The ultimate outcome of this research will be improved services and betterhealth outcomes for mental health patients in Tasmania.
About one in five Australians will experience a mental illness in any given year, and most of us will experience a mental health problem at some time in our lives. What is more, these health problems appear to be on the rise.
The most common mental illnesses are anxiety, depressive disorders and substance abuse disorders, and they often co-occur. The less common mental disorders, affecting less than 0.5 per cent of the population, are those that involve psychosis, and include schizophrenia and bipolar mood disorders.
Dr Amanda Neil is a health economist with a particular focus on the seriously mentally ill. An expert in economic evaluation, she recently led the economic analysis of the Second National Survey of Psychosis.
Her greatest single achievement to date is arguably in the development of a 'casemix' mechanism for pathology laboratory testing, which is used for benchmarking public pathology laboratories at state and national levels.
Dr Neil recently moved to Tasmania after accepting a senior appointment at the Menzies Research Institute Tasmania.
At Menzies she will continue her research into the mentally ill, with a major focus on the provision of mental health services in Tasmania.
"The initial aim of my research is to examine state-specific factors in the performance of Tasmania's mental health system relative to other states and territories," she said. "For example, what are the implications of our state's small population but large geographical dispersion on service provision and costs?
"On the basis of these findings, the potential for improving the State's mental health system's effectiveness, efficiency and equity will be explored.
"The ultimate outcome of this research will be improved services and better health outcomes for mental health patients in Tasmania."