South Australia

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Overview Client demographics Drugs of concern Treatment Agencies

In 2022–23, 83 publicly funded alcohol and other drug (AOD) treatment agencies in South Australia provided 9,769 treatment episodes to 6,718 clients (tables Agcy.1, SCR.21).

South Australia reported:

  • Client numbers decreased steadily from 9,215 in 2013–14 to 6,718 in 2022–23.
  • Fewer clients are accessing AOD services in 2022–23 than 2013–14, after adjusting for population growth (412 clients per 100,000 people compared with 624 per 100,000, respectively) (Table SCR.21).
  • A decrease in treatment episodes since 2013–14, falling from 13,155 to 9,769 episodes in 2022–23 (Table ST SA.2).

South Australia, 2022–23

 The visualisation shows that 9,769 treatment episodes were provided to 6,718 clients in South Australia in 2022–23. This equates to a rate of 599 episodes and 412 clients per 100,000 population, lower than the national rate (1,017 episodes and 568 clients per 100,000 population).

In 2022–23, most (86%) clients in South Australia attended 1 agency, and received an average of 1.5 treatment episodes, which is lower than the national average of 1.8 treatment episodes (tables SCR.21, SCR.23).

Client demographics

In 2022–23:

  • Nearly all (over 99%) clients in South Australia received treatment for their own alcohol or drug use, of which over 3 in 5 (63%) people were male (Figure SA 1).
  • Over half of people who received treatment for someone else’s alcohol or drug use were female (54%).
  • Over half (53%) of all people were aged 30–49 years.
  • Over 1 in 6 (17%) people were Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander (First Nations) people, which is lower than the national proportion (18%).
  • The majority (92%) of clients were born in Australia and nearly all (98%) reported English as their preferred language (tables SC SA.1–3, SC.4, SC SA.21–22).

Figure SA 1: AODTS clients by client type and selected demographics, South Australia, 2022–23

The visualisation includes a series of horizontal bar graphs showing that, in 2022–23 in South Australia, two-thirds (63%) of all clients were male, 53% were aged 30–49 and 17% were First Nations people. Nearly all clients (98%) listed English as their preferred language and most (92%) were born in Australia.

New and returning clients

In 2022–23:

  • Over half (53% or 3,525) of all clients in South Australia were returning clients, who have previously received AOD treatment from a service at some point since 2013–14.
  • Nearly half (47% or 3,166) of all clients in South Australia were a new client, who had not previously received treatment since 2013–14 (see Key terminology and glossary) (Table SCR 28).

Drugs of concern

In 2022–23, for clients in South Australia who received treatment episodes for their own alcohol or drug use (9,687 episodes):

  • Alcohol was the most common principal drug of concern (41% or 3,936 episodes) (Figure SA 2).
  • Amphetamines accounted for one-third of treatment episodes (30% or 2,913), followed by cannabis (15% or 1,478). 

Figure SA 2: Proportion of treatment episodes for own drug use, by drug of concern, South Australia, 2013–14 to 2022–23

The grouped horizontal bar chart shows that, in 2022–23, alcohol was the most common principal drug of concern in treatment episodes provided to clients in South Australia for their own drug use (40.6%). This was followed by amphetamines (30.1%) and cannabis (15.3%). Cannabis was the most common additional drug of concern (18.4% of episodes), followed by amphetamines (10.0%) and alcohol (8.9%).

In 2022–23, for clients who received treatment for their own use of amphetamines (2,913 episodes):

  • Methamphetamine was reported as a principal drug of concern in approximately 82% of treatment episodes.
  • Where methamphetamine was the principal drug of concern, smoking was the most common method of use in 58% of treatment episodes, followed by injecting (33%) (Figure SA 3).

Figure SA 3: Proportion of treatment episodes for own drug use, by amphetamine group (2013–14 to 2022–23) or method of use (2022–23), South Australia (per cent)

The line graph shows that, from 2013–14 to 2014–15, ‘amphetamines not further defined’ was the most common drug of concern among amphetamine-related treatment episodes for clients’ own drug use. In 2015–16, methamphetamine became the most common drug of concern. The proportion of episodes for methamphetamine increased from 12.1% in 2013–14 to 82.3% in 2022–23, while episodes for amphetamines not further defined decreased from 79.2% to 8.5% over the same period. Buttons allow the user to navigate to data on amphetamines by method of use.

