Treatment provided

On this page

Overview Key findings Treatment types Trends in main treatment types Explore treatment provided

There are a number of treatment types available to assist people receiving treatment for alcohol or drug use, most of which aim to reduce the harm of drug use through services such as counselling or information and education. For a subset of people who use alcohol and drugs, treatment and support will be required over the course of their life (consistent with dependence being a chronic condition, like asthma or diabetes). In many cases, people may require ongoing support to achieve long-term change. For other people, early support and treatment will be sufficient to reduce harms and prevent the need for further treatment or they may access treatment intermittently as required (Department of Health and Aged Care 2019).

Key findings

In 2022–23:

  • Around 235,500 treatment episodes were provided to around 131,500 clients.
  • Clients received an average of 1.8 treatment episodes nationally.
  • 92% (around 217,000) of all treatment episodes were provided to people receiving treatment for their own drug use while a further 7.7% (around 18,200) were for someone else’s alcohol or drug use.
  • Counselling was the most common treatment type provided to all clients (34% of all treatment episodes), followed by assessment only (22%). 
  • For someone else’s alcohol or drug use, the most common treatment type was support and case management (46% of treatment episodes), followed by counselling (34%).

Over the 10-year period to 2022–23:

  • Counselling has remained the most common treatment type for all clients, ranging between 43% of episodes in 2013–14 and 34% in 2022–23.
  • Withdrawal management treatment episodes for a client’s own drug use fell from 15% to 11%, moving from the third to the fourth most common treatment.
  • Support and case management has become the third most common treatment for all clients, increasing from 9.3% of episodes in 2013–14 to 15% in 2022–23.

Treatment types

People can receive treatment for their own or someone else’s alcohol or drug use (see Key terminology and glossary). Rehabilitation, withdrawal management (detoxification) and pharmacotherapy are not available for people who received treatment for someone else’s alcohol or drug use. 

In 2022–23, a total of 235,461 closed treatment episodes were provided to 131,516 people for their own or someone else’s alcohol or drug use. Clients received an average of 1.8 treatment episodes each (Table SCR.21):

Between 2013–14 and 2022–23:

  • Treatment episodes increased by 30% (from 180,783 to 235,461 episodes.
  • Between 2021–22 and 2022–23, treatment episodes increased by 3.1%. 
  • Clients receiving treatment increased from 114,436 to 131,516, peaking in 2020–21 (242,980 episodes or 139,271 clients).
  • Between 2021–22 and 2022–23, client numbers increased by 0.8%.

Closed treatment episodes for clients who received treatment for own or other’s drug use

In 2022–23:

  • Over 9 in 10 treatment episodes (92% or 217,303) were provided for a client’s own alcohol or drug use.
  • Around 1 in 12 (7.7% or 18,158) treatment episodes were in relation to someone else’s alcohol or drug use (Table Trt.2).
  • 125,948 people received treatment for their own alcohol or drug use and 11,072 people received treatment in relation to someone else’s alcohol or drug use (Table SCR.30).

Among clients receiving treatment for their own alcohol or drug use:

  • Counselling was the most common main treatment type across most age groups followed by assessment only, except for clients aged 10–19, where it was support and case management.
  • Over 1 in 5 (22%) of clients aged 10–19 received support and case management as a treatment type.
  • Older clients aged 40 and over were more likely to receive withdrawal management as a main treatment type (8.4–9.5%) than younger clients.

Among clients who received support for someone else’s alcohol or drug use, the age of clients varied by main treatment type:

  • Counselling was the most common treatment provided to more than half of clients aged over 40 (51% of clients aged 40–49, 65% of clients aged 50–59, and 72% of clients aged over 60).  
  • Around 1 in 3 clients aged 10–19 (31%) and 20–29 (37%), received support and case management (Figure TREATMENT CLIENTS 1, Table SC.19). 

Figure TREATMENT CLIENTS 1: Clients, by client type, main treatment type and age group, 2022–23

The stacked horizontal bar chart shows that in 2022–23, counselling was the most common main treatment type provided to all clients across all age groups, ranging from 36.1% for all clients aged 60+ years to 49.6% for all clients aged 10–19 years. A filter allows the user to view data for all clients, clients seeking treatment for their own drug use or clients seeking treatment for someone else’s drug use. 

Trends in main treatment types

The types of main treatments clients have received have changed over time, reflecting the changes in service delivery. 

