Mental health services in Australia

Some people’s mental health care needs may require care in a hospital setting. The care may be provided in a hospital ward or another facility such as an emergency department or an outpatient clinic. When receiving hospital care, a patient may be admitted to the hospital for part of a day (same day admitted mental health care), a single overnight stay, or for a number of days.

Data downloads

Same day admitted mental health-related care tables 2016–17 (844KB XLS)

Same day admitted mental health-related care section 2016–17 (882KB)

Data coverage includes the time period 2012–13 to 2016–17. This section was last updated in October 2018.

Key points

In comparing care across states and territories, it should be noted that models of care differ between jurisdictions and between public and private hospitals. This can affect reported volume of same day admitted care and the inclusion/omission of some types of care. Patients receive specialised psychiatric care in a psychiatric hospital or in a hospital’s psychiatric unit. Patients with mental illness may also have a same day admission to other areas of a hospital where health care workers may not be specifically trained to care for the mentally ill, such as a drug and alcohol treatment unit. These same day admissions to hospitals are classified as without specialised psychiatric care.

In order to provide the most comprehensive view of same day admitted care, two different data sources are used in this section for public and private hospitals (described in detail in each section below). It is important to note that some activity reported as same day admitted care by private hospitals may not require an admission in the public hospital setting, and would instead be reported as Community mental health care in that setting. Therefore, any comparisons of the volume of care provided by public and private hospitals described in this section should be made with caution.