This annual Mental Health Bulletin provides a comprehensive picture of people who used adult secondary mental health and learning disability services. This report is based on submissions made using version 4.1 of the Mental Health Minimum Dataset (MHMDS) between April and August 2014 and version 1.1 of the Mental Health and Learning Disabilities Dataset (MHLDDS) between September 2014 and March 2015. The changes between the MHMDS and the MHLDDS reflect the expansion in scope of the dataset to include people in contact with NHS funded or part funded learning disabilities services for the first time. This report also uses the most recent age/gender and ethnicity population data from the Office for National Statistics.
From these monthly submissions we produced a single file (the annual file) which removes duplication of episodic and record data that occurs between and within these monthly submissions. This follows the same approach we used in 2011/12 and 2012/13 when submissions were made every quarter.
Analysis of monthly submissions and associated data quality measures has already been released as monthly publications (around 10 weeks after the end of the month reported on). Our publication of March 2015 data (published in June 2015) included initial analysis of annual data, allowing users of our annual data access much earlier than usual. These monthly publications can be accessed through the link at the bottom of this page.
For consistency, much of the information produced in this report and reference tables are updates to those produced in last year's publication, allowing the reader to compare this year's data to previous years. This is the second year we have been able to provide analysis at Clinical Commissioning Group (CCG) level, which has allowed us to produce time series information at this level for the first time.
Other time series have been maintained at a high level within our reference tables, but in many places analysis has been limited to 2011/12 as the earliest time period. This is because significant changes were made to the MHMDS in this year (moving from version 3.5 to version 4.0) which means that information before this is not directly comparable. Additionally, the expansion in scope of the dataset to include people in contact with learning disability services means that local knowledge may be required to interpret changes in the information presented between 2013/14 and 2014/15.
Demographic analysis (age, gender and ethnicity) is presented for 2014/15 at national level and at subnational level where numbers allow. The reader is advised to consult previous publications (as appropriate) for historical data.
The 2014-15 Mental Health Bulletin is published on the same day as the Inpatients Formally Detained in Hospitals Under the Mental Health Act 1983 and Patients Subject to Supervised Community Treatment, England - 2014-2015 report. Whilst the Inpatients formally detained... report remains the official source of figures for the year, this publication presents several complementary measures, broken by age, gender, ethnic group and CCG - detail that is not available from the collection that Inpatients formally detained... is based upon.