National Outcomes and Casemix Collection

Outcomes measurement

Under the Australian Health Care Agreements, Health Ministers agreed to the introduction of routine consumer outcomes measurement in mental health services nationally. South Australia has received Commonwealth funds to enable it to deliver on this initiative.

A significant component of the initiative included upgrading current information systems to support the collection. This initiative is known as the National Outcomes and Casemix Collection (NOCC). The scope is all inpatient, ambulatory and 24-hour community residential mental health services, nationally.

Why is outcomes measurement important?

Improving mental health service outcomes is a primary goal of the National Mental Health Strategy. To advance this, there is a need for consumer outcomes to be reviewed on a regular basis. The collection of routine outcomes measures allows mental health services to review the effectiveness of treatments that are delivered. We use this data to continue to improve mental health services.

Australian Mental Health Outcomes and Classification Network (AMHOCN)

The AMHOCN site aims to support the implementation of routine consumer outcome measurement in Australia's public mental health sector. The purpose of outcomes measurement is to improve the quality of mental health services through better understanding and use of information about the outcomes for consumers.

The site provides key resources on mental health outcomes and case complexity measurement and provides a forum for sharing ideas, views and experience.

The site is intended to be used by:

  • clinicians
  • managers
  • consumers
  • carers
  • policy makers
  • researchers and all other interested stakeholders.

NOCC forms

Information for consumers

The Australian Mental Health and Outcomes Classification Network and the Royal Australian and New Zealand College of Psychiatrists collaborated on the development of a consumer focussed brochure to explain outcome measurement and how it is used in mental health services in Australia, "How do we measure change in mental health"

Information for clinicians

AMHOCN resources

  • AMHOCN Online Outcome and Casemix Measures Training: AMHOCN now provides an opportunity for staff working in Australian Public Sector Mental Health Services to undertake online training in the measures that make up the National Outcomes and Casemix Collection.
  • AMHOCN Training Resources: Protocols, Clinician Rated Measures, Training Manuals and PowerPoint Presentations
  • Expert Panels: A National Mental health Information Development Expert Advisory Panel has been created and will meet three times per year. Population specific advisory panels will mainly meet via teleconference or communicate via other electronic means but which might also meet once per year. These advisory panels will be:
  • Child and Adolescent Mental Health Information Development Expert Advisory Panel
  • Adult Mental Health Information Development Expert Advisory Panel
  • Older Persons Mental Health Information Development Expert Advisory Panel
  • Forensic Mental Health Information Development Expert Advisory Panel
  • Decision Support Tool: The NOCC Decision Support Tool is an application written in MS-Access 2000 that contains aggregated data derived from the Australian Mental Health National Outcomes and Casemix Collection submissions from each State and Territory in Australia. The application has a user interface designed to assist clinicians and service managers working in Mental Health in Australia to compare their own clients against normative data collected across the whole of Australia.
    The tables in the application can be accessed by other applications using Open Database connectivity (ODBC) drivers, or ADO/OLE-DB drivers, for MS-Access 2000.

Kessler 10 Consumer Self Rating Tool

The Kessler 10 is a short measure of non-specific psychological distress based on questions about the level of nervousness, agitation, psychological fatigue and depression.

Other related links

National Minimum Data Sets