Source data: Specialised mental health care facilities 2019–20 tables (560KB XLSX)
Social and emotional wellbeing services for Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander people
In addition to the specialised mental health care facilities described above, Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander people may access a range of culturally appropriate mental health services provided by Australian and state and territory governments.
For example, the Australian Government funds health organisations to provide social and emotional wellbeing/mental health/counselling (SEWB) services for Indigenous Australians (AIHW 2021). SEWB services provide a range of support services including counselling, casework, family tracing and reunion support and other wellbeing activities for individuals, families and communities.
In 2019–20, 442 social and emotional wellbeing staff were located across Australia, providing approximately 234,220 client contacts (AIHW 2021). For more information on the organisation profile, staffing and types of services provided by SEWB services, see the Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander specific primary health care: results from the nKPI and OSR collections (2019–20).
Specialised mental health service organisations
There were 174 Specialised mental health service organisations responsible for the administration of the 1,663 state and territory specialised mental health facilities (excluding private hospitals) during 2019–20. Of these, almost two-thirds (111 organisations or 63.8%) provided two or more types of services.
Of organisations that provided 2 or more types of services within an organisational structure, the most common pairing was specialised mental health public hospital services (includes public acute hospitals and public psychiatric hospitals) and Community mental health care services (63 or 36.2%). These organisations accounted for about half of the beds and patient days (51.0% and 49.8% respectively) provided by specialised mental health public hospital services and over two-fifths (42.0%) of all community mental health care service contacts.
Furthermore, more than three-quarters provided specialised Community mental health care services (137 or 78.7%). About two-thirds provided specialised mental health public hospital services (114 or 65.5%), and almost half provided Residential mental health services (80 or 46.0%).