Expenditure on mental health-related services in Australia continues to increase, new data shows.
An Australian Institute of Health and Welfare (AIHW) report shows $8.5 billion was spent nationally on mental health services in 2014/15.
This is nearly one billion dollars more ($911 million) than in 2010/11.
AIHW spokesman Matthew James says in real terms, spending increased from $343 per person in 2010/11 to $361 per person in 2014/15.
Of the $8.5 billion, spending on state and territory specialised mental health services totalled $5.2 billion, and the majority of this spending was on public hospital services for admitted patients ($2.2 billion).
The last two decades has also seen a big change in the number of full-time mental health care workers.
Specialised mental health services for admitted patients were provided by 160 public hospitals during 2014/15. These hospitals employed over 14,000 full-time-equivalent staff.
"The number of direct care staff employed in public sector community mental health services has seen the biggest change over the last two decades, rising from about 3400 FTE in 1992/93 to 10,600 in 2014/15" said Mr James.
"This change reflects increased investment by state and territory governments in community based mental health care," he said.
