Trends in cannabis availability, use, and treatment in Australia, 2013–14 to 2021–22

Main treatment type is the principal activity determined by the treatment provider to be necessary for the completion of the treatment plan for the client’s principal drug of concern (AIHW 2023). The Alcohol and Other Drug Treatment National Minimum Data Set (AODTS NMDS) includes information on main treatment types including:

Main treatment types

Annual reporting of AODTS NMDS data indicates that counselling is typically the most common main treatment type among episodes provided to clients for their own use of cannabis, accounting for almost 1 in 2 (47%) episodes in 2021–22 (AIHW 2023).

Process analysis by episode main treatment type

Process analysis describes the flow of treatment episodes provided to clients who received treatment for cannabis, by key treatment characteristics. The analysis includes all treatment episodes provided to clients, including those who received multiple episodes over the study period. For more information, see What is process analysis?

Process analysis by main treatment type indicated that treatment pathways differed for clients who received treatment for cannabis only or cannabis and another PDOC (Table 3.10).

Of all treatment pathways provided to clients who:

• Only received treatment for cannabis, over 2 in 5 (43%) of clients’ initial episodes involved counselling as the main treatment. For most clients following this path through the AOD system, the client did not receive any subsequent treatment episodes in the study period (72% of counselling episodes).
• Received treatment for cannabis and another PDOC, 2 in 5 (40%) initial episodes provided to clients involved counselling. This was similar to clients who only received treatment for cannabis, but a greater proportion of episodes were followed by a subsequent counselling episode (40%) for this cohort (Table 3.10).

Trace analysis of pathways by main treatment type

Traces display the most common treatment pathways among clients who received treatment for cannabis, by key treatment characteristics. The traces represent sequences of treatment episodes in the order in which clients received treatment within the study period. For more information, see What is trace explorer analysis?

Trace analysis of AODTS NMDS data indicated that there were almost 27,700 unique treatment pathways by main treatment type among clients who received treatment for cannabis between 2013–14 and 2021–22. The most common treatment pathway for clients varied by cohort (Figure 13; Table 3.11).

Figure 13: Treatment pathways for clients who received treatment for cannabis, by main treatment type, cohort, and age group, sex, or remoteness area, 2013–14 to 2021–22

For clients who received treatment for cannabis only, the most common treatment pathways involved either one episode of counselling (24% of clients) or one episode of information and education (17%). This pattern was consistent by age group, sex, and remoteness area.

For clients who received treatment for cannabis and another PDOC, the most common treatment pathway involved either 2 or 3 counselling episodes, but these 2 pathways cumulatively accounted for just 1 in 10 (10%) clients. This pattern was the same by age, sex, and remoteness (Figure 13; Table 3.11).