1. 2023-24 CMHC NMDS

1.1. Essential definitions

Scope - Community mental health care NMDS 2023-24 (METEOR ID 756067).

Statistical unit - Mental health service contact (METEOR ID 727358).

1.2. Changes for 2023-24

The specific detailed changes to the 2023-24 (version 5.51) specifications, compared to 2022-23 (version 5.50) are listed below.

1.2.1. Changes to the data model

No changes to the data model have been made.

1.2.2. Changes to definitions

The definitional changes to the 2023-24 specifications, compared to 2022-23 are listed in Table 1.1.

Table 1.1 Changes made to 2023-24 definitions compared to 2022-23

Data items	Details	Rationale
Person—marital status, code N	Updated Guide for use, Collection methods, Comments, and Reference documents.	Updated to clarify the value domain definitions and refer to the most recent ABS Family, Household and Income Unit Variables.
Community mental health care NMDS 2023–24	Sex and Gender added to the list of glossary items.	These glossary items are included in the Person—sex, code X data element.

1.3. Reporting service provider entities

The reporting of service entities aims to create relationships between the mental health NMDSs, and where possible, the National Outcomes and Casemix Collection (NOCC), Local Hospital Networks/Public Hospital Establishments (PHE) NMDS and Admitted Patient Care (APC) NMDS (see Table 1.2).

The identifiers used in the CMHC NMDS are:

• State or territory (1 character)

• Region (2 characters)

• Specialised mental health service (4 characters)

• Service unit cluster (5 characters)

• Service unit (6 characters)

Table 1.2 Reporting requirements for mental health and related NMDSs

Identifier element names	METEOR identifier	Community mental health care NMDS	Residential mental health care NMDS	Mental health establishments NMDS	Public hospital establishments NMDS	Admitted patient care NMDS
Australian State or Territory identifier	720081	Yes	Yes	Yes	Yes	Yes
Region identifier	269940	Yes	Yes	Yes	Yes	Yes
Specialised mental health service organisation identifier	404186	Yes	Yes	Yes	No	No
Hospital/Service unit cluster identifier	722233 (MHE) / 404858 (MHE, CMHC & RMHC)	Yes	Yes	Yes	Yes	Yes
Service unit identifier	721740 (MHE) / 750360 (MHE, CMHC) / 722711 (MHE, RMHC)	Yes	Yes	Yes	No	No

The use of identical identifiers between the various mental health data sets is tested via the Mental Health Establishments Skeleton file (SKL), handled by the Online Validator. The reports section of the CMHC submission will highlight any mismatches which should be rectified either through re-supply of the Skeleton file, or adjustment to the CMHC submission.

The following section explores in more detail the reporting levels used in the CMHC NMDS.

1.3.1. State or territory

This level refers to the state or territory and should be reported using the State/Territory identifier data element.

1.3.2. Region

The region refers to an administrative concept not a geographical one. States and territories may have one or more regions into which the state or territory is divided and to which its mental health service organisations belong. Region would be reported using the Region identifier (RegId) data element. In the smaller states or in the territories there may only be one or no region. In these cases, the Region identifier is to be reported as ‘00’ and the Region name (RegName) would repeat the name of the state or territory.

1.3.3. Organisation

The organisation is defined according to the Object class Specialised mental health service organisation (METEOR identifier 286449) and reported using the Organisation Identifier (OrgId) data element. An organisation is a separately constituted specialised mental health service that is responsible for the clinical governance, administration and financial management of service units providing specialised mental health care. An organisation may consist of one or more service units based in different locations.

1.3.4. Service unit cluster

A specialised mental health service organisation may consist of one or more clusters of service units providing services in admitted patient, residential and ambulatory settings. For example, a specialised mental health service organisation may consist of several hospitals (clusters of admitted patient service units) and/or two or more ambulatory or residential service clusters (for example, a cluster of child and adolescent ambulatory service units, and a cluster of aged residential service units).

To allow service units (as defined below) to be reported individually, but still to be identified as part of a cluster, a separate reporting level has been created called ‘Service unit cluster’.

