Source data: Medicare-subsidised mental health-specific services 2019–20 tables (740KB XLSX)
Services provided via telehealth during the COVID-19 pandemic
During the course of the COVID-19 pandemic, the Australian Government introduced a wide range of additions to the MBS to support provision of care via telehealth, to help reduce the risk of community transmission of COVID-19 and provide protection for both patients and health care providers. These items include mental health services provided by GPs, psychiatrists, psychologists and allied health workers.
Nearly 1.5 million (11.8%) services were provided via telehealth (phone or video) in 2019–20. Psychiatrists and clinical psychologists provided a higher proportion of Medicare-subsidised mental health-specific services via telehealth than other types of providers (14.6% and 14.4% respectively), and GPs provided the lowest proportion of mental health MBS services via telehealth (8.2%). For more detail about the use of telehealth services during the pandemic, more information can be found in the Mental health impact of COVID-19 section.
Use of services during the beginning of the COVID-19 pandemic
New analyses of the Medicare-subsidised mental health-specific services by quarter have been included to show seasonal variations in service use, and provide more insight into the impact of events such as the COVID-19 pandemic. These include service and person counts disaggregated by provider type, age group and sex (Tables MBS.24–MBS.27).
From 2015–16 to 2018–19 the number of people receiving Medicare-subsidised mental health-specific services and the number of services being delivered was consistently highest in the April–June period and lowest in the October–December period. Note that reduced service usage is typical during public holidays and particularly the Christmas/New Year period.
In 2019–20, an unseasonably low number of people used services in April–June, likely due to movement restrictions during lockdown periods. However, a relatively high number of services were still used, meaning more services were used per person in April–June (2.1) than in other quarters (1.8–1.9).
Providers show different patterns of activity over the year. Psychiatrists provide services to a relatively stable number of patients, while GPs and psychologists show more seasonal variations. The number of patients accessing GP provided mental health services typically peak in the January–March period, while the number of patients accessing psychologist provided services typically peak in the April–June period. However this pattern was not observed in 2019–20; it is too early to tell if this is a one-off change driven by lockdown restrictions.