The Activity based funding: Mental health care national best endeavours data set (ABF MHC NBEDS) defines information about patients receiving mental health care, funded by states and territories, that is associated with Australian public hospital services.
Mental health care is care in which the primary clinical purpose or treatment goal is improvement in the symptoms and/or psychosocial, environmental and physical functioning related to a patient’s mental disorder. Mental health care:
is delivered under the management of, or regularly informed by, a clinician with specialised expertise in mental health;
is evidenced by an individualised formal mental health assessment and the implementation of a documented mental health plan; and
may include significant psychosocial components, including family and carer support.
This includes services provided as assessment only activities.
The scope of the ABF MHC NBEDS is mental health care provided by services that are in-scope public hospital services under the Addendum to the National Health Reform Agreement 2020–25. This includes care delivered by specialised mental health services, public hospitals, Local Hospital Networks and non-government organisations (NGOs) managed or funded by state or territory health authorities. This also includes all in-scope services contracted by a public hospital, Local Hospital Network or jurisdiction regardless of the physical location of the contracting public hospital, Local Hospital Network or jurisdiction, or the location where the services are delivered. The ABF MHC NBEDS is intended to capture instances of service provision from the point of view of the patient.
Mental health care provided by services which are not in-scope public hospital services under the Addendum to the National Health Reform Agreement 2020–25 can also be reported.
Mental health care services that are considered in-scope may take place in admitted, ambulatory, emergency department or residential settings. Activity that has taken place in the emergency department must only be reported through the ABF MHC NBEDS if it has been provided by an ambulatory service as part of an ambulatory mental health episode of care. These service contacts are provided by specialised mental health ambulatory care units and are also reported through the Community mental health care NMDS 2022–23 (CMHC NMDS).
The ABF MHC NBEDS allows reporting of in-reach service contacts from specialised mental health community units into specialised mental health care admitted patient units, which are out of scope for the CMHC NMDS.
Collection and usage attributes
Statistical unit:
Episodes of mental health care
Collection methods:
Data are collected at each hospital from patient administrative, financial and other systems. Hospitals forward data to the relevant state or territory health authority on a regular basis (for example, monthly).
National reporting arrangements
State and territory health authorities provide the data to the Independent Hospital Pricing Authority for national collation, on a quarterly basis. Only episodes which have a formal discharge within the reference period, or those which have a statistical discharge at the end of a reference period, should be reported.
Periods for which data are collected and nationally collated
Financial years ending 30 June each year.
Implementation start date:
01/07/2022
Implementation end date:
30/06/2023
Comments:
Whilst it is recognised that there may be activity undertaken by non-specialised ambulatory health services that meet the definition of mental health care, it is also acknowledged that jurisdictional system capabilities may prevent this activity being reported through this data set.
While the NBEDS provides guidance on the circumstances in which clinical measures should be reported for specific age groups, it is noted that it is a clinical decision as to the most appropriate measure to be used for a particular patient.
Scope links with other National Minimum Data Sets (NMDSs) and NBEDSs
