Alcohol and other drug treatment services in Australia annual report 2024–25

Alcohol: client demographics and treatment

Alcohol has remained the most common principal drug of concern (PDOC) since the beginning of reporting for the Alcohol and Other Drug Treatment Services National Minimum Data Set (AODTS NMDS) in 2002–03.

In 2024–25, of the 214,662 treatment episodes provided for a client’s own drug use, alcohol was reported as a drug of concern (either principal or additional) in half of all treatment episodes (48% or 102,923) (Table Drg.5).

In 2024–25:

• Alcohol remained the most common principal drug of concern (41%, 87,632 episodes) (Table Drg.5).
• 24% (21,160) of alcohol-related treatment episodes reported at least one additional drug of concern (Table Drg.2). The most common additional drugs of concern were:
  • cannabis (35%, 10,706)
  • nicotine (29%, 8,744) (Table Drg.3).
• The proportion of treatment episodes for alcohol in relation to all other drugs of concern rose from 32% in 2015–16 to 41% in 2024–25 (Table Drg.1).

Clients can nominate up to 5 additional drugs of concern, these drugs may not have been the subject of any treatment in the episode.

Figure ALCOHOL: Closed treatment episodes for own alcohol or drug use by alcohol as a principal drug of concern and top 5 additional drugs of concern, 2024–25

Note: Diagram presents the top 5 additional drugs of concern for a principal drug of concern by closed treatment episodes. Totals do not add to 100%.

Client demographics

In 2024–25, 46,836 clients received treatment for alcohol as a principal drug of concern. Of these clients:

• 3 in 5 were male (62%) (Table SC.9).
• 1 in 2 people were aged either 30–39 (24%) or 40–49 (26%) (Table SC.10).
  • This was consistent for both males and females (Figure 1).
• 1 in 6 (16%) people were Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander (First Nations) people (Table SC.11).
  • This represents a rate of 1,043 First Nations clients per 100,000 people (crude rate for clients aged 10 and over) (Table SCR.26).

Treatment

In 2024–25, 87,632 treatment episodes were provided to clients for alcohol as their principal drug of concern (Table Drg.5).

Of these episodes:

• The most common referralsinto treatment were from self or family (41%, 35,701) or health services (38%, 33,357).
  • Between 2015–16 and 2024–25, health service referrals increased from 36% to 38% while referral from the criminal justice system (diversion) fell from 8.3% to 2.6% (Figure 2, Table Drg.13).
• The most common main treatment type was counselling (34%, 29,425), followed by assessment only (22%, 19,428) and withdrawal management(13%, 11,701) (Figure 2, Table Drg.18).
  • Counselling, withdrawal management, and assessment only remained the most common treatment types between 2015–16 and 2024–25, although the proportion of episodes for each treatment type has varied over time.
• 7 in 10 (69%) episodes were provided in a non-residential treatment settings. A further 19% were provided in residential treatment settings and outreach settings (5.1%) (Table Drg.20).
• The median duration of treatment episodes was around 4 weeks (27 days) (Table Drg.21).
  • 1 in 3 (36%) treatment episodes lasted 2–29 days, and 26% lasted 1–3 months (Table OV.12).
• The most common reasons treatment ended were planned completion (62%) and unplanned completion (19%) (Figure 2, Table Drg.19).