Women, the elderly and black people among those most likely to use specialist mental health services, says new report

The elderly, women and people who are black, widowed or single are more likely to use NHS specialist mental health services, according to a ground-breaking report from The NHS Information Centre out today.

Mental Health Bulletin 2008/09 - Third report from Mental Health Minimum Dataset (MHMDS) annual returns, 2004-2009 presents new analyses that shows for the first time the effect that age, gender, marital status and ethnicity have on rates of access to mental health services. It also looks at service use in different parts of England.

One of the aims of the report is to help NHS trusts accurately identify local need and allocate resources effectively.

Among findings, the report shows that in 2008/09:

  • The number of people in contact with mental health services rose 2.7 per cent from 2007/08 to 1,222,400.
  • The number of people who were inpatients fell from 105,700 in 2007/2008 to 102,600, a fall of 3.0 per cent.
  • People are about ten times more likely to be in touch with services delivered outside hospital than to be an inpatient.
  • There is a continuing rise in the percentage of inpatients who were detained, with 31.8 per cent of inpatients spending some time detained under the Mental Health Act during the year

From its demographic analysis of service users, the report shows:

  • More women than men used mental health services, but more men than women were treated as inpatients.
  • People in the 75 and over age group were about twice as likely as the general population to use mental health services.
  • People who were widowed or single were more likely to access such services than their married or divorced counterparts.
  • Black and black British people were the ethnic group most likely to access services, compared to Asian and Asian British people who were the group least likely to use mental health services.
  • The rate of access to admitted care for black and black British people was nearly three times the rate for all ethnic groups.
  • In 2008-2009 53.9 per cent of the Black and Black British group who were inpatients during the year spent time spent time compulsorily detained in hospital, compared with 31.8 per cent of inpatients overall.

The NHS Information Centre's chief executive Tim Straughan said:

“With this bulletin we want to show how information from the Mental Health Minimum Dataset can be used to define the demographic characteristics of people using mental health services, to understand local need and plan and allocate resources for these services.

“The analyses published today shed new light on the types of people accessing services and their patterns of usage. For example, one theory for the high numbers of black people detained under the Mental Health Act was that they may not be accessing services until they reached a crisis point. However, this report shows that black people are using all mental health services, including those in the community, at a greater proportional rate than other ethnic groups.

“The bulletin underlines the extent to which older people are using services at a greater rate than those of working age. It also highlights differences in the extent to which people from different parts of the country are accessing services.”

The full report is at www.ic.nhs.uk/pubs/mhbmhmds0809.

  • Also published tomorrow is Statistics on drug misuse: England 2009 (www.ic.nhs.uk/pubs/drugmisuse09) which will include a range of previously published data on drugs misuse from a number of sources as well as new data from The NHS Information Centre's Hospital Episode Statistics showing numbers of drug-related hospital admissions for mental health and behavioural conditions for 2008/09.

ENDS

Notes to editors

  1. The NHS Information Centre is England's authoritative, independent source of health and social care information. It works with more than 300 health and social care providers nationwide to provide the facts and figures that help the NHS and social services run effectively. Its role is to collect data, analyse it and convert it into useful information which helps providers improve their services and supports academics, researchers, regulators and policymakers in their work. The NHS Information Centre also produces a wide range of statistical publications each year across a number of areas including: primary care, health and lifestyles, screening, hospital care, population and geography, social care and workforce and pay statistics.
  2. The Mental Health Bulletin is accompanied by the release of graphical trust level analyses for provider and commissioner organisations for 2008-2009 at MHMDS Online: http://www.mhmdsonline.ic.nhs.uk/. This includes ONS peer organisations comparisons for PCT level rates of access.

    Data tables can be downloaded from: www.ic.nhs.uk/pubs/mhbmhmds/dd and include some SHA level analyses.
  3. The Mental Health Minimum Dataset MHMDS includes data about NHS specialist mental health services for adults of working age and over 65. These are services which are part of secondary care and do not include the services delivered in primary care (for example at GP surgeries) or mental health services specifically for children and young people.
  4. Some elements of this publication have been labelled “experimental statistics”, which are new official statistics that are under going evaluation. A key part of the “Experimental Statistics” label is user engagement in the evaluation of those statistics, and The NHS IC invites readers to comment on this publication, which will help inform the next report. Comments may be sent to enquiries@ic.nhs.uk.
  5. For media enquiries please call 0845 257 6990 or contact: