DEFINITIONS

CRIME VICTIMISATION

This article focuses on people’s experiences of both personal and household crime. The two key variables included in the analysis were:

• Whether the person had been a victim of threatened and/or physical violence in the 12 months prior to interview (personal crime); and
• Whether the person had been a victim of actual and/or attempted break-in in the 12 months prior to interview (household crime).

An aggregate of these two crime types was also used, that is, whether the person had been a victim of the selected personal and/or household crimes. It should be noted that while the article refers to crime victimisation and being a victim of crime, the scope of the analysis is limited to only the above crimes included in the General Social Survey, and not all types of crime.

DISABILITY DUE TO A MENTAL HEALTH CONDITION¹

Disability due to a mental health condition is defined as:

• Any mental illness for which help or supervision in carrying out daily tasks is required, which at the time of the survey had lasted or was likely to last for six months or more; and
• Any nervous or emotional condition resulting in restriction in everyday activities, which at the time of the survey had lasted or was likely to last for six months or more.

The existence of mental illness and nervous or emotional conditions were self-reported, and may not necessarily have been diagnosed by a doctor or other healthcare professional. The term ‘restriction in everyday activities’ relates to core activity restrictions, including self-care tasks (e.g. bathing, dressing, eating), mobility tasks (e.g. moving around at home, getting in or out of a bed or chair), and communicating in own language (e.g. understanding/being understood by others). People whose mental illness or nervous or emotional condition results in such restrictions may represent a range of treatment scenarios, such as people who require varying levels of care, people who take prescribed medication, or people who see a counsellor.

Due to the specific question wording used in the General Social Survey, the current analysis includes only a sub-set of people with a mental health condition, that is, those whose condition is long-term (lasting six months or more) and who require help or supervision with daily tasks or are restricted in their everyday activities as a result of this condition. For this reason, this data should not be used as a measure of the overall prevalence of mental health conditions in the general population.

ENDNOTES

1. Definitions of mental health related constructs vary across different ABS surveys and are designed to meet different research and policy needs, including definitions based on both self-reported and diagnostic measures. The data used for analysis in this article captures only those people whose mental health condition requires help or supervision in carrying out daily tasks or results in restriction in everyday activities. As such, the data cited in this article should not be interpreted as a measure of the overall prevalence of mental illness in the general population.

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