Agencies

On this page:

Who provides publicly funded alcohol and other drug treatment services?

The Australian Government and state and territory governments fund non-government and government agencies to provide a range of alcohol and other drug (AOD) treatment services. Treatment services are delivered in residential and non-residential settings, and often include treatments such as detoxification, rehabilitation, counselling and pharmacotherapy.

The Alcohol and Other Drug Treatment Services National Minimum Data Set (AODTS NMDS) contains information on publicly funded AOD treatment agencies and their service delivery outlets. An agency can have more than one service delivery outlet, located in different areas.

In 2022–23, 1,280 publicly funded alcohol and other drug treatment agencies provided services in Australia.

In 2022–23, 1,280 publicly funded AOD treatment agencies reported to the AODTS NMDS. The number of agencies in each jurisdiction ranged from 17 in the Australian Capital Territory to 478 in New South Wales (Figure AODTS AGENCIES.1).

Over the last 10 years, there have been increases in the total number of AOD treatment agencies (from 796 in 2013–14). See the Alcohol and other drug treatment services NMDS Data Quality Statement, 2022–23 for further information.

Service sector

A mix of government and non-government agencies deliver publicly funded AOD treatment services. Nationally in 2022–23, almost 7 in 10 (69%) AOD treatment agencies were non-government, and these agencies provided 73% of all treatment episodes (Figure AODTS AGENCIES.1).

Figure AODTS AGENCIES.1: Treatment agencies, by sector and state and territory, 2013–14 to 2022–23

The horizontal bar chart shows the number and proportion of alcohol and other drug treatment agencies by sector (government and non-government) and state and territory. 

In 2022–23, Australia had 1,280 agencies; New South Wales had 478 agencies; Victoria had 350 agencies; Queensland had 179 agencies; Western Australia had 124 agencies; South Australia had 87 agencies; the Australian Capital Territory had 17 agencies; Tasmania had 21 agencies and the Northern Territory had 24 agencies. 

Nationally in 2022–23, over 2 in 3 (69%) AOD treatment agencies were non-government. Across states and territories, the proportion of non-government AOD agencies ranged from 40.0% of agencies in New South Wales to 99.1% of agencies in Victoria. 

Notes:

  1. The number of agencies is not an accurate reflection of all in-scope AOD specialist treatment services in Australia, as some agencies fail to report data during a collection for various reasons. See the Alcohol and other drug treatment services NMDS, 2022–23 data quality statement for details.
  2. In 2018–19, the AOD treatment agency counting methodology was revised to better reflect the number of unique AOD treatment service outlets. There is a level of agency duplication, due to agencies splitting out episode data that is related to the funding source for that program/ service. Some agencies chose to split their data according to the funding source. For example, state funded service episodes are reported to the relevant state or territory department and the Commonwealth funded service episodes are separated and reported to a peak body or directly to the Australian Institute of Health and Welfare (AIHW). This has resulted in some services being counted as 2 separate agencies over time. The revision was applied to all time-series, with AOD service counts from 2014–15 to 2017–18 affected.
  3. Data are subject to minor revisions over time.
  4. Components of tables may not sum to totals due to rounding.
Previous page
Next page