Although the record file from the Australian National Survey of Mental Health and Wellbeing is fairly readily available to interested academics, most teams using the data are limited in their ability to perform economic investigation of the implications of the data because of a lack of linked cost variables to the items from the survey.

This project took relevant data from the National Survey of Mental Health and Wellbeing, then developed a set of unit costs for inpatient and community encounters and calculated unit costs for lost time associated with mental health problems, with a view to making these data and the resources associated with them available to researchers interested in conducting economic analyses. 

These costs and associated materials are published in a freely available form governed by a provision termed 'Copyleft'.  They should provide a valuable resource for researchers wanting to explore economic questions in mental health. 

For further information, the full reports on the project including derivations of costing, excel spreadsheets giving relevant workings, syntax code for use in SPSS software, and full information on the copyleft condition governing use of the materials, can be downloaded as a single compressed (zip) file by following the link to the full report.

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