Mental Health Reports for Executives: What Leaders Should Review

A mental health executive report should include a few measures in each of five areas, with trends and short commentary. The areas are below.

• Access: referrals, waiting times, clinician capacity and first-session attendance.
• Quality: outcome change, completion rates and client feedback.
• Safety: open risk flags, overdue reviews and escalation response times, as counts.
• Finance: revenue, collections, outstanding SHA and insurer claims, and cost per session in KES.
• Compliance: consent completion, access reviews, incidents and ODPC obligations.

Keep it to two or three pages. Leaders should be able to read it in a few minutes.

Use simple visuals, such as small trend lines or traffic-light indicators. Avoid dense tables that hide the message.

Executives need a structured report because ad hoc updates hide trends and make months hard to compare. Structure turns updates into evidence.

A consistent format shows whether things are improving. It also helps boards, partners and funders trust the numbers.

In Kenya, leaders also carry duties under the Data Protection Act 2019 and the Kenya Mental Health Act. A regular report helps show those duties are being met.

For multi-site groups and NGO programmes, the same structure lets leaders compare sites fairly. Differences then prompt questions rather than assumptions.

It also saves time. Once the structure is set, each month's report takes far less effort to prepare.

Build the report once, carefully, and then repeat it every month with the same definitions. These steps get you there.

1. Agree the five areas and a few measures for each with your leadership team.
2. Define every measure in writing, including its data source.
3. Pull data from one system rather than several spreadsheets.
4. Show trends over at least six months, not single figures.
5. Add two or three lines of commentary per area.
6. End with the decisions needed and who owns each one.
7. Have clinical and finance leads check the figures before circulation.

Change the measures rarely. Stable definitions are what make trends meaningful.

Set a fixed deadline each month, such as the tenth working day. A predictable rhythm helps every contributor plan.

Leaders should review safety data as aggregated counts and response times, never as individual case details. Detail stays with authorised clinical staff.

Useful measures include open risk flags, overdue reviews and time to supervisor acknowledgement. These show whether safety workflows are working.

If a measure moves the wrong way, ask what support the team needs. Clinical decisions stay with clinical leads.

Include a short note on any serious incidents, reviewed by clinical leads. Describe the learning and actions, not the client.

Over time, the trend matters more than any single month. Look for sustained change before acting.

Finance and compliance should appear as short sections with clear trends and any exceptions highlighted. Leaders need to see problems early.

For finance, show revenue, collections and the age of outstanding SHA and insurer claims, reconciled with KRA eTIMS records. Our guide to clinical outcomes and financial performance goes deeper.

For compliance, track consent completion, access reviews, data incidents and ODPC notifications. Breaches with real risk of harm must be notified within 72 hours, as our data protection compliance checklist explains.

Also flag upcoming regulatory changes, such as new SHA rules or ODPC guidance. Leaders should hear about them before they take effect.

Note data protection training completed and any open data subject requests.

Tymira360 brings clinical, operational and financial data into one place, so executive reports come from a single source. Figures match across teams.

Leaders see aggregated views, while detail stays behind role-based access. See also outcome dashboards and Tymira360 for mental health providers.

Aggregated views can be exported for board packs. Leaders then spend less time assembling numbers and more time discussing them.

Tymira Health can help set up your first executive report template during onboarding.

How long should an executive report be?

Two or three pages is enough for most services. Put detail in appendices or dashboards.

Should board members see individual client data?

No. Boards need aggregated, de-identified data. Individual details stay with authorised clinical staff.

How often should we report?

Monthly suits management teams. Boards may prefer a quarterly version with the same structure.

Who should own the report?

A named operations or quality lead should compile it. Clinical and finance leads check their sections before circulation.

What if our data quality is poor?

Report data completeness openly and make improving it a priority action. Imperfect data, honestly labelled, is still useful.

Want board-ready reporting from one system? Book a demo with Tymira Health.