Mental health services provided in emergency departments - National data

Since 2015–16 the rate per 10,000 population of public hospital mental health-related ED presentations for males has been higher than or equal to that for females. People aged 18–24, 25–34, 35–44 and 85 years and older have had the highest rates since 2015–16 (Figure ED.1).

Rates of presentations vary by age and sex. Since 2015–16 the rate for people aged 85 years and older has increased steadily for both males and females and shows the highest rates for both. The rates seen for females has been higher than males since 2015–16 for those aged 18–24 but males have had the highest rates for the 25–34 and 35–44 age groups. These differences are likely to be influenced by differences in prevalence and age of onset of different mental disorders (WHO 2024).

Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander (First Nations) people are proportionally overrepresented in terms of mental health-related ED presentations, making up 3.8% of the Australian population (ABS 2022) but accounting for 15% of presentations. The age-standardised rate of mental health-related ED presentations for First Nations Australians in 2024–25 was more than 5 times that of non-Indigenous Australians (521 per 10,000 population compared with 102; Figure ED.1). For First Nations Australians this rate has also increased by about 46% over the past 10 years (from 356 to 521), whereas for non-Indigenous Australians, it has remained comparatively stable (Figure ED.1). 

Since 2015–16, the rate per 10,000 population of mental health-related ED presentations has been highest for people living in Remote and very remote areas. The rates seen for Major cities, Inner regional and outer regional areas were around 40% to 60% lower from 2019–20 (Figure ED.1).

The highest rates per 10,000 population of mental-health-related ED presentations were seen for the Most disadvantaged SEIFA Quintile since 2015–16. During this period, the difference in the rates for the Most disadvantaged SEIFA quintile to the Least disadvantaged quintile was around 50% higher (Figure ED1).

Around 32% of Australia's population was born overseas (ABS 2024). In 2024–25, the rate of mental health-related ED presentations for people born in Australia was almost double than that for people born Overseas (136 and 75 per 10,000 population respectively).

The arrival mode records the way in which a person arrives at the ED. From 2015–16 to 2024–25, over half of mental health-related ED presentations arrived via ambulance, air ambulance or helicopter rescue service (54% compared with 27% for all presentations in 2024–25). About 7% of mental health-related ED presentations arrived by police or correctional service vehicles compared with 1% of all ED presentations.

When presenting to an ED, patients are clinically assessed to determine their priority for care (triaged) and the triage category is assigned. For example, patients triaged as an Emergency category require care within 10 minutes (ACEM 2023). However, due to a range of factors, care may or may not be received within the designated time frames. In 2024–25, mental health-related ED presentations were triaged as Urgent (52%), Emergency (21%) and Resuscitation (2%) at higher rates than for all ED presentations in public hospitals (Figure ED.3). Conversely, mental health-related presentations were triaged as Semi-urgent (21%) and Non-urgent (3%) at lower rates than for all presentations (Figure ED.3).

Between 2015–16 and 2024–25 the proportion of presentations categorised as either Emergency or Urgent has increased.

Figure ED.3: Mental health-related presentations and total presentations to public EDs, by triage category from 2015–16 to 2024–25

Waiting time is the time from presentation to clinical care commencement. In 2024–25, 61% of mental health-related ED presentations were seen on time according to their triage category, compared to 67% across all presentations (AIHW 2025a). The proportion of presentations seen on time has decreased since 2015–16; from 69% to 61% for mental health-related presentations and 77% to 68% for all presentations. Ten per cent of mental health-related presentations had a waiting time longer than 2 hours and 23 minutes.

Length of ED stay refers to the elapsed time from presentation to physical departure from the ED. Nationally, in 2024–25 the median length of stay for all mental health-related ED presentations was 5 hours and 21 minutes. Ten per cent of mental health-related presentations stayed longer than 19 hours and 51 minutes, compared with 11 hours and 16 minutes for all presentations (AIHW 2025a).

For mental health-related presentations ending in admission, the median length of stay was 7 hours and 35 minutes whereas the median length of stay for presentations not ending in admission was 4 hours and 27 minutes.

