7-day follow up

The 7-day follow up (also known as acute inpatient post-discharge community care) indicator dashboards measure the percentage of acute inpatient discharges that are followed up in the community setting within the 7 days immediately following discharge from an acute inpatient stay.

Why

Literature indicates the time following discharge from inpatient mental health services can be a vulnerable period for some people. Commonly studied issues associated with the transition from inpatient to community care include early readmission and suicide. Evidence identifies factors that increase people’s likelihood of early readmission, such as having no plans to be followed up after discharge, and insufficient or a lack of comprehensive discharge planning (Callaly et al., 2011; Durbin et al., 2007; Steffen et al., 2009).

Early readmission indicates that people may not have received adequate support from inpatient services; continue to experience high levels of distress; are underprepared for community living; have limited community or whānau support; or experience challenges in accessing community or culturally relevant services (Donisi et al., 2016; Durbin et al., 2007)

The literature highlights a concerning proportion of people who die by suicide within the first week or month following their discharge from inpatient mental health services. In Aotearoa New Zealand, of the 476 people who died by suicide in 2015, 201 people (42 percent) had contact with specialist mental health services the year prior. Of all tāngata whai ora who were in contact with mental health services in the year prior to dying by suicide between 2001 and 2015, 171 people (nearly 7 percent) died within 1 week of discharge (Manatū Hauora Ministry of Health, 2019).

Click here to read more evidence about this indicator.

Populations

7-day follow up indicator dashboards are built using criteria specific to adult populations (20-64 years), but also provide age filters for child and youth (0-19 years) and older people (65 and over), where services report data into PRIMHD. Click here to learn more about PRIMHD.

All KPI Programme indicators provide demographic information by age, gender and ethnicity.

Data available through August 2025, sourced from the 26 January 2026 refresh of the PRIMHD DataMart.

Please note:

• Northland has incomplete community and very little inpatient data since April 2025
• Bay of Plenty and MidCentral has incomplete data for October 2025

If you have any improvement ideas or feedback, please email us at mhakpi.health.nz