The burden of mental illness is substantial. It has been estimated that mental and behavioural disorders accounted for 7.4% of healthy years lost due to disability worldwide in 2010. Mental health care is a policy priority in many OECD Member states as the burden attributable for this group of disease is growing. The HCQI project has identified mental health care as a priority area for further quality of care indicator development, to build on the existing indicators relating to health workforce (e.g. psychiatrists) and health status (e.g. suicide). Through the use of a structured review process, expert panels have previously evaluated and recommended indicators related to quality of mental health care for further consideration.

A survey of countries participating in this aspect of the HCQI project subsequently revealed that systems of care vary markedly across countries and the availability of national indicator data suitable for international comparison is limited at this time.

The following quality of care indicators, developed through the HCQI project, are currently considered suitable for international comparison:

• In-patient suicides among people diagnosed with a mental disorder
• In-patient suicides among people diagnosed with schizophrenia or bipolar disorder
• Deaths after discharge from suicide among people diagnosed with a mental disorder
• Deaths after discharge from suicide among people diagnosed with schizophrenia or bipolar disorder
• Excess mortality for patients with schizophrenia

The HCQI project is monitoring national information system infrastructures with a view to refine definitions of these indicators and to improve cross-national comparability.

DATA

The HCQI indicators are published within Health at a Glance 2017: Chapter 6 on Quality and Outcomes of Care.

Additional indicators are also available in the OECD Health Statistics database in the Health Care Quality Indicators dataset in OECD.Stat in the query Mental Health Care.

PUBLICATIONS

• Making Mental Health Count: The Social and Economic Costs of Neglecting Mental Health Care
• Information Availability for Measuring and Comparing Quality of Mental Health Care Across OECD Countries (Health Technical Paper No. 20)
• Selecting Indicators for the Quality of Mental Health Care at the Health Systems Level in OECD Countries (Health Technical Papers No. 17)
  
  

CONTACT

Ms. Rie Fujisawa: rie.fujisawa@oecd.org