Ambulatory service units will not necessarily belong to a ‘cluster’. However, for some ambulatory service units, the cluster the service unit belongs to may be a hospital that contains both an admitted patient and an ambulatory service unit. In this instance the Service unit cluster identifier for ambulatory service unit would be the Hospital identifier. Other groups of ambulatory service units could also be usefully reported as clusters. For example, clusters may exist of groups of ambulatory services for children and adolescents in particular geographical areas. However, where there is no requirement for a service unit cluster, then all service units within the organisation should be identified under a Service unit cluster identifier reported as ‘00000’ and the Service Unit Cluster name would use the relevant organisation name.

1.3.5. Service units

The reporting of service units is at the discretion of states and territories. Service units with differing target populations must be reported separately. For example, if a service unit cluster or organisation provided two or more child and adolescent ambulatory service units, jurisdictions have discretion on whether these are reported as one combined child and adolescent ambulatory service unit, or reported as multiple individual service units. However, identification of service units should not combine target populations—there is no code available to identify ‘mixed’ target populations. Therefore, where a service entity provides discrete and specifically funded programs for multiple target populations, each of these should be identified as a separate service unit.

Comparison with the MHE NMDS is undertaken using the SKL file. At a minimum, the combination of Organisation and Target population must be the same between the CMHC and MHE submissions. For example, multiple Child and adolescent services within and organisation may be reported in the CMHC file, however, may be rolled together for the MHE submission, and vice versa.

1.3.6. Sector

Sector is not considered part of the identifier. Within this NMDS, sector is an attribute of each service unit.

1.3.7. Consistency of identifiers across reference periods

Where no major service reorganisations have occurred, the region, organisation, service unit cluster and service unit identifiers (RegId, OrgId, ClusId, SUId) used by a jurisdiction should be preferably identical to the previous year. However, given that all jurisdictions have committed to aligning ID numbers between the different NMDS’s, changes in ID numbers due to this process will be accepted, as will be the case for those jurisdictions that have undergone significant reorganisation of service delivery that warrant new service entity identifiers. In these cases, jurisdictions should provide a supplementary mapping document that clearly illustrates the changes in ID numbers between collection periods, at all levels.

Region, organisation, service unit cluster and service unit name changes are acceptable, especially if the new name is more locally relevant. These will be identified as a change in the Online Validator, however will not affect the generation of the historical trends reports for CMHC in future.

1.4. Data model of the CMHC Extract

The basic design of the extract consists of a single data record for each Mental health service contact. Each Mental Health Service Contact ‘belongs’ to a Person (the patient or consumer of services), who in turn is linked to a Community mental health service unit (the provider of services), which may be linked to a Community mental health service unit cluster, which is linked to a Specialised mental health service organisation, which is linked to a Region which is linked to a State/Territory.

The structure of the data to be reported is represented in the data model shown in Fig. 1.1. In the model, a single Community mental health service unit has associated records for one or more Persons, who each may have one or more Mental health service contacts. Each of the seven data model building blocks (state/territory, region, organisation, service unit cluster, service unit, person, contacts) has a unique set of attributes which comprise the NMDS data elements and additional supplementary information.

It should be noted that non-volatile person-level data in respect of patients (Date of Birth, Sex, Country of Birth, Indigenous Status) are separated from person-level data items that may change between service contacts.

Fig. 1.1 Data model underlying the Community Mental Health Care NMDS data extract

1.5. Data integrity

For cases of missing data (that is, unknown, not stated or not available):

• For Numeric [Num] fields, the data should be reported as zero, using leading zeros when necessary to pad out the field to the required length. The principle here is that all numeric fields require a valid value.

• For Text [Char] fields, the data should be space-filled to the required length. For single character fields where a ‘missing/not stated’ value has been specified for a particular data element (for example, ‘9’ has been specified for missing data), use the stated value for ‘missing/not stated’ rather than simply space filling.

Values in Date [Date] fields must be recorded in compliance with the standard format used across the National health data dictionary; specifically, dates must be of fixed 8 column width in the format DDMMYYYY, with leading zeros used when necessary to pad out a value. For instance, 13 March 2024 would appear as 13032024.

