Alcohol and other drug treatment services

Alcohol and other drug treatment services is an Australia's health topic

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Introduction What data sources are available? Who uses alcohol and other drug treatment services? Who receives opioid pharmacotherapy treatment? What drugs do people receive treatment for? What types of treatment do people receive? Mortality among specialist alcohol and other drug treatment services clients Where do I go for more information?

Introduction

Alcohol and other drug (AOD) treatment agencies across Australia provide a range of services and support to people who received treatment for their own drug use, as well as their families and friends. 

There are many types of treatment available to assist people with drug and alcohol use, most treatments aim to minimise harm, often by stopping or reducing a person’s drug use, or changing their drug use patterns to be less harmful (Department of Health 2019). Treatments can include:

  • withdrawal management (detoxification)
  • counselling
  • rehabilitation
  • opioid pharmacotherapy treatment. 

For information on the use of alcohol and other drugs, see Alcohol and Illicit use of drugs.

What data sources are available?

There are several health administrative data sources that contain information about alcohol and other drug treatment. Each data set uses a different methodology, and the types of treatment also differ across sources. These include:

  • Alcohol and Other Drug Treatment Services National Minimum Data Set (AODTS NMDS) provides information about publicly funded alcohol and other drug treatment services in Australia, the people that receive treatment, and the treatment provided.
  • National Opioid Pharmacotherapy Statistics Annual Data (NOPSAD) collection provides information about people receiving opioid pharmacotherapy for their opioid dependence in Australia, as well as health professionals who prescribe opioid pharmacotherapy and dosing points (such as pharmacies) where clients receive treatment. Services whose sole function is to prescribe or provide dosing services for opioid pharmacotherapy are excluded from the AODTS NMDS, as data from these services are captured in the NOPSAD collection (AIHW 2026a, 2026b).
  • Pharmaceutical Benefits Scheme Opioid Dependence Treatment Program:
    • Data from the Pharmaceutical Benefits Scheme (PBS) provides information on the number of prescriptions and the number of patients dispensed at least one opioid dependence medicine prescription within a given financial year.
    • The Australian Government supports access to opioid pharmacotherapy through the PBS Opioid Dependence Treatment (ODT) Program.
    • On 1 July 2023, ODT medicines became part of the Section 100 Highly Specialised Drugs (HSD) Program (Community Access) arrangements enabling eligible patients to access up to 28 days’ supply of ODT medicines from approved dispensers. AIHW analysis of the ODT program on the Pharmaceutical Benefits Scheme data collection provides financial year information about patients:
      • with a current Medicare card
      • dispensed opioid dependence medicines through the PBS at a PBS approved pharmacy between 1 July 2023 and 30 June 2025.
  • Alcohol treatment in Australia: Client characteristics and patterns of service use, 2013–14 to 2022–23. Clients accessing alcohol and other drug treatment services often receive multiple episodes of treatment over a number of years. This report describes the characteristics and patterns of service use for 3 client cohorts between 2013–14 and 2022–23 where alcohol was a principal drug of concern (either alcohol only or alcohol and another principal drug of concern).

For more information about each data source, see Technical notes.

Who uses alcohol and other drug treatment services?

The AODTS NMDS report shows that 127,804 clients aged 10 and over received AOD treatment in 2024–25. These clients received 244,411 treatment episodes from 1,316 publicly funded AOD treatment agencies.

In 2024–25:

  • 3 in 5 (62%) clients were male and half (49%) were aged 20–39.
  • 1 in 5 (19%) clients were Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander (First Nations) people.
  • Most (92%) clients received treatment for their own alcohol or drug use.
  • The number of clients decreased by 3.1% from the previous year (from 131,892 clients in 2023–24 to 127,804 in 2024–25). Overall, there were fewer clients, but some clients received 2 or more treatment episodes leading to a rise in treatment episodes.
  • The number of people who received treatment increased by 12% over the last decade, rising from around 114,400 to 127,800 clients, between 2013–14 and 2024–25. However, when considering population growth over this period, the rate of clients has dropped slightly from 556 to 527 people per 100,000, respectively.

Who receives opioid pharmacotherapy treatment?

The NOPSAD report shows that 57,740 clients received opioid pharmacotherapy treatment from 3,241 dosing point sites on a snapshot day in 2025.

People receiving opioid pharmacotherapy treatment had similar characteristics to clients of publicly funded AOD treatment, but there was a higher proportion of people in older age groups. On a snapshot day in 2025:

  • 7 in 10 (70%) opioid pharmacotherapy clients were male, and 3 in 5 (57%) were aged 40–59.
  • 1 in 10 clients (12%) were First Nations people.

Between 2011 and 2025:

  • The number of clients receiving opioid pharmacotherapy treatment increased by 24% (from 46,450 clients to 57,740).
  • After adjusting for population growth, the rate of clients accessing opioid pharmacotherapy treatment remained stable at around 21 clients per 10,000 population.

In 2024–25, opioid dependence medicines available through the PBS, indicated a total of 728,400 PBS prescriptions were dispensed to patients for opioid dependence medicines.

Around 65,400 patients were dispensed at least one prescription for an opioid dependence medicine, this is a rate of 24 patients per 10,000 people.

