Mental health services in Australia

Demographics

16,385 admitted care consumers responded to the YES survey in 2017–18. The highest number of responses was from consumers aged 25–34 years (3,097 or 21.7%), followed by consumers aged 35–44 (2,857 or 20.0%) and 45–54 (2,575 or 18.1%). This is consistent with the observed demographic patterns for these data collections. More responses were received from male (50.2%) than female (49.0%) consumers and 119 responses were from consumers who identified as ‘Other’ gender (0.8%).

Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander consumers returned 1,556 surveys (10.6%) and non-Indigenous Australians returned 13,149 (89.4%). There were an additional 1,680 surveys returned where Indigenous status of the respondent was not stated or not recorded.

Mental health legal status refers to whether or not a person was treated in hospital involuntarily under the relevant state or territory mental health legislation. Of admitted care respondents, 5,532 (46.6%) had an involuntary status.

Consumer ratings of care

The YES survey question, ‘Overall, how would you rate your experience of care with this service in the last 3 months?’ provides an overall indication of a respondent’s experience of care. In each state, a higher number of admitted care respondents in 2017–18 rated the care they received as ‘Excellent’, followed by ratings of ‘Very Good’, ‘Good’, ‘Fair’ and ‘Poor’ (Figure CP.3). In New South Wales, 86.2% of admitted care respondents rated the care they received as ‘Good’, ‘Very Good’, or ‘Excellent’; 78.2% of respondents gave these ratings in Victoria, and 74.9% in Queensland.

Description of figure CP.3 - Source data Consumer perspectives of mental health care tables (40KB XLS)

Consumer experience of service

A nationally agreed overall score out of 100 has been developed to reflect each respondent’s ‘experience of service’ across 22 questions in the YES survey (Further information on the score methodology can be found in the data source section). A score of 80 or above indicates a positive experience of service.

Using this measure, New South Wales had the highest proportion of respondents with a positive experience of service (68.7%), followed by Victoria (50.4%) and Queensland (47.1%) (Figure CP.3).

Description of figure CP.4 - Source data Consumer perspectives of mental health care tables (40KB XLS)

In 2017–18, the proportion of admitted care respondents with a positive experience of service score was higher for respondents with Voluntary mental health legal status than Involuntary status and mental health legal status Not recorded. For example, in New South Wales 75.8% of Voluntary status respondents, 63.1% of Involuntary status respondents, and 65.2% with status Not recorded, rated their experience of service positively. A similar pattern was observed for the other 2 states (Figure CP.5).

Description of figure CP.5 - Source data Consumer perspectives of mental health care tables (40KB XLS)

For all 3 states, the proportion of Indigenous admitted care respondents who generated a positive experience of service score was lower than the proportion for non-Indigenous Australians. New South Wales had the highest proportions, with 68.1% of Indigenous respondents and 69.1% of non-Indigenous respondents rating their experience of service positively. In Victoria, 31.6% of Indigenous respondents and 52.4% of non-Indigenous respondents rated a positive experience of service. In Queensland, 38.8% of Indigenous respondents and 48.8% of non-Indigenous respondents rated their experience of service positively