Mental Health Inpatient Census 2023 - Parts 1 and 2

All patients treated in NHS Scotland facilities (Summary)

• 60% of patients in the 2023 Census were male.
• The majority of patients (74%) identify as white Scottish.
• Most patients (73%) in the 2023 Census did not have any dependents.

This section provides an overview of the demographic data for all patients occupying mental health, addiction, and learning disability beds in NHS Scotland during the 2023 Census. More detailed information on specific groups, including adults (18+), children and young people (<18), and forensic patients, will be presented in later sections.

The majority of patients in the 2023 Census were male (60%). Since the 2016 Census this has remained relatively stable, fluctuating only by two percentage points. For those aged 18-39 years, the difference is most pronounced, where 68% are male. In the 65+ age category, there is an almost equal number of males and females (51% male versus 49% female). However, for patients under 18 years of age, 87% were female.

• The age distribution of patients remained relatively stable since 2016, with most patients aged 65 or over (34%) or between 40 to 64 years (37%).
• The average (mean) age of patients in the 2023 Census was 54 years, slightly lower than the average of 56.6 years in the 2016 Census.

7 patients aged 18 or over identified as trans or had a trans history. Although not directly comparable, at 0.2% of all patients this is a lower proportion than the 0.44% aged 16 and over reported in Scotland’s Census 2022.

Figure 4: Inpatients by age and sex.

Psychiatric, addiction or learning disability inpatients, NHS Scotland, March/April Census 2023.

• the most common reason for admission was therapeutic/clinical crisis (42% of patients).
• ethnicity data reporting improved slightly in the 2023 census as there was no data for 4% of inpatients (down from 5% in 2022). The majority of patients (74%) identified as white Scottish, with 8% identifying as Other White. Asian patients made up 2% of the Census, and African patients accounted for 1%.
• over half of the patients (55%) had never been married or registered in a civil partnership, the same proportion as the 2022 Census.
• most patients (73%) did not have any dependents, but 7% had a working age adult dependent, and 3% had at least one child dependent.
• in the 2023 Census, 32% of patients were retired, a 9% decrease from 2016, likely due to changing age demographics. The proportion of unemployed patients was 49%, a 1% increase from 2022. Additionally, 6% of patients were not allowed to work, and 1% were students.