For patients dispensed an opioid dependence medicine through the PBS:

  • More than 7 in 10 (71%) patients were male. 
  • 1 in 3 patients (33%) were aged 40–49.

What drugs do people receive treatment for?

The AODTS NMDS shows that for clients receiving treatment for their own alcohol or drug use, alcohol continued to be the most common principal drug of concern (PDOC) in 2024–25.

Between 2015–16 and 2024–25:

  • Treatment episodes provided for alcohol as a PDOC rose from 32% in 2015–16 to 42% in 2021–22 and this has remained stable in 2024–25 (41%) (in relation to all PDOCs).
  • Methamphetamine was the second most common PDOC in 2024–25. Treatment for methamphetamine has been growing, reaching 24% in 2024–25 (Figure 1).

Recent analysis of a cohort of almost 179,488 clients who received treatment for their own use of alcohol at any point between 2013–14 and 2022–23 showed that:

  • Most clients (73%) received treatment for use of alcohol only, and most of these clients (84%) received treatment in fewer than 3 years.
  • Clients treated for alcohol and another PDOC (27% of the total cohort) received about half of all treatment episodes, and most of these clients received treatment in 3 or more years (AIHW 2025a).

Figure 1: Closed treatment episodes for clients’ own drug use, by most common principal drugs of concern, 2015–16 to 2024–25

From 2015–16 to 2024–25, the proportion of closed treatment episodes for alcohol and methamphetamine have increased, while cannabis and heroin have decreased.

From 2015–16 to 2024–25, the proportion of closed treatment episodes for alcohol and methamphetamine have increased, while cannabis and heroin have decreased.

Data from the AODTS NMDS indicate that the main principal drug of concern (PDOC) that clients were treated for in 2024–25 was different across the age groups:

  • Younger people were more likely to get treatment for cannabis, with over half (53%) of episodes for those aged 10–19 and a quarter (24%) for those aged 20–29.
  • People aged 30–39 (32%) were more likely to receive treatment for methamphetamine.
  • Older people were more likely to get treatment for alcohol, with 45% of treatment episodes for those aged 40–49, 60% for those aged 50–59, and 75% for those aged 60 and over.

Data from the NOPSAD report shows that in 2025, heroin remained the most common opioid drug of dependence among opioid pharmacotherapy clients (28%). These data should be interpreted with caution as there was a high proportion of clients with ‘Not stated/Not reported’ as the opioid drug of dependence (52%), an increase over previous years (Figure 2).

Figure 2: Clients receiving opioid pharmacotherapy treatment on a snapshot day, by opioid drug of dependence, 2016 to 2025

From 2016 to 2025, heroin continued to be the most common opioid drug of dependence, all other drug of dependence reported by clients were less than 10% (such as, buprenorphine).

From 2016 to 2025, heroin continued to be the most common opioid drug of dependence, all other drug of dependence reported by clients were less than 10% (such as, buprenorphine).

What types of treatment do people receive?

The AODTS NMDS shows that counselling continues to be the most common treatment provided to clients accessing AOD treatment each year. In 2024–25, among clients who received treatment for their own alcohol or drug use, 33% of episodes involved counselling and 23% involved an assessment only (Figure 3).

Figure 3: Closed episodes for clients’ own drug use, by main treatment type, 2015–16 to 2024–25

Between 2015–16 and 2024–25, counselling was the most common main treatment type, assessment only increased over this period while other types of treatments (such as rehabilitation) remained stable.

Between 2015–16 and 2024–25, counselling was the most common main treatment type, assessment only increased over this period while other types of treatments (such as rehabilitation) remained stable.

The NOPSAD report shows that buprenorphine opioid drug formulations have now overtaken methadone as the most common opioid pharmacotherapy treatment provided to clients in 2025:

  • 60% of clients received a buprenorphine formulation.
  • 40% received methadone.

From 2016 to 2025, the proportion of clients receiving methadone has fallen from 65% to 40% and the proportion receiving a buprenorphine formulation has risen from 35% to 60%. This in part reflects the availability of new buprenorphine formulations such as buprenorphine long-acting injections.

Mortality among specialist alcohol and other drug treatment services clients

Alcohol and other drug (AOD) use is associated with a higher risk of dying and premature death compared with the general population (Abdul-Rahman et al. 2018; Havard et al. 2023). Data from the AODTS NMDS linked with national deaths data over an 11 year study period has examined mortality among this population to inform the National Drug Strategy and identify targeted prevention activities.  

There were 15,400 people who died and received publicly funded, specialist AOD treatment services in their last year of life, over the 11-year study period (1 July 2012 to 30 June 2023) (AIHW 2025b). Among these clients who died:

  • The majority received treatment for their own drug use (99%) and most were male (72%).
  • The death rate was 3.3 times higher than the general population (that is, the non-AODTS population).
  • The median age at death was 48 years.
  • Accidental poisoning (20%), suicide (15%) and liver disease (15%) were the most common causes of death, accounting for nearly half of all deaths.
  • 1 in every 5 accidental poisoning deaths in Australia were people who received specialist AOD treatment in their last year of life.

Where do I go for more information?

For more on this topic, visit Alcohol & other drug treatment services.


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