Alcohol and other drug treatment services in Australia annual report

Alcohol and other drug (AOD) treatment agencies can be analysed by the state or remoteness area in which the agencies are located.

In 2022–23:

• Nearly 3 in 5 (57% or 733) treatment agencies were located in Major cities and a quarter (25% or 315) were in Inner regional areas. Agencies in these two areas provided 89% of all treatment episodes (Figure AGENCIES REMOTENESS 1, tables Agcy.3–Agcy.4).
• Relatively few treatment agencies were located in Remote (2.7% or 34) and Very remote areas (2.5% or 32). Agencies in these two areas provided 2.3% of all treatment episodes.
• This pattern was similar across most states and territories, except for the Northern Territory where, because it does not contain Major cities and Inner regional areas, half (50%) of all agencies were located in Remote (35.5%) and Very remote (14.5%) areas, with the other half in Outer regional (50%) areas (Figure AGENCIES 2, Table Agcy.3).

Over the 10-year period to 2022–23:

• Nationally, the total number of agencies delivering AOD services has increased, rising from 796 agencies in 2013–14 to 1,280 agencies in 2022–23.
• The majority of agencies were located in Major cities: this trend was similar for most states and territories but does not apply to the Northern Territory and Tasmania, which do not have Major cities as a remoteness area. 

Figure AGENCIES REMOTENESS 1: Treatment agencies, by remoteness area and state or territory, 2022–23

Treatment type delivery varied by agency remoteness. Nationally, in 2022–23:

• Counselling was the most common main treatment type provided by agencies across all remoteness areas. 
• The proportion of treatment episodes provided by agencies for counselling ranged from as high as 52% in Very remote areas to 33% in Inner regional areas (Figure AGENCIES REMOTENESS 2, Table Agcy.6).

The delivery of main treatment types also varied by agency remoteness at a jurisdictional level. 

In 2022–23:

• In New South Wales, agencies across the majority of remoteness areas except for Very remote areas, mainly provided counselling as a treatment, ranging from 87% of treatment episodes in Remote areas to 33% in Inner regional areas. Whereas in Very remote areas support and case management was the most common main treatment type (92%).
• In Victoria, agencies in Major cities mostly provided counselling and support and case management (23% and 22% of episodes, respectively). Inner regional and Outer regional agencies mainly provided assessment only (28%) and counselling (32%), respectively. 
• In Queensland, assessment only was the most common treatment type in Remote (54%) and Outer regional (39%) areas.
• In Western Australia around 9 in 10 treatment episodes in Very remote areas were for counselling (96%).
• In South Australia, support and case management was more likely to be provided in more remote areas (ranging from 5.1% in Inner Regional to 47% in Very remote) compared to Major cities (2.1%), while Major cities had the highest proportion of withdrawal management treatment episodes (23%). 
• In the Northern Territory, assessment only was the most common treatment across all remoteness areas ranging from 38% in Remote areas to 56% in Very remote areas.
• In Tasmania, counselling was the most common treatment in Inner regional (52%) and Outer regional (44%) areas while rehabilitation was the most common treatment in Remote areas (97%) (Figure AGENCIES REMOTENESS 2, Table Agcy.6). 

Note that remoteness categories are derived by applying a correspondence based on the agency’s Statistical Area level 2 code (SA2). Australian Capital Territory only has the one geographical classification of Major cities. See technical notes for information on how this affects the reporting of the number of agencies in a particular remoteness category.

Figure AGENCIES REMOTENESS 2: Treatment episodes, by remoteness area of agency, main treatment type and state or territory, 2022–23