Values in Numeric [Num] fields must be zero-filled and right-justified. These should consist only of the numerals 0 to 9 and the decimal (’.’) point if applicable to the data element.

Note: Fields defined as ‘Numeric’ are those that have numeric properties—that is, the values, for example, can be added or subtracted in a manner that is valid. Where a field uses numeric characters that do not have these properties (for example, the use of numbers for Patient identifier), the field is defined as ‘Character’.

Values in Character [Char] fields must be left justified and space-filled. These should consist of any of the printable ASCII character set (that is, excluding control codes such as newline, bell and linefeed).

1.6. Data set specification (DSS)

The following tables specify the order in which the data items should be provided to the AIHW.

The extract format consists of a set of hierarchically ordered Data records, of which there are six types (see Table 1.3):

• Region details records

• Organisation details records

• Service unit cluster details records

• Service unit details records

• Person details records

• Service contact records

In each extract file for any given period, the Data records must be preceded by a single File Header Record having the structure outlined below in Table 1.4.

All records presented in the extract file should be grouped in the following order: Header Record, Region details records, Organisation details records, Service unit cluster details records, Service unit details records, Person details records, followed by Service contact records.

With the exception of Region, Organisation and Service unit cluster details records, all Data records should include the following elements in the order shown:

• Record Type

• Establishment identifier (comprising: State/Territory identifier, Region identifier, Organisation identifier, Service unit cluster identifier and Service unit identifier)

• Specific data in the format specified for the given record type.

The order of fields in a record must be the same as the order they are specified in the Record Layouts below. Field values should be formatted as shown in the Record Layouts.

The first field in each record must be Record Type. Valid values are shown in Table 1.3.

Table 1.3 Valid values for Record Type

Record Type	Description
HR	File Header Record
REG	Region details records
ORG	Organisation details records
CLUS	Service unit cluster details records
SERV	Service unit details records
PER	Person details records
CON	Service contact details records

1.6.1. File header record

The first record of the extract file must be a File Header Record (Record Type = ‘HR’), and it must be the only such record in the file.

The File Header Record is a quality control mechanism, which uniquely identifies each file that is sent to the AIHW (that is, who sent the file, what date the file was sent, batch number of file, etc). The information contained in the header fields will be checked against the actual details of the file to ensure that the file received has not been corrupted.

The layout of the File Header Record is shown in Table 1.4.

Table 1.4 Record Layout for File Header record within the data extract

Data Element (Field Name)	Type [Length]	Start	METEOR Identifier	Notes / Values
Record Type (RecType)	Char[8]	1	—	Value = HR
State/Territory Identifier (State) [1]	Char[1]	9	720081	1: New South Wales 2: Victoria 3: Queensland 4: South Australia 5: Western Australia 6: Tasmania 7: Northern Territory 8: Australian Capital Territory
Batch Number (BatchNo)	Char[9]	10	—	Represents the YYYYNNNNN component of the extract file name.
Report Period Start Date (RepStart)	Date[8]	19	—	Report period start date
Report Period End Date (RepEnd)	Date[8]	27	—	Report period end date
Data File Generation Date (GenDt)	Date[8]	35	—	Data file generation date
Data File Type (FileType)	Char[4]	43	—	Value = CMHC
CMHC Specification Version Number (SpecVer)	Char[5]	47	—	Value = 05.51

Record length = 51

Notes

[1]

METEOR includes code 9, but that is not applicable to the CMHC NMDS

1.6.2. Region data record

The extract format for the Data records is specified in detail in tables Table 1.4 to Table 1.10. The order of fields in each record must be the same as the order they are shown below. Field values should be formatted as specified.

Table 1.5 Data record layout - Region details

Data Element (Field Name)	Type [Length]	Start	METEOR Identifier	Notes / Values
Record Type (RecType)	Char[8]	1	—	Value = REG
State/Territory Identifier (State) [2]	Char[1]	9	720081	1: New South Wales 2: Victoria 3: Queensland 4: South Australia 5: Western Australia 6: Tasmania 7: Northern Territory 8: Australian Capital Territory
Region Identifier (RegId)	Char[2]	10	269940	AA: Region (values as specified by individual jurisdiction) Identifiers used in this collection should map to the identifiers used in the NMDS for Mental Health Establishments.
Region Name (RegName)	Char[60]	12	407187	Common name used to identify the Region.

