Patterns of service use
Over the period 2015–16 to 2019–20, 132,067 clients received treatment in Queensland. Of these clients:
- the majority received treatment in a single year (78%):
- 16% (21,569) received treatment for the first time in 2019–20
- a further 62% (81,899) received treatment in only one of the four collection periods (excluding 2019–20)
- 15% (20,011) of clients received treatment in any 2 of the 5 years
- 4.5% (5,962) of clients received treatment in any 3 of the 5 years
- 1.5% (2,048) of clients received treatment in any 4 of the 5 years
- 0.4% (578) of clients received treatment in all 5 collection years (Table SCR.28).
In 2019–20, for clients in Queensland receiving treatment episodes for their own alcohol or drug use:
- alcohol was the most common principal drug of concern (34% of episodes) (Figure 10; Table SE QLD.10)
- amphetamines and cannabis were the second most common principal drugs of concern (both 27%). In Queensland, the level of cannabis reported as the principal drug of concern is a result of the police and illicit drug court diversion programs operating in the state (Table SE QLD.12)
- within the amphetamines group:
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methamphetamine was reported as a principal drug of concern in over 4 in 5 (86%) treatment episodes (Figure 10a)
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in half (50%) of treatment episodes where methamphetamine was the principal drug of concern, injecting was the most common method of use, followed by smoking (40%) (Figure 10b).
Queensland are working with service providers to encourage more specific reporting of amphetamine use (i.e. to reduce the use of ‘amphetamines not further defined’ code where possible).
Clients can nominate up to 5 additional drugs of concern; these drugs are not necessarily the subject of any treatment within the episode (see Technical notes).
When the client reported additional drugs of concern:
- cannabis was the most common additional drug (19% of episodes), followed by nicotine (16%) and alcohol (15%) (Table SE QLD.11).
Over the period 2015–16 to 2019–20:
- the proportion of episodes reporting alcohol as a principal drug of concern ranged from 27% in 2015–16 to 34% in 2019–20. Alcohol replaced cannabis as the most common principal drug of concern in 2018–19 (Table SE QLD.10).
- amphetamines and cannabis were the second most common principal drugs of concern, with treatment episodes for amphetamines increasing since 2015–16 (17% to 27%) and decreasing for cannabis (from 39% to 27%)
- within the amphetamines group, methamphetamine was reported as the principal drug of concern in 65% of episodes in 2015–16, rising to 86% in 2019–20 (Figure 10a). The rise in episodes where methamphetamines were the principal drug of concern may be related to increases in funded treatment services and improvements in agency coding practices for methamphetamines
- the proportion of treatment episodes in Queensland where cannabis was the principal drug of concern was higher than the national proportion in 2019–20 (27% compared with 18%) (Table SD.2).