Glossary

An Aboriginal and/or Torres Strait Islander person is someone who has identified as being of Aboriginal and/or Torres Strait Islander origin.
Most data collections base this definition on people having identified themselves or having been identified by another household member.
Some data collections also require information on acceptance of a person as being Indigenous by an Indigenous community. See also Indigenous

An ACCHO/ACCHS supports Aboriginal community control of health service delivery and decision-making that is based on the Aboriginal holistic definition of health.

It delivers a holistic and culturally appropriate health service to the community that controls it. It is:

• an incorporated Aboriginal organisation
• initiated by a local Aboriginal community
• based in a local Aboriginal community
• governed by an Aboriginal body which is elected by the local Aboriginal community.

Community control allows the local Aboriginal community to determine the protocols or procedures to be used in managing its affairs. It has its origins in Aboriginal peoples’ right to self-determination.

Acceptable standard of living is a term used by the NATSIHS and NATSISS to describe households that have:

• no more than 2 major structural problems and
• 4 separate working facilities for:
  • washing people
  • washing clothes/bedding
  • storing/preparing food
  • sewerage

An administrative data collection is information collected for the purposes of delivering a service or paying the provider of the service.

An admission to hospital is the start of a hospitalisation. The term hospitalisation is used to describe an episode of hospital care that starts with the formal admission process and ends with the formal separation process.

In the context of mental health care, admitted care settings are where overnight care is provided in either:

• a psychiatric hospital by specialised mental health services
• an acute hospital by a specialised mental health unit.

An age-standardised rate is a rate adjusted to take account of differences in age composition when rates for different populations are compared. This removes the influence of age differences when comparing rates from different groups.

In the context of mental health care, ambulatory care settings are where care is provided to people who are not currently admitted to a mental health or residential service.

These settings include community mental health services and hospital‑based ambulatory care services, such as outpatient and day clinics. See also non-admitted.

ASGS is used to identify geographic areas in Australia. It is defined by the Australian Bureau of Statistics for use in collecting and disseminating geographically classified statistics.

Burden of disease analysis is a measure of the impact of different diseases or injuries on a population.
It combines the years of healthy life lost due to living with ill health (non-fatal burden) with the years of life lost due to dying prematurely (fatal burden). Fatal and non-fatal burden combined are referred to as total burden, reported as the disability-adjusted life years (DALYs) measure.

A care and protection order is a legal order or arrangement that gives child protection departments some responsibility for a child’s welfare. The level of responsibility varies with the type of order or arrangement. These orders include guardianship and custody orders, third-party parental responsibility orders, supervisory orders, interim and temporary orders, and other administrative arrangements.

The cause of death is the condition entered on the Medical Certificate of Cause of Death. This entry is the disease, morbid condition or injury that either resulted in or contributed to death, and the circumstances of the accident or violence that produced any such injuries.

Causes of death are commonly reported using the underlying cause of death.

A child is a person aged 0–14 years unless otherwise stated.

Children who are the subjects of an investigation of a notification, on a care and protection order or in out-of-home care are all receiving child protection services.

This term covers a diverse group of diseases and conditions that tend to be long lasting and persistent in their symptoms or development. Examples include heart disease, cancer and arthritis.
Although some communicable diseases (infectious diseases) are chronic, the term is usually confined to non-communicable (non-infectious) diseases.

The Closing the Gap agreement is a commitment made by Australian governments to improve the lives of Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander Australians. The agreement is available at closingthegap.gov.au.

Community control allows the local Aboriginal community to determine the protocols or procedures to be used in managing its affairs. It includes making decisions around health service delivery and the establishment of an Aboriginal Community Controlled Health Organisation/Service (ACCHO, ACCHS).
It has its origins in Aboriginal peoples’ right to self-determination.

Community mental health care refers to specialised mental health care that is provided by community mental health care services and hospital‑based ambulatory care services, such as outpatient and day clinics. It is funded and operated by government. See also service contact.

Country refers to an area of land or sea on which Indigenous people have a traditional or spiritual association.

Crude rates are defined as the number of events over a specified period (for example, a year) divided by the total population at risk of the event. Crude rates are not adjusted to account for variation in age structure between different populations, time periods or locations.

Disability is an umbrella term for any or all of the following:

• an impairment of body structure or function
• a limitation in activities
• a restriction in participation.