For treatment episodes provided for a client’s own alcohol or drug use over the 10-year period to 2022–23:

  • Counselling has remained the most common treatment type, gradually declining from a high of 41% (70,734) of episodes in 2013–14 to a low of 34% (73,561) in 2022–23.
  • The proportion of episodes with withdrawal management as main treatment dropped from 15% (25,613) in 2013–14 to 11% (23,250) in 2022–23.
  • The proportion of Assessment only (from 16% to 23%), support and case management (from 9.3% to 13%) and other main treatment (from 1.9% to 8.6%) have increased over this period.

For treatment episodes provided for those who received support for someone else’s alcohol or drug use over the 10-year period to 2022–23:

  • Until 2022–23, counselling was the most common treatment type, ranging from a high of 73% of episodes in 2016–17 before declining and reaching its lowest level in 2022–23, 34%. 
  • In 2022–23, support and case management became the most common main treatment, increasing over 8-fold in the 10 years to 2022–23, from 8.0-10% between 2013–14 and 2017–18 before increasing steadily to 46% (8,355) in 2022–23 (Figure TREATMENT CLIENTS 2, Table Trt.3). 
    • This increase may be due in part to changes in coding practices for support and case management in 2019–20. The word ‘only’ was removed (support and case management only) allowing agencies to more accurately capture this treatment type in conjunction with other treatment types. 

Trends in main treatment type have changed over time, reflecting in part changing client needs, service delivery practices and expansion, changes in coding practices/methodology in the collection and state and territory policies.

For treatment episodes provided to all clients over the 10-year period to 2022–23:

  • Counselling was the most common treatment type, ranging from 77,021 episodes (43%) in 2013–14 to a high of 92,455 (38%) episodes in 2020–21 before decreasing to 79,689 (34%) in 2022–23 (Figure TREATMENT CLIENTS 2, Table Trt.3). The peak recorded in 2020–21 coincided with:
    • The first and second waves of the COVID-19 pandemic and reflected AOD services adapting to other ways of delivering AOD treatment, such as, telehealth models. 
    • Changes to coding practices: prior to 2020–21 treatment episodes provided to people diverted into AOD services by police and court diversion programs were recorded as information and education.  From 2020–21, diversion programs are now reported as counselling in a few states. Caution should be used when comparing these data over time.
  • Assessment only episodes have steadily increased from 28,310 (16%) in 2013–14 to 50,876 (22%) in 2022–23 (Figure TREATMENT CLIENTS 2, Table Trt.3). This increase may be due in part to recording a separate assessment only episode, prior to the commencement of the treatment episode in some states and territories.
  • Support and case management episodes increased from 16,715 (9.2%) in 2013–14 to 35,712 (15%) in 2022–23, peaking at 38,050 in 2019–20 (Figure TREATMENT CLIENTS 2, Table Trt.3).
  • Information and education episodes remained relatively steady between 2013–14 (15,709, or 8.7%) and 2018–19 (18,039 or 8.2%) before declining sharply (2022–23 5,681 or 2.4%) (Figure TREATMENT CLIENTS 2, Table Trt.3). This was due to:
    • Coding changes prior to 2020–21 for treatment episodes provided to people diverted into AOD services by police and court diversion programs were recorded as information and education. From 2020–21, police and court diversion programs are now reported as counselling. Caution should be used when comparing these data over time.
  • ‘Other’ main treatment type increased from 3,854 (2.1%) in 2013–14 to 20,490 (8.7%) in 2022–23 (Figure TREATMENT CLIENTS 2, Table Trt.3). This increase is noticeable from 2019–20 and likely relates to:
    • Changes in coding of ‘other’ during COVID-19 where agencies were adapting to telephone/video conference consultations.

For further information on changes in the AODTS NMDS collection see 2022–23 AODTS NMDS Data Quality Statement.

Figure TREATMENT CLIENTS 2: Treatment episodes, by client type and main treatment type, 2013–14 to 2022–23 

The line graph shows that counselling has remained the most common main treatment type among episodes provided to all clients across the period 2013–14 to 2022–23, accounting for 33.8% of episodes in 2022–23. In 2022–23, assessment only was the second most common main treatment type (21.6% of episodes), followed by support and case management (15.2%). A filter allows the user to select the measure, per cent and number of clients and to view data for all clients, clients seeking treatment for their own drug use or clients seeking treatment for someone else’s drug use.

Explore treatment provided:

Previous page
Next page