Specialised admitted patient mental health care separation characteristics

Mental health legal status

Of all separations with specialised psychiatric care in 2009–10, 30.8% were for patients who had an involuntary admission, with the majority of these reported by public acute hospitals (33,139 of 40,054). Involuntary admitted patient separations comprised 61.9% of public psychiatric hospitals separations, while only 0.3% of private hospital separations were from involuntary admissions (Figure 7.5).

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Note: Separations with a care type of Newborn (without qualified days), and
records for Hospital boarders and Posthumous organ procurement have
been excluded.

Source: National Hospital Morbidity Database

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Procedures

Around 41% of all mental health-related separations did not have an intervention or procedure recorded. It is likely that the interventions (procedures) provided to admitted patients during these mental health-related separations were not able to be coded using the existing procedure classification system. The administration of mental health-related medications, for example, are not explicitly included in the classification system.

From the data available, a commonly reported intervention (procedure) for all mental health-related separations was an allied health service intervention, including services provided by social workers and occupational therapists. A common procedure for separations with specialised care was non-emergency general anaesthesia. This was most likely associated with the administration of electroconvulsive therapy, a form of treatment for depression–a commonly reported principal diagnosis.