Alcohol and other drug treatment services in Australia annual report

In 2021–22:

• Nearly 3 in 5 (56% or 711) treatment agencies were located in Major cities and a quarter (26% or 326) were in Inner regional areas. Agencies in these two areas provided 89% of all treatment episodes (Figure AGENCIES REMOTENESS 1, tables Agcy.3–Agcy.4).
• Relatively few treatment agencies were located in Remote (2.8% or 35) and Very remote areas (2.6% or 33). Agencies in these two areas provided 2.6% of all treatment episodes.
• This pattern was similar across most states and territories, except for Northern Territory where half (50%) of all agencies were located in Remote (32%) and in Very remote (17%) areas, with the other half in Outer regional (50%) areas (Table Agcy.3).

Over the 10-year period to 2021–22:

• Nationally, the total number of agencies has increased, rising from 714 agencies in 2012–13 to 1,274 agencies in 2021–22.
• The majority of agencies were located in Major cities; this trend was similar for most states and territories but does not apply to the Northern Territory and Tasmania, which do not have Major cities as a remoteness area.

Figure AGENCIES REMOTENESS 1: Treatment agencies by remoteness area and state or territory, 2017–18 to 2021–22

Treatment type delivery varied by agency remoteness. Nationally, in 2021–22:

• Counselling was the most common main treatment type provided by treatment agencies across all remoteness areas.
• The proportion of treatment episodes for counselling ranged from as high as 46% in Remote areas to 36% in Inner regional areas  (Figure AGENCIES REMOTENESS 2; Table Agcy.6).

The delivery of main treatment types also varied by agency remoteness at a jurisdictional level. In 2021–22:

• Agencies across all remoteness areas in New South Wales most commonly provided counselling, ranging from 55% of treatment episodes in Outer regional areas to 16% in Very remote areas.
• In Victoria, agencies in Major cities most commonly provided counselling and support and case management (24% and 22% of episodes, respectively). Inner regional and Outer regional agencies most commonly provided assessment only (27%) and counselling (35%), respectively.
• In Queensland, almost 1 in 2 (47%) episodes provided in Remote areas were assessment only.
• Around 9 in 10 episodes in Remote and Very remote areas of Western Australia were counselling (89% and 94% respectively)
• In South Australia, support and case management was more likely to be provided in more remote areas (ranging from 7.2% in Inner Regional to 31% in Outer regional) compared to Major cities (3.1%), while Major cities had a higher proportion of withdrawal management episodes (19%).
•  In the Northern Territory, assessment only was the most common treatment provided in Outer regional areas (59%), while information and education was most common in Very remote areas (49%) (Figure AGENCIES REMOTENESS 2; Table Agcy.6).

Note that remoteness categories are derived by applying a correspondence based on the agency’s Statistical Area level 2 code (SA2). See technical notes for information on how this affects the reporting of the number of agencies in a particular remoteness category.

Figure AGENCIES REMOTENESS 2: Treatment episodes by states and territories, treatment type and remoteness of agency 2018–19 to 2021–22