None listed
Conditions
Brief summary
People with mental illness often have to accept medication and other treatments in the community through the use of community treatment orders (CTOs). Yet forced treatment remains one of the most contentious issues in mental health service delivery; its efficacy is unresolved, its usage is irregular and unequal, and it raises serious ethical and human rights concerns. Responses to these debates must be informed by valid and reliable data. This study will be the first to investigate the justifications for CTOs across Australia to allow greater understanding of the variance in rates of CTOs and enable appropriate action by stakeholders. The primary aim of this study is to analyse data on the sociodemographic and clinical features of people on CTOs across Australia comparing similar services across Australia to understand the wide variation in their use nationwide.
Interventions
Community Treatment Orders (CTOs) enforce mental health treatment and have been signalled by some as a serious violation of human rights while others consider them as necessary protection. Australia has high rates by world standards, and variations in rates of use occur within jurisdictions that remain unexplained. This project aims to explain the drivers underpinning variations in the use of CTOs.
This is a retrospective cohort study of prevalence using aggregated administrative health data fr
Community Treatment Orders (CTOs) enforce mental health treatment and have been signalled by some as a serious violation of human rights while others consider them as necessary protection. Australia has high rates by world standards, and variations in rates of use occur within jurisdictions that remain unexplained. This project aims to explain the drivers underpinning variations in the use of CTOs. This is a retrospective cohort study of prevalence using aggregated administrative health data from the Australian Institute of Health and Welfare (AIHW). We examined the prevalence of CTO use amongst people with contact with community mental health services in Queensland, New South Wales, Victoria and South Australia during 2018. The data were further stratified by age, sex, First Nations status, region of birth, and marital status. Health districts within the state jurisdictions were ranked relative to CTO prevalence (i.e., high CTO users vs low CTO users).
Sponsors
NHMRC
Eligibility
Sex/Gender
All
Age
18 Years to No maximum
Healthy volunteers
No
Inclusion criteria
All patients aged 18 years or older (as of 01/01/2018) who had a new or existing CTO between 01/01/2018 - 31/12/2018, based on aggregated AIHW data.
Exclusion criteria
None.
Outcome results
None listed