Australian Mental Health Outcomes and Classification Network
The Australian Mental Health Outcomes and Classification Network (AMHOCN) was established by the Australian Government in December 2003 to provide leadership to the mental health sector to support the sustainable implementation of the outcomes and casemix collection as part of routine clinical practice.
AMHOCN aims to support states and territories and to work collaboratively with the mental health sector to achieve the vision of the introduction of outcomes and casemix measures. AMHOCN consists of three components: a data bureau responsible for receiving and processing information; an analysis and reporting component providing analysis and reports of submitted data; and a training and service development component supporting training in the measures and their use for clinical practice, service management and development purposes.
Currently, the Australian Government has contracted the following organisations to undertake these roles: Strategic Data Pty Ltd - Data Bureau; The University of Queensland - Analysis & Reporting; and The NSW Institute of Psychiatry - Training & Service Development.
Latest News
AMHOCN will be hosting a forum in Melbourne on Tuesday 23 November 2010. The aim of this forum is to provide consumers, clinicians and managers with the opportunity to showcase their use of outcome measures, and other routinely collected clinical information, to improve service delivery and outcomes. If you would like to present on work being done within your service, please submit an abstract of your proposed presentation. Register early as places are limited. Download the forum flyer.
AMHOCN recently undertook a review of available recovery measures which explicitly considered both instruments designed to measure individuals’ recovery and instruments designed to assess the recovery orientation of services. Download the Review of Recovery Measures.
AMHOCN has undertaken some preliminary analyses with the three measures that comprise the HoNOS suite of measures (i.e., the HoNOSCA, the HoNOS and the HoNOS65+). The objectives of these analyses were to explore the extent to which HoNOS clinical ratings might be considered implausible at different service settings and collection occasions. Download Analysis of ‘zero’ ratings with the HoNOS suite of NOCC measures.
AMHOCN will be holding a series of workshops in Hobart – 21 September and Hobart – 22 September, Launceston – 23 September and Devonport – 24 September.
For further information, download the flyer. These workshops will focus on the use of outcome measurement and mental health information to improve clinical practice and assist in service development. To register, click on the links above for the day you would like to attend. Altenatively, go to our Calendar page and select the relevant workshop.
The 3rd Australasian Mental Health Outcomes Conference is being held in Auckland, New Zealand from 18 – 19 November with pre-conference workshops on 17 November. Registrations and the call for abstracts are now open – go to the conference website. Download the flyer here.
Mental health outcomes in Australia: the future of information development in practice was a one day national forum held by on 15 July by AMHOCN, in collaboration with SA Health. Copies of the presentations from the forum are available on our National Forum page
A new addition to the analysis of the National Outcomes and Casemix Collection (NOCC) data is this series of charts – NOCC Volume & Percentage Clinical Ratings: Australia – that show the overall volume and the completeness of the aggregated NOCC data for Australia for age groups, service settings and collection occasions.
Version 1.6 of the National Outcomes and Casemix Collection (NOCC) Technical Specifications are now available to view or download.