Breakdown of Data on Patients with Mental Illness or Psychiatric Issues in Private and Public Health Institutions by Age Range

Mr Patrick Tay Teck Guan asked the Minister for Health for each year in the past 10 years, whether the Ministry has data on the number of patients with mental illness or psychiatric issues in our private and public health institutions and, if so, what is the number of patients who are aged (i) under seven years (ii) seven to 12 years (iii) 13 to 16 years (iv) 17 to 21 years and (v) 22 to 30 years.

Mr Ong Ye Kung: Data prior to and after 2013 are not comparable due to changes in data collection from 2013. Between 2013 and 2019, 72,668 unique Singapore residents aged 30 years and below sought care for a psychiatric condition at public or private healthcare institutions. These numbers indicate an increasing trend in the number of Singapore residents who sought care for mental health issues over this period. The breakdown of the annual number of Singapore residents who sought care is summarised in Table 1.