This publication is the fifth New Zealand Health Information Service mental health publication to present data from the Mental Health Information National Collection.

Data for clients seen by District Health Boards in the 2005 calendar year are presented, including information about client demographics and services provided.

Client services in 2005

• District Health Boards saw 89,913 mental health clients in 2005, as reported to the Mental Health Information National Collection.
• Just over half of the clients seen in 2005 were male (51.7 percent).
• Of the clients seen in 2005, 18.7 percent identified themselves as Māori, 4.0 percent as Pacific, 2.6 percent as Asian and 74.6 percent were in the Other ethnic group, which is a composite group of all other ethnicities.
• Māori had the highest age-standardised rate of clients seen for males (3072 per 100,000) and for females (2417 per 100,000).

• The most common services were individual treatment attendances, with 79,550 clients receiving this kind of service at least once in 2005 (88.5 percent).
• The second most common service was care co-ordination, with 35,240 clients receiving this service at least once during 2005 (39.2 percent).
• Community teams saw 49,248 clients in 2005, representing 54.8 percent of total clients seen.
• General practitioners were the most common source of referrals to mental health services (18,987 referrals). The second most common source of referrals was self or relative referrals (13,492 referrals). Together, referrals by general practitioners and by self or relative, made up just under half (49.8 percent) of the referrals made to the District Health Board mental health services in 2005.

• Access rates have decreased slightly, with 2243.4 clients seen per 100,000 population in 2001 to 2192.7 clients seen per 100,000 population in 2005.
• The number of contacts per client seen has increased from 16.0 contacts in 2001 to 18.0 contacts in 2005.
• The number of bednights per client seen has decreased from 5.1 bednights in 2001 to 4.3 bednights per client in 2005.

Related information

Mental Health

Māori Health

Pacific Peoples Health