KPIs for Australian Public Mental Health Services: PI 15J – Rate of seclusion, 2015

Coverage/Scope:

State/territory public mental health public acute admitted patient service units in scope for reporting in accordance with the Mental Health Seclusion and Restraint Data Set Specification.

• Services where seclusion is not an authorised practice under relevant mental health legislation and/or policy (such as non-gazetted admitted patient units that are not authorised to admit consumers on an involuntary basis) should be excluded (from numerator and denominator).

Methodology:

• Seclusion and restraint data are compiled by State/Territory data providers according to the specifications of the Mental Health Seclusion and Restraint Data Set Specification. As such, data are subject to the concepts and definitions developed for the DSS.
• For the purpose of this indicator, when a mental health service organisation has more than one unit of a particular admitted patient care program, those units should be combined.

(Numerator ÷ Denominator) x 1000

Total number of seclusion events

Total number of accrued mental health care days.

Service variables: Target population, remoteness

Consumer attributes: Nil

Australian Institute of Health and Welfare

Australian Institute of Health and Welfare

Australian Institute of Health and Welfare

State/territory level  

To construct this indicator at a national level requires separate indicator data to be provided individually by states and territories.

National collection of seclusion and restraint data is being progressed through the establishment of the Mental Health Seclusion and Restraint Data Set Specification, with data supplied by state/territories via and ongoing agreement facilitated by the Safety and Quality Partnership Standing Committee, which is a subcommittee, of the Mental Health, Drug and Alcohol Principal Committee (MHDAPC).

• The use of seclusion is governed by either legislation (a Mental Health Act or equivalent) or mandatory policy within each state and territory. The definitions used within the legislation and policies vary slightly between jurisdictions. These variations should be recognised in the interpretation of the indicator.
• The duration of seclusion is an essential piece of information to align with an indicator of the rate or frequency of seclusion as it provides a better understanding of an organisation’s performance in relation to seclusion use and management. However, the capacity to collect information regarding duration of seclusion episodes varies substantially across jurisdictions. Work continues at a national level that will facilitate the development of a meaningful indicator of duration as it is likely to be easily skewed by outliers.

Key Performance Indicators for Australian Public Mental Health Services, Third edition (2014)