According to information from the Australian Institute of Health and Welfare (AIHW), psychologists in Australia provided more than 3.7 million MBS-subsidised mental health services to almost 806,000 patients in 2012-13 and psychiatrists provided about 2.1 million MBS-subsidised services to almost 323,000 patients.

It is estimated that there were 15.8 million GP encounters that were mental-health related in 2012-2013, up from 11.7% in 2008-2009. Mental health now accounts for 12.3% of all visits to GPs in Australia.

‘Mental health is an important issue in Australia, and GPs are often the first point of call for people who may need to access mental health-related services,’ said AIHW spokesperson Mr Tim Beard.

In 2012-2013 in Australia:

• There were more than 241,000 mental health-related hospitalisations in 2012-13, and about 60% of these included specialised psychiatric care.
• There were also almost 188,000 emergency department occasions of service with a mental health-related principal diagnosis.

The Australian Institute of Health and Welfare (AIHW) has released a new report “Mental health services – in brief’. 

Image – Hey Paul Studios – flickr