This is a measure used in burden of disease analysis. It is a year of healthy life lost, either through premature death, defined as dying before the expected life span at the age of death (YLL), or, equivalently, through living with ill health due to illness or injury (YLD). It is often used synonymously with ‘health loss’.

See burden of disease.

In the NATSIHS and NATSISS, the term employed is used to describe someone if they are 15 years and over and, in the week prior to interview, either:

• had a job or business, or
• worked without pay in a family business for a minimum of one hour.

An episode of care is the period of admitted patient care between an admission and a separation. In the context of residential mental health care, episodes are measured in days.

This is the official Australian Bureau of Statistics (ABS) estimate of the Australian population. The ABS derives the ERP from the 5-yearly Census counts. ERP is updated every 3 months from birth, death and net migration data.

Homelessness is a term used in the NATSIHS and NATSISS and refers to people who had previously been without ‘a permanent place to live’ for any of the following reasons:

• family or relationship breakdowns
• tight housing or rental market
• violence, abuse or neglect
• alcohol or drug use
• financial problems
• mental illness
• job loss
• gambling
• eviction
• natural disaster or other damage to house
• health issues.

See Data sources for more information about the NATSIHS and NATSISS.

A household is a group of people who usually reside in the same dwelling and make common provision for food or other essentials. A household can include just 1 person who lives by themselves. It can also include 2 or more related or unrelated people.

The term ‘Indigenous’ is used interchangeably with Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander on this website.

An Indigenous household is one that contains 1 or more Indigenous Australians.

The ICD is the World Health Organization’s internationally accepted classification of death and disease. The Tenth Revision (ICD-10) is currently in use. The ICD-10-AM is the Australian Modification of the ICD-10. It is used for diagnoses and procedures recorded for patients admitted to hospitals.

This is the process through which the relevant child protection agency gathers additional information about a child after a notification is received. Departmental staff assess the harm or degree of harm to the child and their protective needs. An investigation includes sighting or interviewing the child where practical.

For any group, this is the labour force expressed as a percentage of the civilian population aged 15 and over in the same group.

The labour force includes all people who are employed or unemployed (not employed but actively looking for work).

Lateral violence describes the way people (Indigenous and non-Indigenous) in positions of powerlessness covertly or overtly direct their dissatisfaction inward towards themselves, each other and those less powerful than themselves.

Life expectancy is the average number of years that people of a certain age would be expected to live if death rates at all ages remain as they are. Life expectancy at birth based on current death rates at all ages is a commonly used measure.

The lifetime risk alcohol consumption guidelines aim to provide evidence-based information to Australians about alcohol-related harm.

The guidelines advise healthy males and females to drink no more than 10 standard drinks in a week and no more than 4 standard drinks in a day to reduce the risk of harm from alcohol-related disease or injury over their lifetime.

A current long-term health condition is described by the NATSIHS and NATSISS as an illness, injury or disability that was current at the time of the interview, and had lasted at least 6 months or was expected to last for 6 months or more.

See Data sources for more information about the NATSIHS and NATSISS.

The median is the middle of a list of observations that have been ranked from the smallest to largest.

Mental health is a key component of health and wellbeing. It refers to our collective and individual ability to think, feel and interact with each other. Mental health is a state of wellbeing in which every person realises their own potential, can cope with the normal stresses of life, and is able to contribute to their community.

Mental health can affect and is affected by socioeconomic, biological and environmental factors. These can include a person’s access to services, living conditions, discrimination experienced and employment status. Mental health affects not only the individual but also their families and carers.

Mental and substance-use disorders are a class of disorders in the International Statistical Classification of Diseases and Related Health Problems. It includes mental health and behavioural conditions as well as other conditions such as autism spectrum disorder and cognitive impairment.

Mental health conditions interfere with a person’s cognitive, emotional or social abilities. They include a wide range of disorders that vary in severity, such as clinically diagnosable anxiety, affective, behavioural, psychotic and substance-use disorders.

A person can be negatively affected by their mental health without being clinically diagnosed with a mental health disorder. See also mental health.

A mental health or behavioural condition is a term used by the Australian Bureau of Statistics to refer to the following:

• depression (including feeling depressed)
• anxiety
• harmful use or dependence on alcohol or drugs
• behavioural or emotional problems, such as attention deficit hyperactivity disorder (ADHD), conduct disorders in children/adolescents and adults
• other mental health conditions, such as organic mental problems, other mood (affective) disorders, other anxiety related problems and psychological development.

