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Digital

Publication, Part of

Mental Health Bulletin: Annual report from MHMDS returns - England, 2011-12, further analysis and organisation-level data

Official statistics, Experimental statistics
Publication Date:
Geographic Coverage:
England
Geographical Granularity:
Mental Health Trusts, Independent Sector Health Care Providers, Clinical Commissioning Groups, Country, Primary Care Organisations, Care Trusts, NHS Trusts, Local Authorities, Regions, Sustainability and Transformation Partnerships, County
Date Range:
01 Apr 2011 to 31 Mar 2012

Summary

The figures in this annual report provide a more comprehensive picture of people using adult specialist mental health services than has been published before.  The new version of the dataset (MHMDS v4) that underpins this annual report was introduced in April 2011/12, with changes to the way some data was collected and processed and these have contributed to a significant increase in overall numbers. The report also uses the latest population figures from the 2011 census.

This report therefore contains a reduced set of time series analyses and effectively presents a new baseline for some established measures, particularly those relating to people only in contact with community services. 

For operational reasons the 2011/12 Bulletin has been published in two parts. The initial publication on February 19th 2013 contained a report and data tables based on national figures. This second release on 30th April 2013 adds organisational level analysis and a machine readable file of underlying data for some useful measures. It also introduces standardised rates of access at Primary Care Trust (PCT) level to specialist mental health services, based on 2011 Census data.

The Bulletin is intended to be useful to stakeholders (e.g. the Department of Health and service commissioners), data providers and users of our statistics (e.g. mental health organisations including charities, and service users and their representatives).

IMPORTANT:
In March 2013 we made some improvements to calculations and derived data items and the way in which time series were presented. Consequently changes were made to five tables; presentation of tables 1.1, 2.1 and 3.1, and an update to a derivation used in the construction of tables 2.1, 2.2 and 2.3 which resulted in an overall difference of 23 in the number of inpatients subject to the Mental Health Act during the year (and in minor differences with quoted figures in the report).

In April we reissued the national level tables in a clearer format following a full review of table design (which will be used going forward). These include the improved derivations used in March, and add an improved derivation to tables 4.1 and 4.2 which result in a 1.5% difference (106,966) in bed days which had gender information recorded,, and a revision has been made to the calculation used to produce crude rates of access to NHS funded inpatient care per 100 mental health service users in table 1.6 (a difference at England level of 0.19).

Highlights

  • Over 1.5 million people were in contact with specialist mental health services in 2011/12 and the rate of access to services is 3,032 per 100,000 population (approximately one person in 32 in England).
  • A third (33.8 per cent) of people who use specialist mental health services are aged 65 or over (530,833). This is double the proportion who are aged 65 or over in the general population (16.3 per cent of people).
  • The number of people spending time in an NHS hospital during the year was the lowest ever recorded in MHMDS (99,098) and this appears consistent with a fall in the average number of occupied beds from 21,076 in 2010/11 to 18,924  in 2011/12

A special feature in this year's report uses a linked dataset (based on MHMDS and ONS mortality data) to compare mortality rates of those in contact with mental health services with the general population in 2010/11. This is the first time that it has been possible to use routinely collected administrative data at a national level for this purpose and the analysis shows that:

  • People in contact with specialist mental health services have a mortality rate that is 3.6 times as high as the general population at 4007.8 per 100,000 (83,393 deaths in total) compared to 1,121.8 per 100,000 in the general population.
  • By age, the difference in mortality rates was largest among people aged 30-39, where the mortality rate for people in contact with services was nearly five times as high as the general population at 300.4 per 100,000, compared with 63.2 per 100,000 in the general population.
  • Rate of death was higher for people aged 19 and over using services than for the general population across all underlying causes (using ICD10 Chapters), but particularly for mental and behavioural disorders and diseases of the nervous system, such as Alzheimer's disease.
  • It is also noticeable that rates were at least twice as high in the under 75 age group for lifestyle-related diseases including:
  • Nearly four times the general population rate of deaths from diseases of the respiratory system (at 142.2 per 100,000 service users, compared with 37.3 per 100,000 in the general population).
  • Just over four times the general population rate of deaths from diseases of the digestive system (at 126.1 per 100,000, compared with 28.5 per 100,000 in the general population).
  • 2.5 times the general population rate of deaths from diseases of the circulatory system (at 254.0 per 100,000 compared with 101.1 per 100,000 in the general population).

Resources

Last edited: 20 May 2019 1:23 pm