OECD Home › Health › Health policies and data › HCQI Care for Mental Disorders
The burden of mental illness is substantial. It has been estimated that the total burden of disability and premature death from mental illness is second only to cardiovascular disease. Mental health care is now a policy priority in many OECD Member states, coinciding with dramatic changes in the delivery of services for people with mental health needs. 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:
Cross-national data and related information for these indicators is available here.
The HCQI project is monitoring national information system infrastructures with a view to reassessing the feasibility of further indicator development in the medium term.
Related Documents
OECD Health Care Quality Indicators Project
Follow us
E-mail Alerts Blogs