Patterns of service use
Over the period 2015–16 to 2019–20, 101,503 clients received treatment in New South Wales. Of these clients:
- the majority received treatment in a single year (73%):
- 18% (17,895) received treatment for the first time in 2019–20
- a further 55% (55,464) received treatment in only one of the four collection periods (excluding 2019–20)
- 19% (18,788) of clients received treatment in any 2 of the 5 years
- 6.3% (6,420) of clients received treatment in any 3 of the 5 years
- 2.3% (2,286) of clients received treatment in any 4 of the 5 years
- 0.6% (650) of clients received treatment in all 5 collection years (Table SCR.28).
Drugs of concern
In 2019–20, for clients in New South Wales receiving treatment episodes for their own alcohol or drug use (Figure 2; SE NSW.10):
- alcohol was the most common principal drug of concern (38% of episodes)
- amphetamines as a principal drug of concern accounted for over one-quarter of episodes (26%), followed by cannabis (16%), and heroin (8%).
- within the amphetamines group:
- methamphetamine was reported as a principal drug of concern in 88% of treatment episodes (Figure 2a)
- in over half (51%) of the treatment episodes where methamphetamine was the principal drug of concern, smoking was the most common method of use, followed by injecting (39%) (Figure 2b).
Some jurisdictions are working with service providers to encourage more specific reporting of amphetamine use (i.e. to reduce the use of ‘amphetamines not further defined’ code where possible).
Clients can nominate up to 5 additional drugs of concern, these drugs are not necessarily the subject of any treatment within the episode (see Technical notes).
In 2019–20, when the client reported additional drugs of concern:
- nicotine was the most common additional drug of concern (12% of episodes), followed by cannabis (11%), amphetamines and alcohol (both 7%) (Table SE NSW.11).
Over the period 2015–16 to 2019–20:
- alcohol remained the most common principal drug of concern in treatment episodes provided to clients, increasing marginally over the 5 year period from 37% to 38%
- amphetamines were the second most common principal drug of concern in New South Wales in 2019–20, and have increased since 2015–16 (from 24% to 26%) (SE NSW.11)
- within the amphetamines group, methamphetamine was reported as the principal drug of concern in over half of episodes (56%) in 2015–16, rising to 63% in 2017–18 before a considerable increase to 88% in 2019–20 (Figure 2a); the rise in episodes may be related to increases in funded treatment services and/ or improvement in agency coding practices for methamphetamines
- cannabis is now the third most common principal drug of concern, decreasing from 17% to 16% in 2019–20 (SE NSW.11)
- these trends are consistent with the national picture (Table SD.2).