Metadata is often called ‘data about data’. It is the underlying definition or structured description of the content, quality, condition or other characteristics of data.

Morbidity refers to the ill health of an individual and levels of ill health in a population or group.

Mortality refers to the number or rate of deaths in a population during a given time period.

The National Disability Insurance Scheme (NDIS) funds general support to all Australians who experience disability by referring them to other government services, and local or community-based supports.

For people with severe and persistent mental health issues, the NDIS provides individualised NDIS plans. These plans include mainstream supports (services provided by other government systems), informal supports (assistance from family, friends, carers and community) and funded support from the NDIS.

Non-admitted patients are patients who do not go through a hospital’s formal admission process. Most patients who receive care in emergency departments are non-admitted patients, and they may subsequently become admitted. See also ambulatory care settings and presentations.

The term ‘non-Indigenous’ refers to people who have declared that they are not of Aboriginal or Torres Strait Islander descent.

This is an educational qualification other than that of pre-primary, primary or secondary education.
Examples of non-school qualifications comprise:

• tertiary qualification—Bachelor degree, Master degree, Doctorate, a Graduate Diploma, Graduate Certificate
• a vocational qualification—Diploma, Advanced Diploma, Certificate I, II, III and IV (trade certificates).

In the NATSIHS and NATSISS, someone does not have a permanent place to live if they are not in stable accommodation for reasons other than one of the following:

• saving money
• work related reasons
• building or renovating their home
• travelling or on holidays
• house sitting
• having just moved back to the town or city.

A notification is contact made to an authorised department by people or other bodies alleging child abuse or neglect, child maltreatment or harm to a child.

For population studies, obesity is defined as a body mass index of 30 or over. See also overweight.

This is overnight care for children aged 0–17 for which the government offers a financial payment that can be accepted by a carer (but does not have to be accepted).

A dwelling is overcrowded if it needs extra bedrooms to house everyone who lives there. The term is defined by the Canadian National Occupancy Standard.

For the purpose of population studies, overweight is defined as a body mass index of 25 or over. See also obesity.

The owner of a dwelling can be either an:

• owner without a mortgage—if there is no mortgage or loan secured against the dwelling
• owner with a mortgage—if there is any outstanding mortgage or loan secured against the dwelling.

Postvention services support people who have been exposed or bereaved through suicide. These services aim to help reduce distress and the risk of suicide.

The presentation of a patient at an emergency department occurs following the arrival of the patient at the emergency department. It is the earliest occasion of being registered clerically, or triaged.

Mental health-related emergency department presentations are defined as presentations in public hospital emergency departments that have a principal diagnosis of mental and behavioural disorders. However, this does not include presentations of self-harm, which may have a principal diagnosis relating to the injury.

The number or proportion of a population who have a specific characteristic in a given time period.

This is the diagnosis established after study to be chiefly responsible for occasioning an episode of patient care (hospitalisation), an episode of residential care or an attendance at the health care establishment.

Protective factors enhance the likelihood of positive outcomes and reduce the chance of negative consequences from exposure to risk.

Psychiatric disability is defined in the AIHW’s Disability Services National Minimum Data Set (DSNMDS) data guide. It includes recognisable symptoms and behaviour patterns, frequently associated with distress, which may impair personal functioning in normal social activity.

Psychiatric disability includes the typical effects of conditions such as schizophrenia, affective disorders, anxiety disorders, addictive behaviours, personality disorders, stress, psychosis, depression and adjustment disorders.

Psychological disability is the term used in the NATSISS to describe disability due to a mental health condition. A disability refers to a limitation, impairment, disease or disorder that lasted or was likely to last for at least 6 months or more, and restricts everyday activities.

See Data sources for more information about the NATSIHS and NATSISS.

Psychological distress is usually measured using the Kessler Psychological Distress Scale—10 items (K10).
The K10 questionnaire was developed to yield a global measure of psychosocial distress. It is based on questions about people’s level of nervousness, agitation, psychological fatigue and depression in the past 4 weeks. The Kessler 5 Scale (K5) is a subset of five questions from the K10.

A rate is a way of comparing 2 values. For example, the rate of hospital admissions in a community would be the number of hospital admissions in a community divided by the total number of people in the same community. If 20 people in a community of 15,000 people were admitted to hospital in a reporting period, the rate would be 20/15,000 = 0.0013 (or 0.13%).