Record length = 71

Notes

[2]

METEOR includes code 9, but that is not applicable to the CMHC NMDS

1.6.3. Organisation data record

Table 1.6 Data record layout - Organisation details

Data Element (Field Name)	Type [Length]	Start	METEOR Identifier	Notes / Values
Record Type (RecType)	Char[8]	1	—	Value = ORG
State/Territory Identifier (State) [3]	Char[1]	9	720081	1: New South Wales 2: Victoria 3: Queensland 4: South Australia 5: Western Australia 6: Tasmania 7: Northern Territory 8: Australian Capital Territory
Region Identifier (RegId)	Char[2]	10	269940	AA: Region (values as specified by individual jurisdiction) Identifiers used in this collection should map to the identifiers used in the NMDS for Mental Health Establishments.
Organisation Identifier (OrgId)	Char[4]	12	404186	AAAA: Mental health service organisation identifier. Identifiers used in this collection should map to the identifiers used in the NMDS for Mental Health Establishments.
Organisation Name (OrgName)	Char[100]	16	405767	Common name used to identify the Organisation

Record length = 115

Notes

[3]

METEOR includes code 9, but that is not applicable to the CMHC NMDS

1.6.4. Service Unit Cluster data record

Table 1.7 Data record layout - Service Unit Cluster

Data Element (Field Name)	Type [Length]	Start	METEOR Identifier	Notes / Values
Record Type (RecType)	Char[8]	1	—	Value = CLUS
State/Territory Identifier (State) [4]	Char[1]	9	720081	1: New South Wales 2: Victoria 3: Queensland 4: South Australia 5: Western Australia 6: Tasmania 7: Northern Territory 8: Australian Capital Territory
Region Identifier (RegId)	Char[2]	10	269940	AA: Region (values as specified by individual jurisdiction) Identifiers used in this collection should map to the identifiers used in the NMDS for Mental Health Establishments.
Organisation Identifier (OrgId)	Char[4]	12	404186	AAAA: Mental health service organisation identifier. Identifiers used in this collection should map to the identifiers used in the NMDS for Mental Health Establishments.
Service Unit Cluster Identifier (ClusId)	Char[5]	16	404858	AAAAA: An identifier to indicate that a service unit is one of a cluster of service units, defined through administrative or clinical governance arrangements. If no cluster applies, set to 00000. As this field enables linking with the NMDS for Mental Health Establishments, the identifiers used in this collection should be the same.
Service Unit Cluster Name (ClusName)	Char[100]	21	409209	Common name used to identify the service unit cluster. If no cluster applies, enter organisation name as appears in previous line.

Record length = 120

Notes

[4]

METEOR includes code 9, but that is not applicable to the CMHC NMDS

1.6.5. Service Unit data record

Table 1.8 Data record layout — Service Unit Details

Data Element (Field Name)	Type [Length]	Start	METEOR Identifier	Notes / Values
Record Type (RecType)	Char[8]	1	—	Value = SERV
State/Territory Identifier (State) [5]	Char[1]	9	720081	1: New South Wales 2: Victoria 3: Queensland 4: South Australia 5: Western Australia 6: Tasmania 7: Northern Territory 8: Australian Capital Territory
Region Identifier (RegId)	Char[2]	10	269940	AA: Region (values as specified by individual jurisdiction) Identifiers used in this collection should map to the identifiers used in the NMDS for Mental Health Establishments.
Organisation Identifier (OrgId)	Char[4]	12	404186	AAAA: Mental health service organisation identifier. Identifiers used in this collection should map to the identifiers used in the NMDS for Mental Health Establishments.
Service Unit Cluster Identifier (ClusId)	Char[5]	16	404858	AAAAA: An identifier to indicate that a service unit is one of a cluster of service units, defined through administrative or clinical governance arrangements. If no cluster applies, set to 00000. As this field enables linking with the NMDS for Mental Health Establishments, the identifiers used in this collection should be the same.
Ambulatory Service Unit Identifier (SUId)	Char[6]	21	750360	AAAAAA: Service unit identifier. Identifiers used in this collection should map to the identifiers used in the NMDS for Mental Health Establishments.
Ambulatory Service Unit Name (SUName)	Char[100]	27	750374	Common name used to identify the service unit.
Sector (Sector)	Char[1]	127	269977	1: Public 2: Private
Target Population (TargetPop) [6]	Char[1]	128	682403	1: Child and adolescent 2: Older person 3: Forensic 4: General 5: Youth

