AIHW - Mental Health Services - Emergency Department Presentations by Demographics (SA3) 2014-2018

This dataset presents the footprint of the number of emergency department presentations in public hospitals by patient demographics and location. Mental health-related emergency department (ED) presentations are defined as presentations to public hospital EDs that have a principal diagnosis of mental and behavioural disorders. However, the definition does not fully capture all potential mental health-related presentations to EDs such as intentional self-harm, as intent can be difficult to identify in an ED environment and can also be difficult to code. The data spans the financial years of 2014-2018 and is aggregated to Statistical Area Level 3 (SA3) geographic areas from the 2016 Australian Statistical Geography Standard (ASGS). State and territory health authorities collect a core set of nationally comparable information on most public hospital ED presentations in their jurisdiction, which is compiled annually into the National Non-Admitted Patient Emergency Department Care Database (NNAPEDCD). The data reported for 2014–15 to 2017–18 is sourced from the NNAPEDCD. Information about mental health-related services provided in EDs prior to 2014–15 was supplied directly to the Australian Institute of Health and Welfare (AIHW) by states and territories. Mental health services in Australia (MHSA) provides a picture of the national response of the health and welfare service system to the mental health care needs of Australians. MHSA is updated progressively throughout each year as data becomes available. The data accompanies the Mental Health Services - In Brief 2018 Web Report. For further information about this dataset, visit the data source:Australian Institute of Health and Welfare - Mental health services in Australia Data Tables. Please note:

AURIN has spatially enabled the original data.

Caution is required when conducting time-series analyses. The data source changed in 2014–15 from data provided by state and territory health authorities (2004–05 to 2013–14) to the NNAPEDCD. Additionally, due to the methodology applied for mapping the data over time, years prior to 2017–18 may be an undercount or data may not be displayed where SA3s have changed over time.

Mental health-related emergency department presentations included in this report are those that had a principal diagnosis that fell within the Mental and behavioural disorders chapter (Chapter 5) of ICD-10-AM (codes F00–F99) or the equivalent ICD-9-CM or SNOMED codes. It does not include codes for self-harm or poisoning.

From 2014–15 onwards, diagnosis information was not reported using a uniform classification. The mapping of SNOMED codes (used by NSW) to ICD-10AM may lead to an under-estimation of mental health-related presentations.

Changes in the volume of patients over time for NSW may be attributed, in part, to the increased number of hospitals included in the data for this jurisdiction.