Summary

In the Australian Capital Territory (ACT) in 2008–09, 10 publicly funded alcohol and other drug treatment agencies provided 3,750 treatment episodes.

The median age of persons receiving treatment for their own drug use increased slightly to 31 years, from 30 years in 2007–08. For people seeking treatment in relation to someone else’s drug use, the median1 age increased from 43 years in 2007–08 to 48 years in 2008–09.

Alcohol was the most common principal drug of concern in 2008–09 (54%), accounting for a larger proportion of episodes compared with the previous year. Other principal drugs of concern included heroin, which dropped 5 percentage points to 15%, while treatment for cannabis (16%) and amphetamines (9%) remained at similar levels to the previous year.

The most common form of treatment was counselling, comprising 30% of treatment episodes, which was less than the national proportion (37%). Withdrawal management remained at 21% of treatment episodes, being 5% greater than the national proportion. There was a slight decrease in the proportion of assessment only treatment episodes (from almost 19% in 2007–08 to 16% in 2008–09).

 

  1. The median is the midpoint of a list of observations ranked from the smallest to the largest. 

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