MDS data entry system

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Welcome to the Better Outcomes in Mental Health Care (ATAPS) website

Information on this site will help support your role in managing your division's participation in this program. We have a dedicated Help Desk to assist you with problems or enquiries relating to entering your division's data in the Minimum Data Set database. Also, if you are involved in program evaluation, the CHPPE team at Melbourne University are available to further assist you. Further details are available below.

MDS Upgrades

As you are aware the Better Outcomes in Mental Health Care Minimum Dataset (BOiMHC MDS) is being upgraded to accommodate the introduction of the new trials introduced this year (i.e. telephone based CBT, suicide prevention and postnatal depression) and to enhance functionality overall. However, as it will be a lengthy process to replace the existing Minimum Dataset system with a more flexible version, an interim update (version 3.2) to the existing system was made on the 13th of November 2008 to allow Divisions to collect many of the new data items in the interim.

More information can be found at BOiMHCChanges3x2.

If any of the changes documented here are relevant to you but you cannot see the expected altered functionality in the MDS, or if you have any other queries relating to these changes, please do not hesitate to contact us via e-mail to support@boimhc.org.

Telephone Cognitive Behavioural Therapy (T-CBT)

Divisions participating in the T-CBT program seeking more more information should see the TeleCBT specific page.

What evaluation support is available to Divisions running Access to Allied Psychological Services projects under the Better Outcomes in Mental Health Care program?

The Better Outcomes in Mental Health Care program has a strong commitment to evaluation. As a consequence, The University of Melbourne’s Centre for Health Policy, Programs and Economics (CHPPE; formerly the Program Evaluation Unit - PEU) has been commissioned to provide evaluation support to Divisions that are conducting Access to Allied Psychological Services (ATAPS) projects.

Our support role recognises that Divisions have varying levels of evaluation expertise, may be using internal or external evaluators, and are employing different evaluation designs. In the main, this support takes the form of individual and group consultations with interested Divisions, as well as written documentation about key evaluation issues.

Our role also includes the development and dissemination of a minimum dataset. The minimum dataset is designed to capture de-identified consumer-level information, which is invaluable for describing who is accessing allied health care as a result of these projects, as well as for providing a broad overview of the care these people are receiving.

Periodically, we draw together information from the local evaluations and the minimum dataset to provide ongoing information about how the ATAPS projects are going, and whether specific models of service delivery seem to be particularly effective in given circumstances.

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The latest report: Current Profile of, and Innovations in, Service Delivery of Access to Psychological Services Projects

The 15th Evaluation Report presents the “Current profile of, and innovations in, service delivery of Access to Psychological Services projects.” It provides an update of GP participation rates, allied health professionals and consumers, the sociodemographic and clinical profiles of consumers, the care consumers are receiving and changes in the models of service delivery being utilised by the projects.

Question 1: What is the level of uptake of the general Access to Allied Psychological Services projects by GPs, allied health professionals and consumers? In total, 709,684 sessions of care were provided through the projects, an average of 5.3 sessions per consumer.

Question 2: What are the sociodemographic and clinical profiles of consumers of general Access to Psychological Services projects, and what is the nature of the care they are receiving? Sessions of 46-60 minutes have been the most popular, accounting for four fifths of all sessions. Three quarters of consumers are female, with a mean age of 39 years. Around 3% of consumers are of Aboriginal or Torres Strait Islander descent. Around two thirds are on low incomes, and half have no previous history of mental health care. Most have been diagnosed with depression (76%) or anxiety disorders (57%). The most common interventions have been CBT-based cognitive and behavioural interventions, delivered in 57% and 43% of sessions, respectively.

Question 3: Have the models of service delivery being utilised by the general Access to Allied Psychological Services projects changed over time. The most common form of allied health professional retention was contractual, the most commonly used location was the combination of allied health professionals’ own rooms and GP’s rooms, and that the most commonly used referral mechanism was direct referral.

