The Public Reporting of Organizational Performance in Mental Health: Coming Soon to a Mental Health Service Near You

Abstract

Department of Psychiatry, University of Melbourne, School of Psychology and Psychiatry, Monash University, St Vincent ’ s Mental Health, St Vincent ’ s Health (Melbourne), Australia. E-mail: Tom.Trauer@ svhm.org.au The Fourth National Mental Health Plan [1] identifi ed fi ve priority areas for outcome and action, one of which is ‘ Accountability – measuring and reporting progress ’ . The desired outcome is that: ‘ The public is able to make informed judgements about the extent of mental health reform in Australia, including the progress of the Fourth Plan, and has confi dence in the information available to make these judgements. Consumers and carers have access to information about the performance of services responsible for their care across the range of health quality domains and are able to compare these to national benchmarks. ’ and the corresponding indicator for this outcome is ‘ The proportion of services publicly reporting performance data ’ (p. 81). On the same page it is noted that such reporting is not yet the norm, and there are no relevant data sets available at present. It is recognized that ‘ Consideration will need to be given to systematic means of monitoring progress against this indicator. ’ Given the relative underdevelopment of this area, and the fact that all mental health jurisdictions are now committed to the implementation of the Plan, it is timely to consider some of the issues concerning the public reporting of health performance data, especially as it relates to mental health. Our coverage begins with a consideration of the rationale for public reporting, followed by a consideration of its effects on different groups of stakeholders. We then