Mental health services in Australia

Demographics

15,807 admitted care consumers responded to the YES survey in 2016–17. The highest number of responses was from consumers aged 25–34 years (3,038 or 21.8%), followed by consumers aged 35–44 (3,018 or 21.7%) and 45–54 (2,578 or 18.5%). This is consistent with the observed demographic patterns for these data collections. More responses were received from male (51.9%) than female (47.3%) consumers and 115 responses were from consumers who identified as ‘Other’ gender (0.8%).

Aboriginal and/or Torres Strait Islander consumers returned 1,502 surveys (10.5%) and non-Indigenous Australians returned 12,829 (89.5%). There were an additional 1,476 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, 5,411 (46.5%) 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. A higher number of admitted care respondents in 2016–17 rated the care they received as ‘Excellent’, followed by ratings of ‘Very Good’, ‘Good’, ‘Fair’ and ‘Poor’ (Figure CP.2). In New South Wales, 85.8% of admitted care respondents rated the care they received as ‘Good’, ‘Very Good’, or ‘Excellent’; 77.1% of respondents gave these ratings in Victoria, and 73.2% in Queensland.

Figure CP.2 Alternative text - Source data Consumer perspectives of mental health care tables (189 KB 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 (67.6%), followed by Victoria (53.9%) and Queensland (51.4%) (Figure CP.3).

Figure CP.3 Alternative text - Source data Consumer perspectives of mental health care tables (189 KB XLS)

In 2016–17, 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 73.6% of voluntary status respondents, 63.2% of involuntary status respondents, and 63.9% with status not recorded, rated their experience of service positively. This pattern was observed for all states (Figure CP.4).

Figure CP.4 Alternative text - Source data Consumer perspectives of mental health care tables (192 KB XLS)

For all 3 states, the proportion of Indigenous admitted care respondents who generated a positive experience of service score was similar to the proportion for non-Indigenous Australians. New South Wales had the highest proportions, with 68.9% of Indigenous respondents and 67.8% of non-Indigenous respondents rating their experience of service positively, followed by Victoria (48.0% Indigenous and 54.7% non-Indigenous) and Queensland (56.7% Indigenous and 51.0% non-Indigenous).