The findings highlight that Divisions are flexible in responding to the changing needs of the community and recognising when services could be delivered in a more effective way to consumers. Download 15th Evaluation Report

Telephone CBT - Second Interim Evalution Report (February 2010)

The current report indicates that the uptake of telephone sessions, delivered via both the T-CBT pilot and other components of the Access to Allied Psychological Services projects more generally, has been slowly increasing (since the addition of the modality field on the minimum dataset). However uptake of the T-CBT pilot, itself, continues to remain particularly slow. This may be attributable to a combination of factors; loss of momentum associated with the delay in the availability of mandatory training, lack of access to ongoing training for newly recruited professionals; reticence to comply with the additional data collection requirements, and uncertainty about the continuation of both the pilot specifically and the Access to Allied Psychological Services projects more generally. In addition, the challenges associated with telephone modality of psychological treatment persist and also contribute to the rate of uptake. The challenges noted most commonly are: most clients and providers prefer face-to-face sessions; staff turnover (project officers and T-CBT trained allied health professionals); difficulty engaging GPs with the pilot; Division management issues; the need for increased marketing; and the lack of availability of further training for new allied health professionals.

* Download Telephone CBT Pilot - 2nd Interim Evaluation Report

Specialist Suicide Prevention Services Report (February 2010)

The current report indicates that Specialist Services for Consumers at Risk of Suicide have been received positively by allied health professionals, emergency departments, and general practitioners who all view it as a welcome service addition that provides a quick and effective service response to consumers of mild to moderate suicide risk. The services have continued to steadily attract referrals from GPs and Emergency Departments. Sessions delivered by allied health professionals to consumers are also steadily rising. The profile of consumers is somewhat different from the general ATAPS projects suggesting that these Specialist Services are reaching a different group of consumers and are complementing the general ATAPS projects. The nature of services being delivered varies from that of general ATAPS and between rural and urban areas. Consumers are receiving a free of cost service, with no co-payments reported in any sessions.

* Download Specialist Suicide Services - Second Interim Evaluation Report

Link to the full list of ATAPS Evaluation reports

What is the Centre for Health Policy, Programs and Economics?

The CHPPE is part of the School of Population Health at The University of Melbourne and continues to evaluate the Access to Allied Psycholgical Services (ATAPS) Component of the Better Outcomes in Mental Health Care Initiative.

We are a multidisciplinary centre whose aim is to contribute to the health of the community through research, evaluation and a varied program of teaching and training that:

• advances knowledge about health programs;
• improves the community’s ability to evaluate health programs;
• fosters methodological development and exemplary practice; and
• addresses relevant issues productively and flexibly.

We, at the CHPPE bring considerable expertise to the tasks at hand, having conducted local, state and national evaluations of other mental health and general practice initiatives, usually adopting a model of capacity-building.

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Minimum dataset database

Strategic Data Pty Ltd have developed a web based data entry system for the minimum dataset (MDS). This system includes online help for each of the functions which you can access once logged in.

Click HERE to login to the the MDS data entry system.

If you are a new user of the MDS, please download our one page MDS Welcome Summary, providing all the information and links you need to get started using the MDS.

There is some functionality for Data Upload if your Division has an alternative means of collecting and storing the MDS data, for example Excel or Access. More information on that procedure is included in the MDS ONLINE HELP.

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Who to contact

A dedicated Help Desk is available to support the ATAPS projects in relation to the Minimum Data Set system. All enquiries should be directed to: support@boimhc.org

If you are involved in the implementation or evaluation of one of the ATAPS projects, and are seeking evaluation support or advice, feel free to contact Justine Fletcher, Fay Kohn or Bridget Bassilios. They are Research Fellows at the CHPPE and have expertise in evaluation and experience in working with Divisions. Please send all queries to the following email address: support@boimhc.org.

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The purpose of this website

This website provides useful information, tools and documentation to provide support to Divisions involved in the ATAPS projects. Click on the links below to view the following documents:

• Frequently Asked Questions (FAQs) For the Minimum Data Set Database System
• ATAPS Project Reports:Link to the collection of ATAPS Evaluation Reports and other useful reports and articles
• ATAPS Project Presentations:Link to the collection of ATAPS Evaluation Presentations
• Archive Documents:Link to Archive Documents section containing early ATAPS documentation. Provides initial project framework.

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