The interpretation of beds: More bedtime stories, or maybe they’re dreaming?

Alan Rosen*, Daniel Rock, Luis Salvador-Carulla

*Corresponding author for this work

    Research output: Contribution to journalComment/debatepeer-review

    9 Citations (Scopus)

    Abstract

    The Australian mental health system is weathering a deep crisis that places us at a critical juncture. The decisions to be made in the coming months could have adverse impact for dec-ades. The Allison et al. (2020) paper tackles two critical issues in this pro-cess, though largely based on argua-ble premises: (a) the number of psychiatric hospital beds needed, and (b) the role of the National Mental Health Services Planning Framework (NMHSPF) as a planning tool for the public resourcing of mental health services.Local estimates based on the Atlases of Integrated Mental Health Care (Romero-López-Alberca et al., 2019) partially support Allison’s claim. The number of acute beds in Western Europe is broadly similar to that in Australia, but the number of subacute and non-acute hospital beds and the number of community residential beds are fewer in Australia. However, there is a substantial difference between stating that ‘the total availa-bility of non-acute psychiatric beds in Australia is lower than in country “X”’, and inferring from this that ‘psy-chiatric non-acute beds should be increased by N% in the health district “Y”’. Such national figures provide no useful indication of a local mental health system’s need for hospital beds or effective community alternatives.
    Original languageEnglish
    Pages (from-to)1154-1156
    Number of pages3
    JournalAustralian and New Zealand Journal of Psychiatry
    Volume54
    Issue number12
    DOIs
    Publication statusPublished - Dec 2020

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