experience of Service—2017 Statewide Report.
Queensland Health (2020) Your Experience of Service—2019 Statewide Report.
Victorian DHHS (Department of Health and Human Services) (2013) National Mental Health Consumer Experiences of Care Project [740KB pdf], Australian Commission on Safety and Quality in Health Care, accessed 8 July 2019.
Victorian DHHS (2023) Victoria’s mental health services annual report, accessed 4 October 2024.
Data coverage is 2015–16 to 2022–23 for New South Wales, Queensland and Victoria. It is anticipated that data will become available from additional jurisdictions for future updates. This section was last updated in September 2025.
Amendments
4th September 2025 - Figures CP.2 and CP.4.2, associated descriptive text and data tables have been updated to reflect the fact that Indigenous status data are not currently available.