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

Heroin: client demographics and treatment

In 2024–25, of the 214,662 treatment episodes provided for a client’s own drug use, heroin was reported as a drug of concern (either principal or additional) in 5.8% (12,406) of all treatment episodes (Table Drg.4).

In 2024–25:

• Heroin was the fourth most common principal drug of concern (4.3%, 9,204 episodes) (Table Drg.4).
  • This has remained consistent between 2015–16 and 2024–25, although the proportion of heroin-related episodes has declined from a peak of 5.5% (10,999) in 2015–16 (Table Drg.5).
• 4 in 10 (42%, 3,849) heroin-related treatment episodes reported at least 1 additional drug of concern (Table Drg.2). The most common additional drugs of concern were:
  • Methamphetamine (29%, 1,910)
  • Cannabis (19%, 1,249)
  • Nicotine (12%, 804) (Table Drg.3).

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

Figure HEROIN: Closed treatment episodes for own alcohol or drug use by heroin 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, 5,365 clients received treatment for heroin as the principal drug of concern. Of these clients:

• 7 in 10 were male (71%) (Table SC.9).
• 2 in 3 people were aged either 30–39 (31%) or 40–49 (34%) (Table SC.10).
  • This was consistent for both males and females (Figure 1).
• 1 in 4 people were Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander (First Nations) people (23%) (Table SC.11).
  • This represents a rate of 181 First Nations clients per 100,000 people (crude rate for clients 10 and over) (Table SCR.26).

Treatment

In 2024–25, 9,204 treatment episodes were provided to clients for heroin as the principal drug of concern (Table Drg.4).

Of these episodes:

• The most common referrals were from self or family (41%) and health services (29%) (Figure 2, Table Drg.55).
• The most common main treatment types were pharmacotherapy (22%) followed by assessment only (21%) and counselling (18%) (Figure 2, Table Drg.54).
• The most common treatment settings were non-residential treatment facilities (75%) and residential treatment settings (14%) (Table Drg.56).
• The median duration of treatment episodes was 4 weeks (28 days) (Table Drg.58).
• The most common reasons treatment ended were planned completion (57%) and unplanned completion (20%) (Figure 3, Table Drg.56).

Between 2015–16 and 2024–25, main treatment types for heroin have fluctuated:

• Treatment episodes for withdrawal management decreased from 14% to 8.1% (or from 1,505 to 745).
• Episodes for pharmacotherapy decreased from 23% in 2015–16 to 12% in 2018–19 (from 2,478 to 1,261) and increased to 22% in 2024–25 (2,064).
  • Fluctuations in pharmacotherapy treatment episodes over time can be attributed to changes to jurisdictional coding practices and systems, resulting in under-reporting of pharmacotherapy at the national level (Table Drg.54).

In 2024–25, among the 9,204 treatment episodes for heroin-related treatment episodes:

• Injecting remained the most common method of use (70%) (Table Drg.6) and injecting drug use was reported:
  • Within the past 3 months (47%).
  • Within 3–12 months (9.8%).
  • More than 12 months prior (11%)
  • Never (20%) (Table Drg.52).

Between 2015–16 and 2024–25, the proportion of treatment episodes where clients receiving treatment for heroin as a principal drug of concern reported that they had never injected drugs increased 3-fold, rising from 6.5% (717) to 20% (1,818) (Table Drg.52).