Rates are often expressed as whole numbers. For the hospital admissions example, this calculation would be reported as 13 hospitalisations per 10,000 people.
See unemployment rate for another example.

These regions are defined by the Australian Statistical Geographical Standard (ASGS) and based on the Accessibility/Remoteness Index of Australia which uses the road distance to goods and services (such as general practitioners, hospitals and specialist care) to measure relative accessibility of regions around Australia.

Each state and territory is divided into regions based on their relative accessibility to goods and services (such as to general practitioners, hospitals and specialist care) as measured by road distance.
These regions are based on the Accessibility/Remoteness Index of Australia and defined as Remoteness Areas by either the Australian Standard Geographical Classification (ASGC) (before 2011) or the Australian Statistical Geographical Standard (ASGS) (from 2011 onwards) in each Census year. The 5 Remoteness Areas are Major cities, Inner regional, Outer regional, Remote and Very remote.

Residential mental health care refers to residential care provided by residential mental health services. A residential mental health service is a specialised mental health service that:

• employs mental health trained staff onsite
• provides overnight rehabilitation, treatment or extended care to residents in a domestic‑like environment
• encourages the residents to take responsibility for their daily living activities.

A risk factor is any attribute, characteristic or exposure that increases the likelihood of a person developing a health condition or experiencing an event.

Self-determination is the process by which communities control their destinies, particularly in relation to political status and economic, social and cultural development. For the people in Indigenous communities, this means the freedom to live well and according to their own values and beliefs.

A separation is an episode of care for an admitted patient, which can be a total hospital stay (from admission to discharge, transfer or death) or a portion of a hospital stay beginning or ending in a change of type of care (for example, from acute care to rehabilitation).

Separation also means the process by which an admitted patient completes an episode of care either by being discharged, dying, transferring to another hospital or changing type of care.

In the context of community mental health care, a mental health service contact is the provision of a clinically significant service by a specialised mental health service provider for patients. Any one patient can have one or more service contacts. Service contacts include face-to-face communication as well as telephone, video link or other forms of direct communication. Service contacts can be with the patient or with a third party, such as a carer or family member, or other professional or mental health workers or other service providers.

For Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander people, good health is more than the absence of disease or illness.

Social and emotional wellbeing is a holistic concept that includes mental health and physical illness. It also encompasses the importance of connection to land, culture, spirituality and ancestry, and how these affect the wellbeing of the individual and the community.

Social determinants of health refer to the circumstances in which people are born, grow up, live, work and age, and the systems put in place to deal with illness. These circumstances are in turn shaped by a wider set of forces: economics, social policies and politics.

Social housing is rental housing that is funded, or partly funded, by government and is owned or managed by the government or a community organisation. There are 4 main social housing programs in Australia:

• public rental housing
• state owned or managed Indigenous housing (SOMIH)
• mainstream community housing
• Indigenous community housing.

Assistance provided specifically to people who are experiencing homelessness or who are at risk of homelessness.

Assistance provided specifically to people who are experiencing homelessness or who are at risk of homelessness.

The Stolen Generations are the current survivors of the Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander children who had been removed from their families and communities as a result of government policies across Australian jurisdictions in the 20th century.

When a notification of abuse, neglect, maltreatment or harm to a child is made, it is investigated by the authorised department.

The notification is substantiated if it is concluded that there was reasonable cause to believe that the child had been, was being, or was likely to be, abused, neglected or otherwise harmed.
Substantiation does not require sufficient evidence for a successful prosecution and does not imply that treatment or case management was provided. Substantiations also include cases where there is no suitable caregiver, such as when children have been abandoned or their parents are deceased.

Suicidal behaviours include having thoughts about suicide (suicidal ideation), planning suicide and attempting suicide.

Suicidal ideation refers to a person having thoughts about ending their own life. These thoughts may vary in intensity and duration.

A deliberate action intended to end one’s own life.

This is the disease or injury that initiated the sequence of events leading directly to death, or the circumstances of the accident or violence that produced the fatal injury. See also cause of death.

In the NATSIHS and NATSISS, people aged 15 years and over are unemployed if they were not employed but were actively looking for work in the 4 weeks prior to interview, and were available to start work in the previous week.
See Data sources for more information about the NATSIHS and NATSISS.

This is the number of unemployed people as a proportion of the labour force.

The area of the address at which the deceased lived or intended to live, for 6 months or more prior to death.