This report summarises indicators from the mental health management data tables of the Report on Government Services 2020—supplemented with data from other sources—and compares South Australia to the other states and territories and national averages across the domains of: risk and resilience factors; services activity; patient outcomes; workforce and carers; capacity and utilisation; safety, quality and consumer experience; and costs.

The report finds that monitoring and reporting of mental health access and outcomes in South Australia could be improved, with priority attention required in three important areas:

1. There is an inability to report multilayered, timely data for: (i) high-needs geographic areas; (ii) specific and vulnerable population groups; and (iii) distribution of workforce in a cohesive way. Data gaps in these areas need urgent attention before monitoring and reporting can claim to be representative of the population.
2. Consumer experience of mental health treatment and rehabilitation services is a critical gap in the state’s monitoring and reporting of mental health outcomes. The Council could make no assessment of South Australia’s performance in relation to consumer experience of mental health care in this state due to no data made available by the public health system.
3. Mental health outcomes would be improved with better collaboration and data sharing between government agencies and departments, the private sector and non-government organisations. This is hampered, in part, by data systems that are outdated and not compatible with other technological infrastructure.