Alcohol and other drug treatment services in Australia annual report 2023–24

Alcohol and other drug (AOD) treatment agencies (service outlets) can be explored by the state location or remoteness area in which the agencies are located, noting that an agency can have more than one service delivery outlet, located in different areas.

In 2023–24:

• 3 in 5 (58% or 752) of all treatment agencies were located in Major cities and a quarter (24% or 314) were in Inner regional areas. Agencies in these two areas provided 90% of all treatment episodes (Figure AGENCIES REMOTENESS 1, tables Agcy.3–Agcy.4).
• Relatively few treatment agencies were located in Remote (2.4% or 31) and Very remote areas (2.5% or 33). Agencies in these two areas provided 4.9% of all treatment episodes.
• This pattern was similar across most states and territories, except for the Northern Territory due to it having no Major cities or Inner regional areas.
• In the Northern Territory, 3 in 5 (58%) of all agencies were located in Remote (37%) and Very remote (13%) areas, with the other half in Outer regional (50%) areas (Figure AGENCIES REMOTENESS 1, Table Agcy.3).

Over the 10-year period to 2023–24:

• Nationally, the total number of agencies delivering AOD services has increased, rising from 838 agencies in 2014–15 to 1,304 agencies in 2023–24.
• 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.

The main treatment provided by agencies varied by remoteness. Nationally, in 2023–24:

• Counselling was the most common main treatment type provided by agencies across all remoteness areas.
• The proportion of treatment episodes provided by agencies for counselling ranged from as high as 49% in Very remote areas to 32% in Inner regional areas and 33% in Major cities (Figure AGENCIES REMOTENESS 2, Table Agcy.6).

Main treatment types also varied by agency remoteness at a jurisdictional level.

In 2023–24:

• In New South Wales, services across the majority of remoteness areas provided counselling, ranging from 100% of treatment episodes in Remote areas to 32% in Inner regional areas. No treatment episodes were provided in Very remote areas.
• In Victoria, services in Major cities mostly provided support and case management and counselling (24% and 23% of episodes, respectively). Inner regional and Outer regional services mainly provided assessment only (30%) and counselling (29%), respectively.
• In Queensland, assessment only was the most common treatment type in Major cities (39%), Outer regional (38%) and Remote (58%) areas.
• In Western Australia around 9 in 10 treatment episodes provided in Remote (84%) and Very remote (85%) areas were for counselling.
• In South Australia, support and case management was more likely to be provided in more remote areas (ranging from 10.8% in Inner Regional to 21% in Outer regional and 56% in Very remote areas) compared to Major cities (2.5%), while Major cities had the highest proportion of withdrawal management treatment episodes (20%).
• In Tasmania, counselling was the most common treatment for Inner regional (59%) and Outer regional (48%) areas while rehabilitation was the most common treatment in Remote areas (97%) (Figure AGENCIES REMOTENESS 2, Table Agcy.6).
• In the Northern Territory, assessment only was the most common treatment across all remoteness areas ranging from 31% in Remote areas to 57% in Outer regional areas. This was followed by rehabilitation in Outer regional (18%) and Very remote (28%) areas, and counselling in Remote areas (22%).

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