The scope of the Mental Health Carer Experience of Service National Best Endeavours Data Set (MH CES NBEDS) is state and territory public sector Specialised mental health services.
As specified by the Mental Health Carer Experience Survey, carers are the family member, partner or friend of someone with a mental illness whose lives are also affected by that illness. Carers provide support and assistance to the person with a mental illness.
Specialised mental health services are those with a primary function to provide treatment, rehabilitation or community support targeted towards people with a mental disorder or psychiatric disability. These activities are delivered from a service or facility that is readily identifiable as both ‘specialised’ and ‘serving a mental health care function’.
A service is not defined as a specialised mental health service solely because its clients include people affected by a mental disorder or psychiatric disability.
The definition excludes specialist drug and alcohol services and services for people with intellectual disabilities, except where they are specifically established to assist people affected by a mental disorder who also have drug and alcohol related disorders or intellectual disability.
The services can be sub-units of hospitals that are not, themselves, specialised mental health establishments (for example designated psychiatric units and wards, outpatient clinics etc).
The survey was developed by the Australian Mental Health Outcomes and Classifications Network (AMHOCN) under the auspices of the former Mental Health Information Strategy Standing Committee (MHISSC) of the former Australian Health Ministers Advisory Council (AHMAC). It was funded by the Australian Government Department of Health to give effect to the commitments in the Fourth National Mental Health Plan, which included the development of consumer and carer experiences and perceptions of care as a priority quality improvement initiative to strengthen the focus of the mental health sector on measures of experiences of care.
Following national and international literature reviews, sector consultations, field trials and psychometric validation, the survey was delivered as a measure suitable for national use in public sector mental health services. The measure captures information about issues meaningful and relevant to carers and, given its strong alignment to Standard 7 of the National Standards for Mental Health Services, can be used by services to identify areas for quality improvement in service delivery.
This NBEDS contains metadata describing 37 questions included in the Mental Health Carer Experience Survey, which explores the experience of service by carers in the three months prior to the survey completion. The exact wording of each survey question to be used in collection of this NBEDS can be found in the DSS specific information for each data element. The NBEDS also includes a number of demographic or contextual data elements. Free text fields that are part of the survey are not included.
Metadata items that reflect specific questions in the Mental Health Carer Experience Survey are listed below using a sequence number corresponding to the number of the item in the survey. Metadata items used for demographic or contextual data elements are not given a sequence number. Please refer to the DSS specific information for more detail.
A recommended survey sampling methodology is not specified by this NBEDS.
National reporting arrangements
State and territory health authorities may provide the data to the Australian Institute of Health and Welfare on an annual basis.
Periods for which data are collected and nationally collated
Financial years ending 30 June each year. The reference period starts on 1 July and ends on 30 June each year.
Implementation start date:
01/07/2022
Comments:
Glossary terms that are relevant to this data set are included here:
Admitted patient mental health care service
Ambulatory care
Ambulatory mental health care service
Geographic indicator
Mental health consumer
Residential mental health care service
The Mental Health Carer Experience Survey is available for use by appropriate organisations that enter a licensing agreement specifying conditions of use. The survey, detailed additional user guidelines and mandatory licensing arrangements are available on the Australian Mental Health Outcomes and Classification Network (AMHOCN) website (AMHOCN 2021)
Only one response is to be input for each data element in this NBEDS.
CODE 6: Not needed is a response category in the survey and should be used where the respondent has selected this response option.
CODE 9: Not stated/inadequately described can be used where survey responses are deemed to be illegible, where the respondent has not provided an answer, or where the respondent has selected multiple responses for the question.
Source and reference attributes
Submitting organisation:
National Health Data and Information Standards Committee