Patterns of service use
Over the period 2015–16 to 2019–20, 67,882 clients received treatment in Western Australia. Of these clients:
- the majority received treatment in a single year (74%):
- 16% (11,067) received treatment for the first time in 2019–20
- a further 58% (39,213) received treatment in only one of the four collection periods (excluding 2019–20)
- 18% (12,047) of clients received treatment in any 2 of the 5 years
- 5.8% (3,916) of clients received treatment in any 3 of the 5 years
- 1.9% (1,275) of clients received treatment in any 4 of the 5 years
- 0.5% (364) of clients received treatment in all 5 collection years (Table SCR.28).
Drugs of concern
In 2019–20, for clients in Western Australia receiving treatment episodes for their own alcohol or drug use:
- Amphetamines and alcohol were the most common principal drugs of concern (both 34% of treatment episodes) (Figure 14; Table SE WA.10);
- within the amphetamines group:
- methamphetamine was reported as a principal drug of concern in 9 in 10 (92%) treatment episodes; in over half (53%) of treatment episodes where methamphetamine was the principal drug of concern, injecting was the most common method of use, followed by smoking (42%) (Figure 14b)
- cannabis accounted for the third highest proportion of episodes (21%), followed by heroin (5%).
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).
In 2019–20, when the client reported additional drugs of concern:
- cannabis was the most common additional drug (23% of episodes), followed by alcohol (16%), nicotine (15%), and amphetamines (11%) (Table SE WA.11).
Over the period 2015–16 to 2019–20:
- alcohol and amphetamines were the most common principal drugs of concern for clients in 2019–20 (both 34% of episodes) with alcohol rising from 30% in 2015–16 and amphetamines fluctuating between 34–36% over this period (Table SE WA.10)
- while the proportion of treatment episodes for amphetamines in Western Australia is similar to the national proportion in 2019–20, in previous years it has been higher (Table SD.2)
- within the amphetamines group, methamphetamine was reported as the principal drug of concern in over 3 in 4 episodes (76%) in 2015–16, rising to 92% in 2019–20 (Figure 14a)
- cannabis was the third most common principal drug of concern for clients and has remained consistently higher than the national proportion, ranging from 23% to 21% over this period.