Alcohol and other drug use is linked to increased risk of injury, mental illness, preventable disease, road trauma and death (AIHW 2020a). Alcohol and other drug treatment services help people to address their own drug use, and provide support to their family and friends. Treatment objectives can include reducing or stopping drug use, and improving social and personal functioning. Treatment services include detoxification, rehabilitation, counselling and pharmacotherapy, and are delivered in residential and non-residential settings.
See Alcohol risk and harm and Illicit drug use for information on use of alcohol and other drugs.
Data sources
- Information on publicly funded alcohol and other drug treatment services in Australia, and the people and drugs treated, is collected through the Alcohol and Other Drug Treatment Services National Minimum Data Set (AODTS NMDS).
- The National Opioid Pharmacotherapy Statistics Annual Data (NOPSAD) collection contains information on pharmacotherapy treatment—that is, opioid substitution therapy (OST)—provided to people dependent on opioid drugs.
- Agencies whose sole function is to prescribe or provide dosing services for opioid pharmacotherapy are excluded from the AODTS NMDS, as data from these agencies are captured in the NOPSAD collection (AIHW 2020b and AIHW 2020c).
In 2018–19, the AODTS NMDS reported that around 137,000 clients aged 10 and over received just under 220,000 closed treatment episodes from 1,283 publicly funded alcohol and other drug treatment agencies.
Clients of alcohol and other drug treatment services were more likely to be male (65%) than female (35%), and most likely to be aged 20–39 (54%). Around 1 in 6 (17%) clients identified as Aboriginal or Torres Strait Islander Australians, representing a rate of 3,580 clients per 100,000.
Between 2014–15 and 2018–19, the estimated number of clients who received treatment increased by 19% (from 115,000 clients to 137,000). This equates to a rate of 623 clients per 100,000 people in 2018–19, compared with 555 clients per 100,000 in 2014–15.
The NOPSAD collection reported that more than 50,000 clients received opioid pharmacotherapy treatment at more than 2,900 dosing points across Australia on a snapshot day in mid-2019.
These clients had broadly similar characteristics to the clients receiving alcohol and other drug treatment services, but were more likely to be slightly older. Pharmacotherapy clients were more likely to be male (67%) than female, and most likely to be aged 30–49 (64% of clients). Around 1 in 10 (10%, or 5,184) clients identified as Indigenous Australians.
For which drugs do people seek treatment?
In 2018–19, the AODTS NMDS indicated that alcohol was the principal drug of concern (PDOC) that led the largest percentage of clients to seek alcohol and other drug treatment services. However, between 2014–15 and 2018–19, the proportion of closed treatment episodes for alcohol fell from 38% to 36%. By contrast, the proportion of closed treatment episodes attributable to amphetamines rose from 20% to 28% (Figure 1).