Mental Health Hospital Admissions by Diagnosis

Home » Mental Health Observatory » Mental Health Hospital Admissions by Diagnosis

Introduction

The Diagnosis Instant Atlas Maps are a set of web based interactive maps designed to provide commissioners and other health professionals with a tool for comparing the pattern of hospitalisation for mental health diagnoses in their area, and for providers to collect patterns of care in the different areas in which they serve.

Using the Maps

To use the interactive Diagnosis Instant Atlas maps, simply select which age group you would like to investigate, you can choose from the Young (0 to 17), Working Age (18 to 64) or Older (65+) age groups. The links are given above at the top of the page.

Figure 1. Shows the Instant Atlas map directly standardised rates for the older females group, categorised as aged 65 and over, who were admitted into hospital for dementia in 2006.

Select the age group which you would like to view, this will then load up the map interface (Fig. 1). Once the page has loaded, you will be presented with a map of England in the centre on the right is a list of the Upper Tier Local Authorities (upper LA’s), with the Directly Standardised Rates (DSR) per 100,000 of the population to the right of them.

Below the map of England are two boxes displaying charts. The time series chart on the left shows a timeline of DRS’s from 2001 to 2006. A timeline will be shown for each individual upper tier local authority which has been selected on the map or from the upper LA list, simply deselect any LA to remove the line from the chart. You can compare as many upper LA’s as you wish. As well as the time series chart there is a bar chart on the bottom right of the page (Fig.1). This bar chart shows a vertical red line for any upper LA which has been selected, deselect to remove the red line. The bar chart shows all the upper tier local authorities in England with increasing numbers of directly standardised rates from left to right. Each data bar has the confidence intervals displayed on the top of the bar (Fig.2).

Figure 2. A close up section of the bar chart on the Diagnosis Instant Atlas maps.

Using the data

To view the various forms of the data, click on the ‘Data’ tab above the list of local authorities. This will open a grey box with a list of five mental health categories. When you select a mental health category, you will be given a choice to view either the Male or the Female data and then you can choose which year from 2001 to 2006 you would like to view. Once you have selected the data you wish to view, it will be automatically displayed on the map and the bar chart. All the upper tier local authorities will be displayed in the list along with their respective directly standardised rates.

Figure 3 (right). A close up section of the data tab menu on the Diagnosis Instant Atlas maps.

Filtering

You can also filter for regions in England from the filter tab, to the right of the data tab. If you choose the North East region to look at for example, only the North East region will be shaded in on the map and the list of data to the right will display only those upper tier local authorities in the North East region. To zoom in on the North East region on the map you can just click on the map and drag a square shape over the region, or use the plus (+) and minus (-) magnifying glasses above the map. You will also notice that the bar chart now only displays the local authorities in the region you have selected. This allows you to look more closely at the comparisons between the LA’s in your selected region.

Figure 4. Shows the 'Filter' tab menu and the North East region highlighted on the map and in the bar chart.