MORTALITY OF PERSONS WHO ACCESSED MBS AND/OR PBS SUBSIDISED MENTAL HEALTH-RELATED TREATMENTS IN 2011

This section presents information on death rates of persons who accessed MBS and/or PBS subsidised mental health-related services or prescription medications (‘mental health-related treatments’) in 2011, and makes comparisons with death rates amongst the total Australian population. Death rates are presented as the number of deaths per 1,000 population. Readers whose main interest is deaths without reference to persons accessing mental health-related treatments should refer to Deaths, Australia (cat. no. 3302.0).

The age structure of the population who accessed mental health-related treatments in 2011 was considerably older than that of the total Australian population, with a median age of 49 years compared with 37 years respectively. Given the relationship between age and mortality, in which death rates increase with increasing age, death rates presented in this publication have been age standardised to allow comparisons between the two populations.