Queensland Centre for Mental Health Research

PHILIP BURGESS

Professor Philip Burgess is Professor of Mental Health Services Research within the School of Population Health at The University of Queensland.

He is highly published on suicide rates among mental health care consumers, epidemiological factors associated with post traumatic stress disorder and personality disorders. He has also looked specifically at the role of public sector policy and its impact on the effectiveness of mental health care delivery. Professor Burgess was recently awarded a major research contract with the Australian Government to manage the analysis and reporting of routine outcome measurement and casemix classifications in all nationally publicly funded mental health care services.

Prior to joining the School in September 2003, Professor Burgess spent eight years at the Mental Health Research Institute of Victoria where he was Head of the Policy and Analysis Group, primarily responsible for the maintenance and development of the Victorian Psychiatric Case Register. Prior to that appointment, he held various management and clinical positions within the Department of Human Services, Victoria .

Professor Burgess graduated with an honours degree in psychology in 1981. He then completed a Master of Arts degree in clinical psychology (1983) and was awarded a PhD (1987) all from the University of Melbourne . His principal research interests are in the analysis of routinely collected administrative data that give rise to case registers as well as more specialised collections such as mental health epidemiological surveys.

Ten most influential publications (with annotation)

Burgess P, Pirkis J, Buckingham B, Burns J, Eagar K and Eckstein G (2004). Adult mental health needs and expenditure in Australia . Social Psychiatry and Psychiatric Epidemiology, 39, 427-434. This paper linked prevalence data from the 1997 National Survey of Mental Health and Wellbeing with public sector expenditure data and specialist psychiatric consultations in the private sector, to examine whether there was an equitable distribution of resources to meet need for care.

Spataro J, Mullen , PE , Burgess P, Wells, D and Moss, S. (2004).Impact of child sexual abuse on mental health: Prospective study in males and females. British Journal of Psychiatry, 184, 416-421. This paper linked data from the Victorian Psychiatric Case Register with sexual abuse notifications recorded by the Victorian Institute of Forensic Medicine. It demonstrated an association with child sexual abuse and subsequent increase in childhood and adult mental disorders.

Sytema S, Burgess P and Tansella M. (2002). Does community care decrease length of stay and risk of hospitalisation in new patients with schizophrenia disorders? A comparative case register study in Groningen , The Netherlands; Victoria , Australia ; and South-Verona , Italy . Schizophrenia Bulletin, 28, 273-281. This international comparison study found that while length of stay is shorter on community based systems of mental health care, risk for readmission was reduced only in the more developed Victorian system.

Creamer M, Burgess P and McFarlane A. (2001). Posttraumatic stress disorder: Findings from the Australian National Survey of Mental Health and Well-Being. Psychological Medicine, 31, 1237-1247. This paper documents the distribution and associations of Post Traumatic Stress Disorder as measured in the 1997 National Survey of Mental Health and Wellbeing.

Jackson HJ and Burgess PM . (2000). Personality disorders in the community: A report from the Australian National Survey of Mental Health and Wellbeing. Social Psychiatry and Psychiatric Epidemiology, 35, 531-538. This paper, the first in a series of three, examines the distribution and correlates of Personality Disorders as measured in the 1997 National Survey of Mental Health and Wellbeing.

Burgess P , Pirkis J, Morton J and Croke E. (2000).Lessons from a comprehensive clinical audit of users of psychiatric services who committed suicide. Psychiatric Services, 51, 1555-1560. Cases of suicide (1989 - 1994) from the Victorian Department of Justice's were matched to the Victorian Psychiatric Case Register. The paper based medical records of these cases were then audited to examine whether the suicide could have been prevented if the service system had responded differently. It was estimated that approximately 20% of suicides could have been prevented.

Mullen PE , Burgess P , Wallace C, Palmer S and Ruschena D. (2000). Community care and criminal offending in schizophrenia. The Lancet, 355, 614-617. Cohorts of patients over a 20-year period with a diagnosis of schizophrenia were identified from the Victorian Psychiatric Case Register and their criminal offending records were extracted from databases maintained by the Victorian Police Department. Changes in criminal offending rates could not be reliably attributed to deinstitionalisation of mental health care services over that period.

Burgess P , Pirkis J, Buckingham W, Eagar K. and Solomon S. (1999). Developing a casemix classification for specialist mental health services. Casemix Quarterly, 1(4), 4-20. This paper describes the development of a case complexity classification based on a 3-month prospective study representing approximately 25% of Australia 's public and private sector services.

Szmukler GI, Burgess P , Herrman H, Benson A, Colusa S and Bloch S. (1996). Caring for relatives with serious mental illness: The development of the Experience of Caregiving Inventory. Social Psychiatry and Psychiatric Epidemiology, 31, 137-148. This paper describes the development of a practical, valid self-report measure of the experience of caring for a relative with serious mental illness.

Eaton WW, Bilker W, Haro JM, Herrman H, Mortensen PB, Freeman H and Burgess P . (1992). Long-term course of hospitalisation for schizophrenia: Part II. Change with passage of time. Schizophrenia Bulletin, 18, 229-241. This paper, based on Psychiatric Case Registers from the USA , Denmark , the United Kingdom and Australia , examined the notion of progressive deterioration in schizophrenia. Findings instead suggested that the course of illness appears to ameliorate over time.