Clients can nominate up to 5 additional drugs of concern; these drugs are not necessarily the subject of any treatment within the episode (see technical notes).

In 2022–23, where additional drugs of concern were reported, nicotine was the most common (22% of episodes), followed by cannabis (18%) (Table ST SA.7).

Over the period 2013–14 to 2022–23:

  • Alcohol was the most common principal drug of concern over this period, from 36% of episodes in 2013–14, falling to 27% in 2016–17, increasing to 41% in 2022–23 (Table ST SA.7).
  • Amphetamines have remained the second most common principal drug of concern, increasing from 27% in 2013–14 to 37% in 2016–17, before falling to 30% in 2022–23. 
  • Amphetamine treatment episodes decreased over this period from 3,562 in 2013–14, peaking at 4,288 in 2018–19, falling to 2,913 in 2022–23:
    • For episodes where amphetamines were the principal drug of concern, the proportion of treatment episodes with methamphetamine has increased more than 15-fold since 2013–14 (from 12% to 82% in 2022–23 (Figure SA 3).
    • The rise in episodes may be related to increases in funded treatment services and/or improvement in agency coding practices for methamphetamine. 

The proportion of treatment episodes for amphetamines as a principal drug of concern has been consistently higher in South Australia than the national proportion (30% and 24% respectively in 2022–23). This is related to a state government legislated program regarding assessments provided under a Police Drug Diversion initiative. The program results in comparatively high proportions of engagement with methamphetamine users. 

In addition, due to the Cannabis Expiation Notice legislation in South Australia, adult simple cannabis offences are not diverted to treatment and so are not included in the data (see the Data Quality Statement).

Treatment

In 2022–23, for treatment episodes in South Australia (9,769 episodes):

  • Counselling was the most common main treatment (36% of episodes), followed by assessment only (26%) and withdrawal management (18%) (Figure SA 4, Table ST SA.13).
  • Where an additional treatment was provided as a supplementary to the main treatment, support and case management (15%) was the most common additional treatment, followed by counselling (7.3%). See technical notes for further information on calculating proportions for additional treatment type.

Over the period 2013–14 to 2022–23:

  • Counselling as main treatment has almost doubled from 22% in 2013–14 to 40% in 2021–22, before falling to 36% in 2022–23.
  • The proportion of episodes with rehabilitation as main treatment fell from 9.0% to 1.6%.
  • The proportion of episodes where assessment only was the main treatment has almost halved since 2013–14, falling from 44% to 26% in 2022–23.  
  • However, assessment only in South Australia remained considerably higher than the national proportion (ranging from 16% to 22%) (tables ST SA.13, Trt.4). 

The high proportion of treatment episodes where assessment only is the most common treatment type relates in part to the SA Police Drug Diversion Initiative (PDDI).

Figure SA 4: Proportion of treatment episodes, by treatment type, South Australia, 2013–14 to 2022–23

The grouped horizontal bar chart shows that, in 2022–23, the most common main treatment type provided to clients in South Australia for their own drug use was counselling (35.5% of episodes). This was followed by assessment only (25.5%) and withdrawal management (18.3%). Support and case management was the most common additional treatment type (15.1% of episodes), followed by counselling (7.3%).

Agencies

In 2022–23, in South Australia:

  • 3 in 5 (62%) of 87 AOD agencies that received public funding were non-government treatment agencies.
  • Almost 3 in 5 (59%) of all treatment agencies were located in Major cities, followed by Outer regional areas (23%) and Inner regional areas (13%) (Figure SA 5, Table Agcy.3)
  • In Very Remote areas all agencies were government organisations.

Over the 10 years to 2022–23, the number of publicly funded treatment agencies in South Australia decreased from 94 to 87 (Table Agcy.1).

Figure SA 5: Number of agencies, by remoteness area and sector, South Australia, 2018–19 to 2022–23

 The horizontal bar chart shows that most treatment agencies in South Australia were located in Major cities (51 agencies), followed by Outer regional (20 agencies) and Inner regional areas (11 agencies each) in 2022–23. 3 agencies were located in Remote areas and 2 agencies were located in Very remote areas. Of the total 87 treatment agencies, 62.1% (54 agencies) were non-government agencies.

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