Western Australia

On this page

Overview Client demographics Drugs of concern Treatment Agencies

In 2022–23, 124 publicly funded alcohol and other drug (AOD) treatment agencies in Western Australia provided 19,671 treatment episodes to 14,947 clients (tables Agcy.1, SCR.21). 

Western Australia reported: 

  • Client numbers increased from 2013–14 (15,146) to 2018–19 (19,348), decreasing steadily to 14,947 in 2022–23.
  • Fewer clients are accessing AOD services in 2022–23 than 2013–14, after adjusting for population growth (604 compared with 697 per 100,000 people, respectively) (Table SCR.21).
  • A 3.2% decrease in treatment episodes from 20,314 in 2021–22 to 19,671 in 2022–23, and a 5.7% decrease in episodes since 2013–14 (20,867) (Table ST WA.2).

Western Australia, 2022–23

 The visualisation shows that 19,671 treatment episodes were provided to 14,947 clients in Western Australia in 2022–23. This equates to a rate of 795 episodes and 604 clients per 100,000 population, compared with the national rate of 1,017 episodes and 568 clients per 100,000 population.

In 2022–23, most (86%) clients in Western Australia attended 1 agency, and received an average of 1.3 treatment episodes, which is lower than the national average of 1.8 treatment episodes (tables SCR.21, SCR.23).

Client demographics

In 2022–23:

  • Most (95%) clients in Western Australia received treatment for their own alcohol or drug use, of which 2 in 3 (64%) people were male (Figure WA 1).
  • Three-quarter of people who received treatment for someone else’s alcohol or drug use were female (75%).
  • Over half (52%) of the people who received treatment for their own alcohol or drug use were aged 20–39 years; in contrast, people who received treatment for someone else’s alcohol or drug use were more likely to be aged 50 and over (52%).
  • 1 in 5 (21%) of all clients were Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander (First Nations) people, which is higher than the national proportion (18%).
  • The majority (82%) of all clients were born in Australia and nearly all (98%) reported English as their preferred language (tables SC WA.1–3, SC.4, SC WA.21–22).

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

The visualisation includes a series of horizontal bar graphs showing that, in 2022–23 in Western Australia, just under two-thirds (62%) of all clients were male, 50% were aged 20–39 and 21% were First Nations people. Nearly all clients (98%) listed English as their preferred language and most (82%) were born in Australia.

New and returning clients

In 2022–23:

  • Over half (53% or 7,931) of all clients in Western Australia were returning clients, who have previously received AOD treatment from a service at some point since 2013–14.
  • Nearly half (47% or 6,977) of all clients in Western 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 Western Australia who received treatment episodes for their own alcohol or drug use (18,785 episodes), alcohol was the most common principal drug of concern (48% or 9,017 episodes), followed by amphetamines (22% or 4,108) (Figure WA 2; tables ST WA.2 and ST WA.6).

Figure WA 2: Proportion of treatment episodes for own drug use, by drug of concern, Western 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 Western Australia for their own drug use (48.0%). This was followed by amphetamines (21.9%) and cannabis (19.5%). Cannabis was the most common additional drug of concern (16.6% of episodes), followed by alcohol (10.5%) and amphetamines (9.3%).

In 2022–23, for clients who received treatment for their own use of amphetamines (4,108 episodes):

  • Methamphetamine was reported as a principal drug of concern in almost 9 in 10 (89%) treatment episodes.
  • In over half of treatment episodes where methamphetamine was the principal drug of concern, injecting was the most common method of use (53%), followed by smoking (43%) (Figure WA 3).

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

The line graph shows that, in 2013–14, amphetamine were the most common drugs of concern among amphetamine-related treatment episodes for clients’ own drug use. In 2014–15, methamphetamine became the most common drug of concern. The proportion of episodes for methamphetamine increased from 33.0% in 2013–14 to 88.9% in 2022–23. Buttons allow the user to navigate to data on amphetamines by method of use.  

Clients can nominate up to 5 additional drugs of concern; however, 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, cannabis was the most common additional drug (17% of episodes), followed by alcohol and nicotine (10% and 9.7% respectively) and amphetamines (9.3%) (Table ST WA.7).

Over the period 2013–14 to 2022–23:

  • The proportion of treatment episodes for alcohol as a principal drug of concern relative to all other principal drugs of concern fell from 36% (6,973) in 2013–14 to 29% in 2016–17 (6,723), before rising to 48% (9,017 episodes) in 2022–23.
  • The proportion of treatment for amphetamines as a principal drug of concern increased from 23% in 2013–14, peaking at 36% in 2016–17 then falling to 22% in 2022–23 (Table ST WA.6). 
    • Within the amphetamines group, methamphetamine was reported as the principal drug of concern in 33% of episodes in 2013–14, rising to 89% in 2022–23 (Figure WA 3).
  • The proportion of treatment for cannabis decreased from 25% in 2013–14 to 19% in 2022–23.

Treatment

In 2022–23, for treatment episodes in Western Australia (19,671 episodes), counselling was the most common main treatment (65% of episodes), followed by support and case management 11% (Figure WA 4, Table ST WA.13).

Over the period 2013–14 to 2022–23:

  • Counselling remained the most common main treatment for all episodes. 
  • The proportion of episodes where counselling was a main treatment type remained substantially higher in Western Australia than nationally over the period, ranging from 60% to 71% in Western Australia compared with 34% to 43% nationally (tables ST WA.13, Trt.3).
  • The next most common main treatment types were support and case management (5.1% to 11% of episodes) and withdrawal management (5.6% to 8.7%).

Figure WA 4: Proportion of treatment episodes, by treatment type, Western 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 Western Australia for their own drug use was counselling (64.5% of episodes). This was followed by support and case management (10.8%) and withdrawal management (7.7%).

Agencies

In 2022–23, in Western Australia:

  • 9 in 10 (90%) AOD agencies that received public funding were non-government treatment agencies (Table Agcy.1).
  • Almost 3 in 5 (56%) of the 124 treatment agencies were located in Major cities (Figure WA 5, Table Agcy.3).
  • Very remote areas were the only areas where there were more government than non-government agencies (8 and 6, respectively).

In the 10 years to 2022–23, the number of publicly funded treatment agencies in Western Australia rose from 80 to 124 (Table Agcy.1).

Figure WA 5: Number of agencies, by remoteness area and sector, Western Australia, 2022–23

 The horizontal bar chart shows that most treatment agencies in Western Australia were located in Major cities (70 agencies), followed by Outer regional areas (17 agencies) and Remote (15 agencies) and Very remote areas (14 agencies each) in 2022–23. 8 agencies were located in Inner regional areas. Of the total 124 treatment agencies, 89.5% (111 agencies) were non-government agencies.

Previous page
Next page