SOC 2 Type II certified

Measurement-Based Care for Northern Territory Care Teams

For psychologists, counsellors, mental health nurses and community-controlled health services from Darwin and Palmerston to Katherine, Alice Springs and remote communities. Send a validated scale by email or QR code, see the score when the client submits, and follow progress across a course of care, even when visits are weeks apart.

Schedule a WalkthroughBrowse assessments
SOC 2 Type II certified
Privacy Act 1988 compliant
Answers on any phone, no app
Priced in AUD
Export your data anytime
100+
validated assessments
1 PHN
commissions primary mental health care Territory-wide
10 + 10
Better Access individual and group sessions a year
$36 AUD
a month to start (AUD)

How mental health care is organised in the Northern Territory

The Territory has a single Primary Health Network, NT PHN, which commissions local providers across a stepped care model: psychological therapies for mild to moderate illness, with a stream for rural and remote areas, services for severe and complex illness, youth services through headspace, psychosocial support and Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander mental health services. NT Health runs the public specialist services, and Medicare's Better Access program funds private psychology alongside them.

Much of the Territory's primary health care is delivered by Aboriginal community-controlled health services, whose peak body is AMSANT. Public mental health services also report clinician-rated and self-report outcome measures to the national NOCC collection. A short scale scored at the start of care and again at each visit gives the clinician and the client the same picture of change, wherever the next appointment happens.

All of AustraliaAll regions

What HiBoop Does for NT Care Teams

  • Long distances, visiting services and a mix of public, community-controlled and private providers shape how outcomes get measured in the Territory. HiBoop handles the measuring; the clinical decisions stay with you.

  • Check-ins Between Visits

    When a clinician reaches a community on a fly-in schedule, the client can still answer on their own phone from an email link or QR code in the weeks between, and the result is waiting at the next visit.

  • Scores Across the Steps of Care

    Stepped care moves a client between levels of support. The PHQ-9, GAD-7 and DASS-21 are scored when the client submits and kept on one timeline, so the trend informs the decision to step up or down.

  • Youth Scales for headspace Teams

    Teams working with young people can send the PHQ-A, SCARED and CRAFFT alongside adult scales, with the results kept per client.

  • Access by Role

    Roles decide what front desk staff, Aboriginal health practitioners, counsellors and clinical leads can see, and every view and export is logged.

  • Return to Work Claims

    Under the Return to Work Act 1986, treatment by a registered psychologist counts as medical treatment. The PCL-5, DASS-21 and RTW-SE give the insurer a scored picture of progress you can export as a PDF.

  • One Published Price List

    Care is $36 AUD/month for one clinician, month to month. Team starts at $285 AUD/month with unlimited clinicians. Network is custom. Published prices in Australian dollars.

Research from Northern Territory

  • Outcome measures in remote care

    In a trial in three remote communities in northern Australia, 49 people with mental illness were randomised to motivational care planning or usual treatment, and the care planning group showed significantly greater improvement on the HoNOS and K10, sustained to 18 months.

    Nagel et al., Australian Journal of Rural Health, 2009 PMID 19664081

  • PHQ-9 and K10 in a digital trial

    In a three-arm trial with 156 Indigenous Australians on haemodialysis in Alice Springs and Darwin, K10 and PHQ-9 scores fell significantly only in the control app group across the full sample, while among participants with K10 of 25 or more or PHQ-9 of 10 or more both apps showed significant decreases.

    Dingwall et al., BMC Nephrology, 2021 PMID 33866968

  • Adapting scales to language

    Pilot testing with five haemodialysis patients and carers led to changes in how the K10, PHQ-9 and EuroQoL were delivered, and to audio translations in 11 local Indigenous languages inside an outcome measures app.

    Nagel et al., BMC Nephrology, 2020 PMID 32293331

  • Aboriginal mental health workers

    File audits at the Royal Darwin Hospital inpatient unit found significant improvements in the care of Aboriginal inpatients between 1995 and 2001, coinciding with the employment of Aboriginal mental health workers.

    Nagel & Thompson, Australasian Psychiatry, 2006 PMID 16923041

  • Acceptability of mental health apps

    Three focus groups with nine Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander community members found strong support for the AIMhi Stay Strong and ibobbly apps, with acceptability shaped by personal, environmental and app factors.

    Povey et al., Journal of Medical Internet Research, 2016 PMID 26969043

Who Runs and Funds Mental Health Care in the Territory

  • HiBoop is not affiliated with or endorsed by any of these bodies or programs. They describe the system your clients, referrers and funders work in.

  • NT PHN

    Primary Health Network

    The Territory's only PHN matches each person to the least intensive level of care that suits their needs. It commissions psychological therapies for people who have difficulty using Better Access, a rural and remote stream, psychosocial support for people with severe illness who are not eligible for the NDIS, and works to the NT Mental Health and Wellbeing Plan for Integration and Co-Investment 2024-29.

