ArticleSocial psychiatry and psychiatric epidemiology2021
Quantifying the size of the informal care sector for Australian adults with mental illness: caring hours and replacement cost.
Article in Social psychiatry and psychiatric epidemiology, 2021. The graph could read no effect estimate from its abstract, so it casts no vote on the map. Cited by 7 papers, 1 of them a synthesis that pooled it.
What it found
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Who cites it
7 citing papers in PubMed, 1 synthesis or guideline pooled it, 14 citations in OpenAlex.
- Guideline
- Experiences of discrimination and positive treatment among people who support a person with a mental health condition: a nationally representative survey.Social psychiatry and psychiatric epidemiology · 2026Article
- Cost-Effectiveness of the Tailored Activity Programme for Person With Dementia-Caregiver Dyads: A Markov Model.International journal of geriatric psychiatry · 2025Article
- A mixed-methods evaluation of the impacts of an online Carer wellbeing and connection program.PEC innovation · 2023Article
- How Do Shifts in Patients with Mental Health Problems' Formal and Informal Care Utilization Affect Informal Caregivers?: A COVID-19 Case Study.International journal of environmental research and public health · 2022Article
- NDIS Participants with Psychosocial Disabilities and Life-Limiting Diagnoses: A Scoping Review.International journal of environmental research and public health · 2022Article
- Understanding the Economic Value and Impacts on Informal Carers of People Living with Mental Health Conditions.International journal of environmental research and public health · 2022Article
Corrections and comments
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Authors and funding
6 authors at 3 institutions in 2 countries.
Funding
No grant is acknowledged in the PubMed record.
Abstract
purposeTo quantify and value the total informal support provided by family and friends to Australian adults with mental illness in 2018.
methodsThe number of mental health carers was drawn from the 2015 Survey of Disability, Ageing and Carers (SDAC), adjusted to the 2018 population. Annual caring hours by type of assistance were estimated using the SDAC, 2007 National Survey of Mental Health and Wellbeing and an online carer survey. Caring hours for each task were assigned an hourly replacement cost from the National Disability Insurance Scheme. Informal caring was valued as the sum of these costs minus expenditure on carer income support payments, estimating how much it would hypothetically cost governments to replace this care with formal support services.
resultsAn estimated 354,000 (95% uncertainty interval (UI): 327,000-383,000) Australian mental health carers provided 186 million (95% UI: 159-215) hours of support in 2018. The estimated replacement cost was AU$8.4 billion (95% UI: 7.0-10.0), excluding AU$1.3 billion in income support. Univariate sensitivity analyses demonstrated that results were robust to variation in model inputs, with total caring hours the most influential parameter. Using an alternative estimate of mean caring hours, the replacement cost could be as high as AU$13.2 billion (95% UI: 11.2-15.4).
conclusionInformal carers provide substantial support to people with mental illness, highlighting their important contribution to the mental health system and reinforcing the need for carer support services. Future valuation studies would benefit from refinement of available data collections, particularly on hours and types of care provided.
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