Client demographics

In 2017–18:

  • nearly all (97%) clients in New South Wales received treatment for their own drug use, of which, most were male (66%) (Figure 1; Table SC NSW.1)
  • clients who received treatment or support for someone else’s drug use were more likely to be female (60%)
  • over half (53%) of all clients were aged 20–39 years (Table SC NSW.2)
  • almost 1 in 6 (16%) clients identified as Indigenous Australians (Table SC NSW.3). This is consistent with the national rate (16%) (Table SC.4)
  • the majority (87%) of clients were born in Australia and nearly all (98%) reported English as their preferred language (Tables SC NSW.21 and SC NSW.22).
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Patterns of service use:

In New South Wales, of the 27,407 total clients who received treatment in 2017–18:

  • 59% (16,093) received treatment in 2017–18 only
  • 12% (3,346) received treatment in both 2016–17 and 2017–18
  • 4.1% (1,125) received treatment in each year from 2015–16 to 2017–18
  • 1.8% (480) received treatment in each year from 2014–15 to 2017–18
  • 1.7% (466) received treatment in all years, from 2013–14 to 2017–18.

Over the period 2013–14 to 2017–18, a total of 92,712 clients received treatment in New South Wales. Of those:

  • 73% (68,134) received treatment in only a single year
  • 18% (17,032) received treatment in any 2 of the 5 years
  • 6% (5,379) received treatment in any 3 of the 5 years
  • 1.8% (1,701) received treatment in any 4 of the 5 years
  • 0.5% (466) received treatment in all 5 collection years.
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