    Stepped careRural and remotePsychosocial

  • AMSANT

    Peak body

    The Aboriginal Medical Services Alliance Northern Territory is the peak body for Aboriginal community controlled health services in the NT. Its social and emotional wellbeing team leads community-based mental health, healing and trauma-informed work, and NT PHN funds social and emotional wellbeing teams that work closely with community-controlled services.

    Community-controlledSocial and emotional wellbeingSelf-determination

  • headspace in the Territory

    Youth

    Commissioned through NT PHN: headspace Darwin, which includes the Early Psychosis Youth Service, and headspace Katherine are run by Anglicare NT, headspace Alice Springs by Central Australian Aboriginal Congress, with outreach in Palmerston.

    DarwinKatherineAlice Springs

  • Better Access

    Medicare

    The national Medicare program subsidises up to 10 individual and 10 group sessions with a mental health professional each calendar year under a mental health treatment plan. It works the same way in the Territory as in every state.

    MBSTreatment planNational

Care Teams Across the Territory

  • HiBoop runs in any web browser, so a Darwin practice and a clinician who flies out to communities send the same check-ins.

  • Darwin

    headspace Darwin, run by Anglicare NT, includes the Early Psychosis Youth Service.

  • Palmerston

    headspace runs outreach here, commissioned through NT PHN.

  • Katherine

    headspace Katherine is run by Anglicare NT.

  • Alice Springs

    headspace Alice Springs is run by Central Australian Aboriginal Congress, a community-controlled organisation.

  • Rural and remote communities

    NT PHN commissions a psychological therapies stream for people living in rural and remote areas.

Data sovereignty

Why Northern Territory clinics choose HiBoop

  • Measurement That Travels With the Clinician

    • Clients answer in a web browser on any phone, with no app to install
    • SOC 2 Type II certified, with data encrypted in transit and at rest
    • A log of each view and export of client information
    • Care is $36 AUD/month, month to month, with no credit card to start
    • CSV and PDF exports for your own records and reporting

  • AUD pricing & support

    Transparent pricing in AUD with flexible payment options for clinics of every size.

    Care
    One clinician, month to month
    $36
    AUD/month
    Team
    Starting price, unlimited clinicians
    $285
    AUD/month
    Network
    Multi-site organizations
    Custom
    Enterprise pricing

100+ validated scales for Northern Territory clinics

  • Validated scales grouped by what they measure, each with its scoring and source. Public programmes often call this routine outcome monitoring (ROM), or patient-reported outcome measures (PROMs): the same practice of giving a validated scale at regular points and reading the scores over time.

  • Mood, Anxiety and Distress

    • PHQ-9 (Depression)
    • GAD-7 (Anxiety)
    • DASS-21 (Depression, Anxiety, Stress)

  • Suicide Risk and Trauma

    • C-SSRS Screener (Suicide Risk)
    • SIDAS (Suicidal Ideation)
    • PCL-5 (PTSD)
    • ITQ (PTSD and Complex PTSD)

  • Substance Use and Recovery

    • ASSIST-3 (Substance Involvement)
    • BARC-10 (Recovery Capital)

  • Young People

    • PHQ-A (Adolescent Depression)
    • SCARED (Child Anxiety)
    • CRAFFT 2.1 (Youth Substance Use)
Browse all assessments

Privacy Rules for NT Care Teams

  • Two regimes apply. The Information Act 2002 sets Information Privacy Principles for public sector organisations, and a contractor delivering a service for one must follow them as the organisation would; the Information Commissioner role is now held by the Integrity and Ethics Commissioner. A private practice is covered by the federal Privacy Act 1988, which applies to every health service provider regardless of turnover. The duties sit with your service; HiBoop's part is to support you in meeting them.

  • What the rules ask of your service

    • Public sector organisations collect and handle personal information under the IPPs in Schedule 2 of the Information Act
    • A contract service provider to an NT public body follows those IPPs in the same way and to the same extent as the outsourcing organisation
    • Private practices take reasonable steps to protect personal information from misuse, interference and loss (APP 11)
    • Before health information is disclosed overseas, take the steps APP 8 sets out, and check where each vendor stores data
    • Clients can ask for access to the information you hold about them (APP 12)

  • What HiBoop provides

    • SOC 2 Type II certified, with encryption in transit and at rest
    • Hosted on Google Cloud in the US or Canada, with other regions on request, so you can record the location for APP 8
    • Role-based access and a record of every view and export
    • You choose which scales to send, so you collect only what care calls for
    • CSV or PDF exports of a client's scores when they ask for access

  • Reviewing a new vendor?

    Hosting regions, encryption, access controls and how to request our SOC 2 Type II report are on the trust page.

