2.4: Mental Health

The 1997-1998 Portfolio Budget Statements, informs Senators and Members of Parliament of the proposed allocation of resources to portfolios outcomes and their objectives and targets including the agencies within the Health and Family Services portfolio.

In this section:

Budget Measures

Objective

Improve mental health outcomes in Australia and reduce the rate of suicide by Australian youth through national programs and working cooperatively with States and Territories.

Priority outcomes

A comprehensive and effective national approach to mental health service delivery, focussing on patients and people at risk, with stronger intersectoral links and consumer, carer and community input.
Systems and infrastructure (for example model legislation, classification systems, funding models, data collections, national service standards, best practice guidelines, outcome measures and other performance indicators) to underpin sustained reform in mental health services.
Best practice approaches for the identification, support of and intervention for, young people at risk of suicide.
Enhanced service provision, education, training and research in youth suicide prevention.
Effective approaches to achieving good mental health outcomes identified and adopted in conjunction with other stakeholders.

Strategies

Link Commonwealth funding to States and Territories for mental health reform to the achievement of targets for agreed performance indicators.
Implement national projects designed to sustain mental health reform in priority areas of workforce, demonstration projects, research, monitoring and dissemination, guideline development, community education and advocacy and promotion and prevention.
Fund national demonstration projects designed to identify best practice approaches to youth suicide prevention.
Fund youth counselling services in rural and remote areas and other activities which assist youth and their families through improving the quality of and access to services and information relating to youth suicide.

Performance assessment: indicators and targets

Effectiveness

Indicator	Target	Information source and reporting frequency
For National Mental Health Strategy projects: - for those which have recommendations, the proportion where the recommendations are substantially adopted and implemented by relevant parties; - for those which involve measures of effectiveness, the proportion which are demonstrated to be effective (Priority Outcomes 1, 2; Strategy 2)	90 per cent in each case	Internal tracking and reporting mechanisms Evaluation of the National Mental Health Strategy National Mental Health Report Annual
Progress made in developing nationally consistent approaches to measuring quality, outputs and outcomes in mental health services and youth suicide prevention (Priority Outcomes 1, 3; Strategies 2,4)	Outcome measures piloted in public and private sector mental health services Agreement on Minimum Data Set for inpatient and community based services	Internal tracking and reporting mechanisms Annual Internal tracking and reporting mechanisms and publishing of progress in Australia's Health Annual
Progress made in reporting widely on quality, outputs and outcomes in mental health services and youth suicide (Priority Outcome 2; Strategies 2,4)	The 1997 National Mental Health Report published by 30 June 1998 Reports on all completed major national projects and youth suicide prevention initiatives disseminated within six months of completion of projects National Survey of Mental Health and Wellbeing completed and report made public	Data provided by the Australian Institute of Health and Welfare, internal tracking and reporting mechanisms Annual Internal tracking and reporting mechanisms Annual Australian Bureau of Statistics data, internal tracking and reporting One-off

Efficiency

Indicator	Target	Information source and reporting frequency
Proportion of National Mental Health Strategy projects completing in the year that do so on time and within Budget (Priority Outcome 5; Strategy 2)	90 per cent	Internal tracking and reporting mechanisms Annual
The ratio of running cost expenditure to program expenditure for National Mental Health Strategy and youth suicide programs (Priority Outcomes 3, 5; Strategies 2,3)	Running costs three per cent of total program expenditure	Internal tracking and reporting mechanisms Annual

Quality

Indicator	Target	Information source and reporting frequency
Per cent of agreed quality targets actually achieved by States and Territories (Priority Outcomes 1, 5; Strategy 1)	100 per cent or reasonable explanation provided by States and Territories for inability to perform	Reporting requirements of Schedule F1 of the Medicare Agreements National Survey of Mental Health and Well-Being Advice from Australian Council of Healthcare Standards and the Community Health Association Standards Program Annual
Stakeholder satisfaction with administration of National Mental Health and Youth Suicide prevention projects funded by the Commonwealth (Priority Outcome 1, 5; Strategy 2)	High level of satisfaction	Ad hoc feedback
Consumer and carer satisfaction with planning processes for mental health and youth suicide prevention national projects (Priority Outcome 1, 3; Strategy 2)	High level of satisfaction	Ad hoc feedback and formal feedback from the Ministerial consumer/carer advisory group reported in the National Mental Health Report Annually

Equity

Indicator

Target

Information source and reporting frequency

Per cent of agreed access targets for special needs groups including Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander peoples as set out in schedule F1 of the Medicare Agreements achieved by States and Territories

(Priority Outcome 1, 5; Strategy 1)

100 per cent in each case or reasonable explanation provided by States and Territories for inability to perform

Reporting requirements of Schedule F1 of the Medicare Agreements

National Survey of Mental Health and Well-being

Annual

Performance assessment: evaluation

In consultation with States, Territories, nongovernment service providers, consumers and carers, an evaluation of the effectiveness and appropriateness of the National Mental Health Strategy, including an identification of implications for future policies, programs and funding, is being undertaken. It is anticipated that the evaluation will be completed by October 1997 for consideration by Health Ministers.

How the program is resourced: reconciliation of appropriations to the program and summary of portfolio outlays (Excel 73 KB)

Variations to Program Outlays 1996-97 to 1997-98 (Excel 31 KB)