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Table 2.15 Rates of Follow-Up Care Within 7 Days of Discharge from a Mental Health Admission by Remoteness Area by State or Territory, 2011 – 2012

Major Cities

Inner Regional

Outer Regional

Remote

Very Remote

NSW VIC QLD

52.9 UK* 62.8 52.6 52.9 26.5 79.5 70.0

54.0 UK 69.7 50.8 41.2 24.3 51.9 50.0

51.7 UK 67.1 43.9 41.1 37.2

40.0 UK 65.7 48.7 34.4 24.9 NA 45.8

41.7 UK 62.2 26.3 30.5 NA NA 26.3

WA

SA

TAS ACT

NA**

NT

58.1

* UK: unknown. ** NA: not applicable or not available.

Sources: State and Territory (unpublished) community mental healthcare data, Private Mental Health Alliance (unpublished) Centralised Data Management Service data, Department of Health and Ageing (unpublished) MBS Statistics, Department of Veterans’ Affairs (unpublished) Treatment Account System data, Australian Bureau of Statistics (unpublished) Estimated Residential Population, 30 June 2010.

2.12 The Mental Healthcare System

Australia’s mental healthcare system is large and complex, involving many interdependencies across government agencies, not-for-profit organisations, private mental health providers and jurisdictions (Medibank & Nous Group, 2013; National Mental Health Commission, 2014). In remote and very remote Australia, the majority of people with mental health disorders are managed from afar; people diagnosed with more severe mental illnesses, or during a crisis, are generally transported for treatment to regional and metropolitan hospitals (Andrews, 2006). The public health system provides the majority of