Department of Health

Measuring consumer outcomes - practice guide for clinicians

Mental health resources to help clinicians measure and monitor consumer outcomes for better care.

Key messages

  • Victoria has been a national leader in the development of resources to help mental health clinicians measure and monitor the health outcomes of consumers, and ensure continuing improvements in service delivery.

Victoria has been a national leader in the development of resources to help mental health clinicians measure and monitor consumer health outcomes and ensure continuing improvements in service delivery.

The guide Outcome measurement in mental health provides clinical staff with strategies and techniques for collecting and using consumer outcomes in everyday practice.

The guide provides advice and instruction on collating the outcomes data required by the National Outcomes and Casemix Collection (NOCC) and ensuring that all consumers, carers and caregivers are apprised of the importance of this data –for both overall service quality and individual standards of care.

Outcome measures in daily clinical practice

In all mental health service settings, consumer outcomes are critical for informing assessment, review, referral and discharge processes. It is vital that consumer outcomes recorded by clinicians correspond with the information in the consumer's clinical file. There should also be an entry in the file to indicate whether a consumer self-assessment has been offered and the result of that offer.

Rating specific outcome measures

Clinicians who complete outcome measures and offer self-assessment measures to consumers require training in rating specific measures and offering self-assessment measures.

When using outcome measures, clinicians should refer to the relevant rating rules for the specific measurement instrument, bearing in mind that:

  • Outcome measures have different prescribed rating periods for different settings.
  • A comparison of different clinicians’ ratings is useful in cases where multiple staff members are familiar with an individual consumer.
Publications

Opportunities in practice - outcome measurement in mental health

This resource outlines strategies, principles and techniques for using consumer outcomes in clinical practice.
Publications

Outcome measurement in clinical mental health services

Reporting of outcomes data to the Commonwealth is a requirement of the Australian Health Care Agreement.

Reviewed 10 July 2024

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