A new report from the Australian Institute of Health and Welfare (AIHW) has found that almost $10 billion was spent nationally on mental health services in 2017-2018.
The report, Mental Health Services in Australia, shows that per-person expenditure on mental health services increased from $382 to $400 between 2013-14 and 2017-18.
Spokesperson for the AIHW, Matthew James said that of the $9.9 billion in spending, 60.6 per cent was provided by State and Territory Governments, 33.9 per cent by the Australian Government, and 5.5 per cent by private health insurance funds.
He said the spending distribution had remained steady over the past five years.
“The largest proportion of State and Territory expenditure was spent on public hospital services for admitted patients ($2.6 billion), this was closely followed by expenditure on community mental health care services totalling $2.3 billion,” Mr James said.
He said the release also provided new data on the use of restrictive practices in mental health facilities, and built on previous data about the use of seclusion and restraint.
“Restrictive practices include seclusion (where a patient is confined alone in a room from which free exit is prevented) and restraint (where an individual’s freedom of movement is restricted),” Mr James said.
“Restraint can be either physical (for example, hands-on immobilisation techniques performed by health care staff) or mechanical (the use of devices to restrict movement such as belts or straps).”
He said when reporting began in 2009-10, there were about 14 seclusion events recorded for every 1,000 days of patient care.
In 2018-19, this was down to about seven events per 1,000 days of care.
“The use of physical restraint nationally has remained relatively stable since reporting began in 2015-16, at about 10 to 11 events per 1,000 days of patient care. The rate of mechanical restraint has also remained stable at 0.6 events per 1,000 days of patient care,” Mr James said.
The report will be updated with the latest available data on mental health services throughout 2020.