National Non-Admitted Patient Emergency Department Care Database

All state and territory health authorities collect a core set of nationally comparable information on emergency department (ED) presentations (including mental health-related ED presentations) in public hospitals within their jurisdiction. The AIHW compiles this data annually to form the National Non-Admitted Patient Emergency Department Care Database (NNAPEDCD). In 2024–25, 293 of Australia’s public hospital emergency departments reported emergency department presentations to the NNAPEDCD (AIHW 2025b).

Prior to 2014–15, diagnosis-related information was not included in the NNAPEDCD and states and territories provided the AIHW with a bespoke analysis of mental health-related ED presentations. Diagnosis-related data has subsequently been included in the NNAPEDCD. In this report, data from 2014–15 to 2024–25 are sourced from the NNAPEDCD.

Definition of mental health-related emergency department presentations

Mental health-related ED presentations in this report are defined as presentations to public hospital EDs that have a principal diagnosis of Mental and behavioural disorders (that is, codes F00–F99) in ICD-10-AM or the equivalent codes in other coding schemas. It does not include codes for self-harm or poisoning.

For 2024–25, principal diagnoses information is reported for the NNAPEDCD using ICD-10-AM (12th Ed) Principal Diagnosis Short List, developed by the Independent Health and Aged Care Pricing Authority (IHACPA) from the full version of ICD-10-AM. Further information is available in Emergency department care 2024–25 Appendixes (AIHW 2025b).

The Mental and behavioural disorders principal diagnosis codes may not fully capture all mental health-related presentations to EDs, such as presentations for self-harm that are mental health-related. Diagnosis codes for intentional self-harm are not part of the Mental and behavioural disorders chapter and are not in-scope for the principal diagnosis variable for the NNAPEDCD. Additionally, a presentation for self-harm may have a principal diagnosis relating to the injury, for example Open wound to wrist and hand. These presentations cannot be identified as mental health-related presentations in the NNAPEDCD and are not included in this report.

Further information on the NNAPEDCD is available on METEOR, the AIHW’s Metadata Online Registry.

Response to COVID-19

From February 2020, Australian governments introduced a range of restrictions on travel, business, social interaction and border control in response to the COVID-19 pandemic. From October 2020, Australia was at the end of the second wave of the pandemic, leading to relaxation of those restrictions. Over the pandemic period to present, the total number of ED presentations and mental health-related ED presentations have been impacted by a range of factors which may have influenced an individual seeking mental health care or other care in the ED setting. These include changes to the accessibility of mental health care through general practice with the introduction of telehealth and increases in the number of Medicare-subsidised services which could be delivered by psychologists. ED presentations in 2020–21 increased by 7% from 2019–20 and remained stable in both 2021–22 and 2022–23 (AIHW 2025a). In contrast, the number of mental health-related ED presentations increased in 2019–20 but decreased in both 2020–21 and 2021–22.

ABS (Australian Bureau of Statistics) (2022). Census of Population and Housing – Counts of Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander Australians, 2021, ABS, Accessed 27 January 2026.

ABS (2024) Australia's population by country of birth, Statistics on Australia's estimated resident population by country of birth, ABS, Australian Government, accessed 27 January 2026.

ACEM (Australasian College for Emergency Medicine) (2023) Policy on the Australasian Triage Scale (V5 P06), ACEM, accessed 27 January 2026.

AIHW (Australian Institute of Health and Welfare) (2025a) Emergency department care, AIHW, Australian Government, accessed 27 January 2026.

AIHW (2025b) Hospitals info & downloads: About the data, AIHW, Australian Government, accessed 27 January 2026.

AIHW (2024) Health of veterans, AIHW, Australian Government, accessed 27 January 2026.

Marks, P (2022) Mental health in emergency care, Elsevier Health Sciences, accessed 27 January 2026.

World Health Organization (WHO) (2024) Mental health of adolescents, WHO, accessed 27 January 2026.