Accessing alcohol and drug treatment services after an assessment

Conclusions

This report shows that ‘Assessment only’ episodes are increasingly more common and may often serve as an entry point to specialist alcohol and other drug (AOD) treatment services. For many clients, an assessment is the first motivating step into further AOD treatment. For others, it marks the completion of their recorded treatment process. The Alcohol and Other Drug Treatment Services National Minimum Data Set (AODTS NMDS) cannot distinguish between these clients, but it can highlight factors that influence whether a client is more likely to receive further treatment and those that decrease this likelihood. 

This analysis revealed notable differences in states and territories practises in delivering ‘Assessment only’ episodes. To what extent these are influenced by funding, models of care, treatment availability, accessibility, in states and territories and personnel attributes, such as a client’s motivation to enter treatment, cannot be individually described.

Future directions

This report highlights a need for further work to understand clients who receive a main treatment type of ‘Assessment only’, and the variations between states and territories. In the context of the administrative treatment services data (AODTS NMDS), further work may seek to incorporate global measurement standards for treatment outcomes (such as the patient-centred outcome measures provided by the International Consortium for Health Outcomes Measurement) to improve service delivery. This work would allow for a more nuanced understanding of the treatment goals and individual needs of clients, and the context for interpreting outcomes-based measures.

Limitations

When interpreting this report’s findings, it is important to consider the following limitations:

• Differences in service structures, and local programs between states and territories produced varied results, so any comparisons should be interpreted with caution.
• Time to subsequent treatment is calculated from the start date of the first episode to the start date of the subsequent episode. The duration of the ‘Assessment only’ episode might be accounted for.
• This report only examines the subsequent episode a client receives following an ‘Assessment only’ episode. There is no direct identifier linking it to the initial ‘Assessment only’ episode.
• This report can only provide insights into the pattern of alcohol and other drug treatment service use for clients who accessed specialist AOD services that report to the AODTS NMDS. Specialist AOD treatment is a service-based collection, not demand driven and does not include measures of wait times or outcomes.