Comparative service levels in 24 hour staffed residential community services and in inpatient services

It is important to consider inpatient and community residential services data in tandem in order to gain a fuller understanding of how Australia has progressed in terms of levels of service availability. Table 5 provides a detailed view of the inpatient and residential service mix available for specific target populations in each jurisdiction in 2010‑11. When inpatient and community residential beds are combined, the average number of beds is 40 per 100,000. Two jurisdictions provide well above this per capita average – Tasmania at 58 per 100,000 and Victoria at 49 per 100,000. These states are among the lower providing states when public sector inpatient beds are considered in isolation, but their relatively high provision of beds in community residential settings – particularly those with 24 hour staffing – increases their overall per capita provision to above the other jurisdictions.

Another way of thinking about this is the relative proportions of all psychiatric beds that are located in the different settings. Nationally, 75% of all public sector beds are available in inpatient units, and 17% and 8% in 24 hour staffed and non‑24 hour staffed community residential units, respectively. There is considerable variation across jurisdictions, however, with Queensland and New South Wales being particularly heavily reliant on their inpatient units, and Tasmania, the Australian Capital Territory and Victoria providing less than 50% of their beds in these settings.

Table 5: Inpatient and community residential beds per 100,000 population, 2010-11

Table 5 is presented as 5 tables in this html version. It is a single table in the PDF version.

General adult

	NSW	Vic	Qld	WA	SA	Tas	ACT	NT	Nat avg
Acute inpatient	28.9	20.6	21.6	24.5	24.5	25.9	20.3	21.3	24.3
Non-acute inpatient	13.3	3.0	17.4	8.9	5.9	8.6	0.0	0.0	10.0
24 hour staffed residential	2.3	13.7	0.0	4.9	7.7	19.5	14.2	9.6	6.0
Non-24 hour staffed residential	0.5	9.7	0.0	14.0	1.8	24.6	15.4	0.0	5.0
Total general adult	45.0	46.9	39.0	52.2	39.9	78.7	49.9	31.0	45.3

Child and adolescent

	NSW	Vic	Qld	WA	SA	Tas	ACT	NT	Nat avg
Acute inpatient	4.5	5.4	4.9	3.7	3.4	0.0	0.0	0.0	4.4
Non-acute inpatient	1.9	0.0	1.4	1.1	0.0	0.0	0.0	0.0	1.0
24 hour staffed residential	0.5	0.0	0.0	0.0	0.0	0.0	6.3	0.0	0.3
Non-24 hour staffed residential	0.6	0.0	0.0	0.0	0.0	0.0	0.0	0.0	0.2
Total child and adolescent	7.5	5.4	6.3	4.8	3.4	0.0	6.3	0.0	5.9

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Older persons

	NSW	Vic	Qld	WA	SA	Tas	ACT	NT	Nat avg
Acute inpatient	17.6	28.1	9.0	40.7	26.8	0.0	39.6	0.0	21.3
Non-acute inpatient	18.6	0.0	25.2	7.1	26.4	0.0	0.0	0.0	13.9
24 hour staffed residential	1.8	81.9	0.0	0.0	0.0	39.6	13.2	0.0	22.5
Non-24 hour staffed residential	1.2	0.0	0.0	0.0	0.0	0.0	0.0	0.0	0.4
Total older persons	39.2	110.0	34.2	47.8	53.2	39.6	52.8	0.0	58.1

Forensic

	NSW	Vic	Qld	WA	SA	Tas	ACT	NT	Nat avg
Acute inpatient	2.5	2.2	0.0	1.7	0.6	4.9	0.0	0.0	1.7
Non-acute inpatient	2.3	1.3	1.8	0.4	2.4	0.0	0.0	0.0	1.6
Total forensic	4.8	3.5	1.8	2.1	3.0	4.9	0.0	0.0	3.4

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All beds

	NSW	Vic	Qld	WA	SA	Tas	ACT	NT	Nat avg
All inpatient	36.4	22.6	31.2	30.2	30.2	25.0	18.0	14.5	30.1
All 24 hour staffed residential	1.8	19.8	0.0	3.2	4.8	18.3	12.4	6.5	6.9
All non-24 hour staffed residential	0.6	6.1	0.0	9.1	1.1	15.1	10.5	0.0	3.2
Total	38.8	48.5	31.2	42.4	36.1	58.3	40.9	21.0	40.2