Average cost per treatment day of non-admitted care provided by mental health services

Rationale

Public community mental health services consist of a range of community-based services such as emergency assessment and treatment, case management, day programs, rehabilitation, psychosocial, residential services and continuing care. The aim of these services is to provide the best health outcomes for the individual through the provision of accessible and appropriate community mental health care. 

Public community-based mental health services are generally targeted towards people in the acute phase of a mental illness who are receiving post-acute care.  

Efficient functioning of public community mental health services is essential to ensure that finite funds are used effectively to deliver maximum community benefit. This indicator provides a measure of the cost-effectiveness of treatment for public psychiatric patients under public community mental health care (non-admitted/ambulatory patients).

Target

The 2024-25 target for average cost per treatment day of non-admitted care provided by mental health services is $507. Improved or maintained performance is demonstrated by a result below or equal to target.

Results

Commentary

The results for 2024-25 demonstrate that EMHS has performed favourably against the target of $507 (lower by $60).  This was achieved despite a marginal increase in treatment days which ordinarily could be expected to increase the average cost per treatment day. The current year’s actual performance is also lower than the actual cost of $494 (by $47) when compared to the performance in 2023-24. 

EMHS has maintained a consistent level of efficiency and performance across the four years, despite the costs of providing support and treatment within a community setting being generally more expensive as additional effort, attention and resourcing may be needed to ensuring standards and models of care and support for mental health cases are maintained outside of a hospital environment.