Record length = 128

Notes

[5]

METEOR includes code 9, but that is not applicable to the CMHC NMDS

[6]

METEOR includes code 7 and 9, but these are not applicable to the CMHC NMDS.

1.6.6. Person Details data record

Attention

Where multiple values for Sex, Date of birth, Country of birth, or Indigenous status are recorded for different service contacts for one PersId, data providers should adopt the value recorded for the last valid service contact.

Table 1.9 Data record layout — Person Details

Data Element (Field Name)	Type [Length]	Start	METEOR Identifier	Notes / Values
Record Type (RecType)	Char[8]	1	—	Value = PER
State/Territory Identifier (State) [7]	Char[1]	9	720081	1: New South Wales 2: Victoria 3: Queensland 4: South Australia 5: Western Australia 6: Tasmania 7: Northern Territory 8: Australian Capital Territory
Region Identifier (RegId)	Char[2]	10	269940	AA: Region (values as specified by individual jurisdiction) Identifiers used in this collection should map to the identifiers used in the NMDS for Mental Health Establishments.
Organisation Identifier (OrgId)	Char[4]	12	404186	AAAA: Mental health service organisation identifier. Identifiers used in this collection should map to the identifiers used in the NMDS for Mental Health Establishments.
Service Unit Cluster Identifier (ClusId)	Char[5]	16	404858	AAAAA: An identifier to indicate that a service unit is one of a cluster of service units, defined through administrative or clinical governance arrangements. If no cluster applies, set to 00000. As this field enables linking with the NMDS for Mental Health Establishments, the identifiers used in this collection should be the same.
Ambulatory Service Unit Identifier (SUId)	Char[6]	21	750360	AAAAAA: Service unit identifier. Identifiers used in this collection should map to the identifiers used in the NMDS for Mental Health Establishments.
Person Identifier Flag (PersIdFlag) [8]	Char[1]	27	493279	1: Yes, Patient identifier is for a uniquely identifiable person. 2: No, Patient identifier is for a non-uniquely identifiable person
Person Identifier (PersId)	Char[20]	28	290046	Person identifier is unique and stable for each individual patient within each service unit. Individual service units or collection authorities may use their own alphabetic, numeric or alphanumeric coding systems.
Sex (Sex)	Char[1]	48	741686	1: Male 2: Female 3: Another term 9: Not stated / inadequately described
Date of Birth (DoB)	Date[8]	49	287007	The date of birth of the person.
Estimated Date of Birth Flag (DoBFlag) [9]	Char[1]	57	—	1: Date of birth is accurate 2: Date of birth is an estimate 8: Date of birth is a “dummy” date (ie, 09099999) 9: Accuracy of stated date of birth is not known
Country of Birth (CoB)	Char[4]	58	659454	To be provided in accordance with the Standard Australian Classification of Countries (SACC). ABS catalogue no. 1269.0 (2016). Values from 1601-1607, inclusive, are not permitted in this NMDS (Antarctica).
Indigenous Status (IndigSt)	Char[1]	62	602543	1: Aboriginal but not Torres Strait Islander origin 2: Torres Strait Islander but not Aboriginal origin 3: Both Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander origin 4: Neither Aboriginal nor Torres Strait Islander origin 9: Not stated/inadequately described

Record length = 62

Notes

[7]

METEOR includes code 9, but that is not applicable to the CMHC NMDS

[8]

See Appendix A for further details on unregistered client service contacts.