    Visit the trust page

Grants & funding for Northern Territory mental health clinics

Funding Guide

  • Public and private funding programs that support measurement-based care implementation.

  • Primary Health Networks - Dept of Health & Aged Care

    PHN Mental Health Commissioning

    Tech eligible

    Australia's 31 PHNs commission local mental health services and are required to use validated outcome measures. K10 is the national standard population screening tool. Technology platforms supporting Better Access K10 workflows and generating PHN-compatible outcome reports are eligible for commissioning consideration.

    Varies by PHN regionLearn more

  • Services Australia / Medicare

    Better Access - MBS Outcome Measurement

    Tech eligible

    Better Access MBS billing for GP Mental Health Treatment Plan reviews requires documented outcome tool use - K10 is the de facto standard. HiBoop helps practices document session outcomes for these reviews, reducing admin burden.

    N/A (billing compliance support)Learn more

  • DHCRC (Dept of Industry + CSIRO + universities)

    Digital Health Cooperative Research Centre

    Tech eligible

    The DHCRC funds collaborative digital health research between industry, universities, and clinical settings. Mental health technology platforms demonstrating outcome measurement capability are eligible for research partnership programs connecting practices with CSIRO and academic research.

    Varies by project streamLearn more
View all grants & funding

Resources for Northern Territory practitioners

  • Billing guides, compliance documentation, and clinical practice resources.

  • AustraliaHiBoop Across Australia

    Better Access, the Privacy Act and the other state and territory guides

  • DepressionPHQ-9 Guide

    Item scoring, severity bands and reading a change between visits

  • ReferenceK10 Reference Page

    The NOCC adult self-report measure in the Territory; reference only, not offered in the HiBoop app

  • LibraryAll Assessments

    Every scale HiBoop describes, with references for each

Northern Territory Laws, Services and Funding

  • Official bodies, clinical guidelines, and regulatory references. Northern Territory.

  • Mental health programs

    NT PHN

    Stepped care, psychological therapies, youth, psychosocial and Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander mental health services the PHN commissions.

  • About AMSANT

    AMSANT

    The peak body for Aboriginal community controlled health services in the Northern Territory.

  • Information Act 2002

    NT Legislation

    The Information Privacy Principles for public sector organisations and their contract service providers.

  • Mental Health and Related Services Act 1998

    NT Legislation

    Care, treatment and protection of people with mental illness, and the protection of their civil rights.

  • Small business and the Privacy Act

    OAIC (Office of the Australian Information Commissioner)

    Why a health service provider is covered by the Privacy Act 1988 regardless of turnover.

  • Mental health treatment plans

    healthdirect

    Better Access sessions under a treatment plan: 10 individual and 10 group sessions each calendar year.

Latest in mental health in Australia

Crisis and urgent help lines

  • If someone is in immediate danger, call 000. HiBoop is not a crisis service.

  • Emergency

    For a life-threatening emergency, call emergency services first.

    Call 000

  • Lifeline Australia

    24/7

    Call 13 11 14

  • Beyond Blue

    24/7

    Call 1300 22 4636
More crisis lines

Measurement-based care

…starts with what we measure, and how long.

Frequently Asked Questions

  • Does the Information Act 2002 apply to my private practice?

    Its Information Privacy Principles are for public sector organisations. If you deliver a service under contract to an NT public body, the Act asks you to follow those principles in the same way and to the same extent as that body. Otherwise a private practice is covered by the federal Privacy Act 1988, which applies to every health service provider regardless of turnover. HiBoop makes no compliance claim under either Act; it supports you with access controls, a view and export log, and exports.

  • Which outcome measures do NT public mental health services report?

    Public services report to the National Outcomes and Casemix Collection (NOCC), which includes clinician-rated measures such as the HoNOS family and the LSP-16. For the adult self-report measure, the NOCC specification lists the K10+ for the Northern Territory. HiBoop does not offer the K10 or HoNOS; it offers the PHQ-9, GAD-7, DASS-21 and other validated scales for private and community services.

  • Which Medicare items cover Better Access psychology in the Territory?

    The same national items as everywhere else. A GP writes the Mental Health Treatment Plan under item 2717 (40 minutes or more) or item 2715 (20 to 39 minutes, with mental health skills training). In-person sessions of at least 50 minutes are then item 80010 for a clinical psychologist and item 80110 for a psychologist. The treating psychologist has to hold registration with the Psychology Board of Australia, which is administered through Ahpra.

  • Can I bill psychology for a Return to Work claim in the NT?

    Under the Return to Work Act 1986, medical treatment includes treatment by a person registered in the psychology profession, and employers must hold insurance against their liability. Check the insurer's requirements for each claim; HiBoop can export a client's scale history as a PDF for your report.