Source data: Overnight admitted mental health-related care 2018–19 tables (147KB XLSX).
There were 7,214 overnight mental health-related separations without specialised psychiatric care for Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander people in 2018–19, or 86.9 per 10,000 population, which is 2.3 times higher than the rate of 37.7 per 10,000 population for other patients. Rates standardised on the 2001 age profile were 105.2 and 31.4 per 10,000 population respectively, so the standardised rate for Indigenous people was 3.4 times that of other patients.
People living in Remote and very remote areas had the highest rate of overnight mental health-related separations without specialised psychiatric care in 2018–19 and those living in Major cities had the lowest rate (73.5 and 37.0 per 10,000 population respectively).
People living in the most disadvantaged socioeconomic quintile (SEIFA Quintile 1) had the highest rate of overnight mental health-related separations without specialised psychiatric care at 44.6 per 10,000 people. Those living in the least disadvantaged quintile (SEIFA Quintile 5) had the lowest rate of 33.4 per 10,000 people.
Changes over time
The rate of overall overnight mental health-related separations without specialised psychiatric care per 10,000 population has increased over the past decade at an average annual rate of 3.2% between 2008–09 and 2018–19, and an larger increase of 5.6% in the 5 years from 2014–15 and 2018–19.
For each year examined, and for each sex, the rate of overnight mental health‑related separations without specialised care per population was highest for older adults (75–84 years, and 85+ years). For the 12–17 years age group, the rate of separations for females was almost 3 times the rate of separations as males, a similar pattern to that seen for separations with specialised psychiatric care.
In both the 75–84 year old and 85+ year old age groups, the number of separations per 10,000 population have been increasing over time. For these age groups, males have consistently had a higher rate than the female population. The contrast with the rates for overnight mental health related separations with specialised care should be noted for these older age groups.
Principal diagnosis
In 2018–19, the most frequently reported principal diagnosis for overnight mental health-related separations without specialised psychiatric care were Mental and behavioural disorders due to use of alcohol (ICD‑10‑AM code F10) (20.7% in public hospitals and 21.8% in private hospitals), followed by Other organic mental disorders (20.1% in public and 18.8% in private hospitals) (Figure ON.6).