Mental health services in Australia

This section presents information on specialist disability support services, provided under the National Disability Agreement (NDA) to service users with a psychiatric disability either as their primary disability or as an other significant disability. Unless otherwise stated, service users with psychiatric disability include all service users with psychiatric disability, regardless of whether it is considered a primary or other significant disability.

The information presented in this section has been extracted from the 2015–16 Disability Services National Minimum Data Set (Disability Services NMDS); comprising national administrative data on disability support services. The data source section provides further information on coverage, data quality, and other aspects of the Disability Services NMDS.

Data downloads:

Psychiatric disability support 2015–16 tables (571KB XLS)

Psychiatric disability support 2015–16 section (125KB)

Data coverage includes the time period 2007–08 to 2015–16. This section was last updated in June 2017.

Key points

When accessing disability support services people with psychiatric disability may receive residential support services, non-residential services, or both, depending on availability and their individual needs.

Residential service types include large residential facilities/institutions , small residential facilities/institutions, hostels and group homes . Non-residential support services include accommodation support , community support , community access , respite services, employment services , advocacy, information and alternative forms of communication and other support.

Providers of non-residential services are either state or territory administered services or Australian Government funded services .

Service provision

Across Australia, about 331,800 people made use of specialist disability support services during 2015–16 ( AIHW 2017). Of these, more than 96,300 people had a psychiatric disability, with 61,566 of these having a primary psychiatric disability. For clients with a psychiatric disability using non-residential services (95,835), almost 2 in 3 (61,376 or 64.0%) had a primary psychiatric disability. In contrast, the most frequently reported primary disability among residential service users with a psychiatric disability (3,584) was intellectual disability (2,561 or 71.5%).

States and territories

The rate of psychiatric disability service users in 2015–16 was highest in Victoria (498.0 per 100,000 population), and lowest in the Northern Territory (132.4), compared to the national rate of 402.4 (Figure DIS.1). The transition of clients into the National Disability Insurance Scheme (NDIS) in the Australian Capital Territory (ACT) significantly reduced the ability of the territory’s government to collect data under the National Disability Agreement. For this reason ACT data only includes users of Australian Government disability employment services from 2015–16.

Figure DIS.1: Service users with a psychiatric disability, states and territories, 2015–16

Source: AIHW analysis of data from the Disability Services NMDS.
Source data: Psychiatric disability support services 2015–16 Table DIS.1 (571KB XLS).

Over time

Over the 5 years to 2015–16, the rate of non-residential service users with a psychiatric disability increased on average by 0.9% annually, from 386.7 per 100,000 population in 2011–12 to 400.3 in 2015–16 (Figure DIS.2). Over the same time period, the residential service user rate decreased on average by 2.5% annually from 16.6 per 100,000 population in 2011–12 to 15.0 in 2015–16 (Figure DIS.3).

Figure DIS.2: Non-residential service users with a psychiatric disability, 2011–12 to 2015–16

Note: The methodology to obtain service user counts has varied over time, so comparisons between reporting years should be approached with caution. See data source section for more information.

Source: AIHW analysis of data from the Disability Services NMDS.
Source data: Psychiatric disability support services 2015–16 Table DIS.3 (571KB XLS).

Figure DIS.3: Residential service users with a psychiatric disability, 2010–11 to 2015–16

Source: AIHW analysis of data from the Disability Services NMDS.
Source data: Psychiatric disability support services 2015–16 Table DIS.3 (571KB XLS).