The Australian Government and state and territory governments fund both government and non-government organisations to provide a range of Alcohol and Other Drug (AOD) treatment services (see Key terminology and glossary). Services are delivered in residential and non-residential settings and include treatments such as detoxification, rehabilitation, counselling and pharmacotherapy.
The AODTS NMDS contains information on a subset of publicly funded AOD treatment services (see Policy Framework for details of collection scope).
Key findings
In 2020–21:
- around 1,300 publicly funded agencies provided data about their treatment services to the AODTS NMDS
- over 2 in 3 (68%) agencies were non-government
- nearly 3 in 5 (57%) agencies were located in Major cities
- nationally, counselling was the most common main treatment type provided by agencies across all remoteness areas except for Very remote areas where it was information and education.
Nationally, over the 10-year period to 2020–21:
- the total number of publicly funded agencies providing AOD treatment almost doubled from 660 in 2011–12 to around 1,300 in 2020–21.
The Australian Government and state and territory governments fund non-government and government agencies to provide a range of alcohol and other drug (AOD) treatment services. Treatment services are delivered in residential and non-residential settings, and often include treatments such as detoxification, rehabilitation, counselling and pharmacotherapy.
The Alcohol and Other Drug Treatment Services National Minimum Data Set (AODTS NMDS) contains information on publicly funded AOD treatment agencies and their service delivery outlets. An agency can have more than one service delivery outlet, located in different areas.
In 2020–21, 1,300 publicly funded alcohol and other drug treatment agencies provided services in Australia.
In 2020–21, 1,279 publicly funded AOD treatment agencies reported to the AODTS NMDS. The number of agencies in each jurisdiction ranged from 16 in the Australian Capital Territory to 485 in New South Wales. The number of agencies reporting to the AODTS NMDS in 2020–21 increased from 1,258 in 2019–20 (Figure AODTSAGENCIES.1).
Over the last 10 years, the total number of AOD treatment agencies almost doubled (from 659 in 2011–12 to 1,278 in 2020–21). This has been driven by increases in New South Wales, Victoria, Queensland, and Western Australia. The expansion in the sector has seen a growth in the number of non-government AOD treatment services (from 342 in 2011–12 to 868 in 2020–21). The expansion has included new funding arrangements for existing AOD programs to increase service, collaboration across agencies and new treatment services. See the Alcohol and other drug treatment services NMDS Data Quality Statement, 2020–21 for further information.