Rates directly age-standardised to the 2001 Australian population.

Age group is calculated from age at first service event during the reference period, or as at 1 July of the reference period where a service event (hospital admission or residential episode) commenced prior to 1 July.

Remoteness is derived from Statistical Area 2 (SA2) (or postcode where SA2 is not available) of the client at first service event, consistent with derived age, and is proportionally allocated using a population-based concordance.

Socio-Economic Indexes for Areas (SEIFA) is derived from SA2 (or postcode where SA2 is not available) of the client at first service event and is proportionally allocated using a population-based concordance.

For remoteness and SEIFA, if a null result is returned from the first event, the next valid result is to be used.

Public

Number of individuals recorded on jurisdictional mental health information systems as receiving one or more services from state/territory public mental health services, including specialised mental health hospital services, residential mental health care services and community mental health care services.

Person counts should be confined to individuals who received one or more services from state or territory specialised mental health services. Jurisdictional systems should be used, where available, to remove duplicate person counts between the different specialised mental health service setting.

For community mental health care service contacts, all types of service contacts to be included in defining whether a person receives a service, including those delivered ‘on behalf’ of the consumer, that is, where the consumer does not directly participate.

‘Assessment only’ cases are included.

Community mental health care data for non-uniquely identifiable clients are to be excluded. 

State and territory disaggregation of mental health care data is based on the jurisdiction that provided the health care service.

Private

Number of individuals receiving specialist psychiatric care in private hospitals with psychiatric beds. Services provided to patients with psychiatric diagnoses by other private hospitals (that is, those without designated psychiatric beds) are not included.

State and territory disaggregation of Private Mental Health Alliance data is based on location of service.

Medicare Benefits Schedule (MBS)

Inclusive of all mental-health related MBS items and includes some ambulatory-equivalent admitted patient mental health service contacts.

Consultant psychiatrist services include MBS items: 134, 136, 138, 140, 142, 288, 289, 291, 293, 296, 297, 299, 300, 302, 304, 306, 308, 310, 312, 314, 316, 318, 319, 320, 322, 324, 326, 328, 330, 332, 334, 336, 338, 342, 344, 346, 348, 350, 352, 353, 355, 356, 357, 358, 359, 361, 364, 366, 367, 369, 370, 855, 857, 858, 861, 864, 866, 14224.

GP and other services include MBS items: 170, 171, 172, 2574, 2575, 2577, 2578, 2700, 2701, 2702, 2704, 2705, 2707, 2708, 2710, 2712, 2713, 2715, 2717, 2719, 2721, 2723, 2725, 2727, 20104.

Clinical psychologist services include MBS items: 80000, 80005, 80010, 80015, 80020.

Other allied health services include MBS items: 10956, 10968, 80100, 80105, 80110, 80115, 80120, 80125, 80130, 80135, 80140, 80145, 80150, 80155, 80160, 80165, 80170, 81325, 81355, 82000, 82015.

Medicare Benefits Scheme data presented by Indigenous status are adjusted for under-identification in the Medicare Australia Voluntary Indigenous Identifier (VII) database.

State and territory disaggregation of MBS data is based on postcode of residence of the person as recorded in Medicare Australia's database at the date the last service was received in the reference period.

Department of Veterans’ Affairs (DVA) 

Inclusive of all mental-health related MBS items and additional DVA items and includes some ambulatory-equivalent admitted patient mental health service contacts.

Consultant psychiatrist services include MBS items above. 134, 136, 138, 140, 142, 288, 289, 291, 293, 296, 297, 299, 300, 302, 304, 306, 308, 310, 312, 314, 316, 318, 319, 320, 322, 324, 326, 328, 330, 332, 334, 336, 338, 342, 344, 346, 348, 350, 352, 353, 355, 356, 357, 358, 359, 361, 364, 366, 367, 369, 370, 855, 857, 858, 861, 864, 866, 14224.

GP and other services include MBS items: 170, 171, 172, 2700, 2701, 2702, 2710, 2712, 2713, 2715, 2717, 2719, 2721, 2723, 2725, 2727, 20104.

Clinical psychologist services include MBS items: 80000, 80005, 80010, 80015, 80020 and DVA items US01, US02, US03, US04, US05, US06, US07, US08, US50, US51, US99.

Other allied health services include MBS items: 10956, 10968, 80100, 80105, 80110, 80115, 80120, 80125, 80130, 80135, 80140, 80145, 80150, 80155, 80160, 80165, 80170, 81325, 81355, 82000, 82015 and DVA items CL20, CL25, CL30, US11, US12, US13, US14, US15, US16, US17, US18, US21, US22, US23, US24, US25, US26, US27, US31, US32, US33, US34, US35, US36, US37, US52, US53, US96, US97, US98.

State and territory disaggregation of DVA data is based on postcode of residence of the person as recorded by Medicare Australia at the date the last service was received in the reference period.

Presented as a percentage.

Calculated separately for public, private, and combined Medicare Benefits Scheme and Department of Veterans' Affairs data.

2007-08, 2008-09, 2009-10, 2010-11 (public data resupplied for revised scope and methodology), 2011-12 (MBS and DVA data resupplied for revised MBS items, public data resupplied for revised scope and methodology), 2012-13—Nationally, by service type, by:

• 2011 Socio-Economic Indexes for Areas (SEIFA) Index of Relative Socioeconomic Disadvantage (IRSD) deciles.

2007-08, 2008-09, 2009-10, 2010-11 (public data resupplied for revised scope and methodology), 2011-12 (MBS and DVA data resupplied for revised MBS items, public data resupplied for revised scope and methodology),2012–13—State and territory, by service type, by:

• remoteness (Australian Statistical Geography Standard (ASGS) Remoteness Structure).  

2007–08, 2008–09, 2009–10, 2010–11 (resupplied for updated Indigenous Estimated Resident Population (ERP), public data resupplied for revised scope and methodology), 2011–12 (resupplied for updated Indigenous ERP, MBS data resupplied for revised MBS items, public data resupplied for revised scope and methodology), 2012–13—State and territory, by service type, by:

• Indigenous status (public and Medicare Benefits Scheme data only).

Most recent data available for 2015 National Healthcare Agreement (NHA) performance reporting: 2012–13.

MBS and DVA item numbers change over time. Extracted data may include historical item numbers that are no longer current but have been processed by Medicare Australia within the reference period.

There is likely to be considerable overlap between the MBS/DVA data and the private hospital data, as most patients accessing private hospital services would access MBS items in association with the private hospital service.

Indigenous information is not currently available for private psychiatric hospital or DVA data. 

AIHW has been undertaking scoping work to reduce the known over count in the number of people, as people could be receiving services from more than one service type. The scoping work used a statistical linkage key to conduct data linkage to determine a non-duplicated person count. Data using this methodology may be available for this cycle.

For 2011–12 data, the 2011 SEIFA IRSD quintile and decile data were produced using the Australian Geography Classification geographical unit of Statistical Local Area. For 2012–13 data, the 2011 SEIFA IRSD quintile and decile data will be produced using the Australian Statistical Geography Standard geographical unit of Statistical Area 2.