[9]

Optional data element providing additional information regarding the quality of date of birth data. Code 1 should be used when it is known that the reported date of birth is accurate, code 2 when it is known that one or more parts of the date of birth is an estimate, code 8 when birth date is unknown and a ‘dummy’ date of birth has been used (that is, 09099999), and code 9 when it is not known whether the date of birth is accurate or an estimate.

1.6.7. Service Contact data record

Table 1.10 Data record layout — Contact Details

Data Element (Field Name)	Type [Length]	Start	METEOR Identifier	Notes / Values
Record Type (RecType)	Char[8]	1	—	Value = CON
State/Territory Identifier (State) [10]	Char[1]	9	720081	1: New South Wales 2: Victoria 3: Queensland 4: South Australia 5: Western Australia 6: Tasmania 7: Northern Territory 8: Australian Capital Territory
Region Identifier (RegId)	Char[2]	10	269940	AA: Region (values as specified by individual jurisdiction) Identifiers used in this collection should map to the identifiers used in the NMDS for Mental Health Establishments.
Organisation Identifier (OrgId)	Char[4]	12	404186	AAAA: Mental health service organisation identifier. Identifiers used in this collection should map to the identifiers used in the NMDS for Mental Health Establishments.
Service Unit Cluster Identifier (ClusId)	Char[5]	16	404858	AAAAA: An identifier to indicate that a service unit is one of a cluster of service units, defined through administrative or clinical governance arrangements. If no cluster applies, set to 00000. As this field enables linking with the NMDS for Mental Health Establishments, the identifiers used in this collection should be the same.
Ambulatory Service Unit Identifier (SUId)	Char[6]	21	750360	AAAAAA: Service unit identifier. Identifiers used in this collection should map to the identifiers used in the NMDS for Mental Health Establishments.
Person Identifier Flag (PersIdFlag) [11]	Char[1]	27	493279	1: Yes, Patient identifier is for a uniquely identifiable person. 2: No, Patient identifier is for a non-uniquely identifiable person
Person Identifier (PersId)	Char[20]	28	290046	Person identifier is unique and stable for each individual patient within each service unit. Individual service units or collection authorities may use their own alphabetic, numeric or alphanumeric coding systems.
State/Territory Record Identifier (RecordId)	Char[10]	48	—	This should be a stable number in the data collection of the jurisdiction.
Service Contact Date (ContDt)	Date[8]	58	737299	The date of each service contact between a health service provider and patient/client.
Principal Diagnosis (DxPrinc)	Char[6]	66	746665	Represented as ANN{.N[N]} The diagnosis established after study to be chiefly responsible for occasioning a mental health service contact, as represented by a code. The principal diagnosis must be a valid code from the International Statistical Classification of Diseases and Related Health Problems, 10th Revision, Australian Modification (ICD-10-AM) (12th Edition) or from the ICD-10-AM Mental Health Manual: An integrated classification and diagnostic tool for community based mental health services (1st Edition).
Mental Health Legal Status (LegalSt)	Char[1]	72	727343	1: Involuntary patient 2: Voluntary patient 9: Not reported/Unknown
Marital Status (MaritalSt)	Char[1]	73	766507	1: Never married 2: Widowed 3: Divorced 4: Separated 5: Married (registered and de facto) 6: Not stated/inadequately described
Area of Usual Residence (ResArea)	Char[9]	74	747315	Statistical Area Level 2 (SA2) code (ASGS Edition 3) N(9)
Mental Health Service Contact Duration (ContDur)	Number[3]	83	737218	Valid time measured in minutes. Expressed as NNN
Mental Health Service Contact-Patient/Client Participation Indicator (ContPartic)	Char[1]	86	737291	1: Yes 2: No 8: Unknown
Mental Health Service Contact-Session Type (ContSessType)	Char[1]	87	737307	1: Individual session 2: Group session 8: Unknown

Record length = 87

Notes

[10]

METEOR includes code 9, but that is not applicable to the CMHC NMDS

[11]

See Appendix A for further details on unregistered client service contacts.