Health and wellbeing
Outcome: People with disability attain the highest possible health and wellbeing outcomes throughout their lives
Why is this outcome area important?
The Strategy focuses on physical aspects of health and wellbeing as well as improving mental health outcomes for people with disability (Australia’s Disability Strategy 2021–2031).
Under the United Nations (UN) Convention on the Rights of Persons with Disabilities, Australia has an obligation that persons with disabilities have the right to the enjoyment of the highest attainable standard of health and take all appropriate measures to ensure access for persons with disabilities to health services that are gender-sensitive, including health-related rehabilitation (UN 2006).
Good health and wellbeing are critical determinants of a person’s quality of life. People with disability generally report poorer health and higher levels of psychological distress than people without disability (AIHW 2024a). People with disability may also experience disadvantage or inequality in social, cultural and economic determinants of health (AIHW 2024b). Addressing these determinants of health and wellbeing is important in improving overall health outcomes.
What are the policy priorities?
- Health and wellbeing: Supporting the health of people with disability by improving their experience when they need to access health services.
- Prevention and early intervention: Improving access to health care for people with disability.
- Mental health: Supporting the mental health of people with disability and improving their experience of mental health care.
- Emergency responses: Improving emergency service responses for people with disability.
Measures
For 3 policy priorities under this outcome area, data are available for 2 system measures, and 4 population measures (Table 7.1). Since the 2nd annual report, one measure has updated pre-baseline data and 5 have updated post-baseline data for the first time.
All 6 measures have updated post-baseline data in this report. Of these:
- 2 showed improving
- 3 showed no change
- one showed regress.
For future measures requiring development, see Future measures.
Policy priority | Measure | Baseline time point | Baseline value | Latest time point | Latest value | Change since baseline(c) | Progress status |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
Health and wellbeing | Proportion of people with disability who reported unmet need for hospital admission in the last 12 months(a) (system measure) | 2018 | 10.4% | 2022 | 14.1% | 3.6 pp | Regress |
Health and wellbeing | Proportion of people with disability who reported excellent, very good or good health compared with people without disability (population measure) | 2017–18 | 68.8% with disability 94.3% without disability | 2022 | 67.6% with disability 94.6% without disability | 1.2 pp | No change |
Prevention and early intervention | Number of people with disability with GP-type emergency department presentations (system measure) | 2018 | 119,500 (11.2%) | 2022 | 154,500 (12.3%) | 35,000 (1.1 pp) | No change |
Prevention and early intervention | Proportion of people with disability with difficulty accessing medical facilities (GP, dentist, hospital)(b) (population measure) | 2018 | 13.8% | 2022 | 11.2% | -2.6 pp | Improving |
Mental health | Proportion of adults with disability with high or very high levels of psychological distress (population measure) | 2018 | 30.7% | 2022 | 31.4% | -0.7 pp | No change |
Mental health | Proportion of NDIS participants who report feeling satisfied about their life in general now and in the future (population measure) | 2020–21 | 45.7% | 2023–24 | 47.2% | 1.5 pp | Improving** |
**Confidence status: Care should be taken when looking at the reported progress status for this measure as there is some uncertainty in the data.
GP – general practitioner; n.a. – not available; pp – percentage points.
- This measure will be replaced in the future by ‘Number of potentially avoidable deaths in hospital for people with disability compared with people without disability’.
- This measure will be replaced in the future by ‘Proportion of people with disability who accessed prevention and early intervention services in the last 12 months without difficulty, compared with people without disability’.
- n.a. indicates that there has not been an additional data point post-baseline to enable an assessment of progress.
AIHW (2024a) ‘Health’, People with disability in Australia, AIHW, Australian Government, viewed 19 July 2024.
AIHW (2024b) ‘Social determinants of health’, Australia’s Health, AIHW, Australian Government, viewed 19 July 2024.
UN (2006) ‘Article 25 – Health’, Convention on the Rights of Persons with Disabilities, UN, accessed 6 November 2023.
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