Completion of treatment

Reasons for clients who no longer received treatment from an alcohol and other drug (AOD) treatment service include:

  • expected completions (for example, treatment program completed)
  • unplanned completions (for example, the client ceased to participate in the treatment program without notice)
  • administrative completion (for example, client transferred to another service provider) (see Key terminology and glossary).

In 2022–23, among treatment episodes for a client’s own alcohol or drug use (217,303 episodes):

  • 3 in 5 (60% or 130,826) treatment episodes ended as expected (planned) completions.
  • Around 1 in 5 (20% or 44,008) of treatment episodes ended due to an unplanned completion (Table Trt.8).

This pattern differed slightly for clients who received treatment for someone else’s alcohol or drug use (18,158 episodes). The proportion of treatment episodes that ended due to unplanned completion was lower (10% or 1,818) than for a client’s own alcohol or drug use (Figure COMPLETION 1, Table Trt.8).  

Figure COMPLETION 1: Treatment episodes, by client type and reason for completion, 2013–14 to 2022–23

The stacked horizontal bar graph shows that most treatment episodes in 2022–23 ended with an expected/planned completion, regardless of client type. Treatment episodes provided to clients for their own drug use were more likely to end with an expected completion than were episodes provided to clients for someone else’s drug use 60.2% compared with 43.2%, respectively). 42.7% of episodes provided to clients for other’s drug use ended for other reasons, compared to 12.3% of episodes for clients’ own drug use. A filter allows the user to view data for different years.

In 2022–23, completion of treatment for a client’s own alcohol or drug use (217,303) varied by principal drug of concern. For example, treatment episodes for:

  • The most common principal drugs of concern had expected completion proportions ranging from 64% (or 24,417) for cannabis to 53% (27,441) for amphetamines.
  • Volatile solvents (71% or 241) and nicotine (70% or 1,627) as the principal drugs of concern had the highest proportion of episodes ending with an expected completion.
  • Amphetamines had the highest proportion of episodes for unplanned completions (24% or 125,44), followed by, cannabis and oxycodone (both 20% or 7,641 and 161, respectively) (Table Drg.14, Figure COMPLETION 2). 

Figure COMPLETION 2: Treatment episodes for selected drugs, by principal drug of concern and reason for completion, 2013–14 to 2022–23

The stacked horizontal bar chart shows that expected/planned completion was the most common reason for cessation in treatment episodes for all selected principal drugs of concern in 2022–23. The proportion of episodes that ended with an expected completion ranged from 52.9% for amphetamines as the principal drug of concern to 71.3% for volatile solvents. A filter allows the user to view data for different years.

Over the 10 years to 2022–23, for a client’s own alcohol or drug use (217,303 episodes), the proportion of treatment episodes that ended in an expected completion decreased overall, falling by 4 percentage points to 60% (or 130,826) (Table Ov.7):

  • Where alcohol was the principal drug of concern, around 3 in 5 episodes ended with an expected completion (ranging from 62% to 66% between 2013–14 and 2022–23).
  • Where amphetamines were the principal drug of concern, the proportion of treatment episodes with an expected completion decreased from a peak of 62% (or 28,724) in 2015–16 to 53% (27,441) in 2022–23.
  • Where cannabis was the principal drug of concern, the proportion of treatment episodes with an expected completion decreased from a peak of 73% (or 30,521) in 2016–17 to 64% (or 24,417) in 2022–23.
  • Where heroin was the principal drug of concern, the proportion of treatment episodes with an expected completion ranged between 54% and 61% between 2013–14 and 2022–23 (Table Drg.12).

Over the 10 years to 2022–23, for someone else’s alcohol or drug use (18,158 episodes):

  • the proportion of treatment episodes with an expected completion fell from 63% (or 5,675) in 2013–14 to 43% (or 7,845) in 2022–23
  • conversely, ‘other’ as a reason for ceasing treatment increased from 20% (or 1,746) in 2013–14 to 42% (or 7,632) in 2022–23 (Table Ov.7).
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