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

In 2023–24, 91 publicly funded alcohol and other drug (AOD) treatment agencies in South Australia provided 11,196 treatment episodes to 7,989 clients (tables Agcy.1, SCR.21).

South Australia reported:

• Client numbers decreased steadily from 9,215 in 2013–14 to 6,718 in 2022–23, before increasing to 7,989 in 2023-24.
• Fewer clients are receiving AOD services in 2023–24 than 2013–14, after adjusting for population growth (480 clients per 100,000 people compared with 624, respectively) (Table SCR.21).
• There has been a decrease in treatment episodes since 2014–15, falling from 12,478 to 11,196 in 2023–24 (Table ST SA.2).

In 2023–24, most (86%) clients in South Australia attended 1 agency, and received an average of 1.4 treatment episodes, which is lower than the national average of 1.8 treatment episodes (tables SCR.21, SCR.23).

Client demographics

In 2023–24:

• Nearly all (99%) clients in South Australia received treatment for their own alcohol or drug use, of which 3 in 5 (62%) people were male (Figure SA 1).
• 2 in 3 people who received treatment for someone else’s alcohol or drug use were female (66%).
• Half (53%) of all people were aged 30–49 years.
• 1 in 6 (18%) people were Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander (First Nations) people, which is consistent with the national proportion (18%).
• The majority (91%) of clients were born in Australia and nearly all (98%) reported English as their preferred language (tables SCR SA.1–4, SCR SA.9–10, SC.5).

New and returning clients

In 2023–24:

• Nearly half (47%, 3,734) of all clients in South Australia were a new client, who had not previously received treatment since 2013–14.
• Over half (53%, 4,210) of all clients in South Australia were returning clients, who have previously received AOD treatment from a service at some point since 2013–14 (see Key terminology and glossary) (Table SCR 28).

Drugs of concern

In 2023–24, among clients in South Australia receiving treatment episodes for their own alcohol or drug use (11,040):

• Alcohol was the most common principal drug of concern (40%, 4,445 episodes) (Figure SA 2).
• Amphetamines accounted for one-third of treatment episodes (32%, 3,525), followed by cannabis (15%, 1,631) (Table ST SA.6).

In 2023–24, for clients who received treatment for their own use of amphetamines (3,525 episodes):

• Methamphetamine was reported as a principal drug of concern in approximately 78% of treatment episodes (Table ST SA.6).
• Where methamphetamine was the principal drug of concern, smoking was the most common method of use in 62% of treatment episodes, followed by injecting (27%) (Figure SA 3, Table ST SA.10).

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 2023–24, where additional drugs of concern were reported, nicotine was the most common (24% of episodes), followed by cannabis (18%) (Table ST SA.7).

Over the period 2014–15 to 2023–24:

• Alcohol was the most common principal drug of concern over this period, from 32% of episodes in 2014–15, falling to 27% in 2016–17, increasing to 40% in 2023–24 (Table ST SA.7).
• Amphetamines have remained the second most common principal drug of concern, increasing from 29% in 2014–15 to 37% in 2016–17, before falling to 32% in 2023–24.
• Amphetamine treatment episodes fluctuated over this period from 3,564 in 2013–14, peaking at 4,288 in 2018–19, falling to 2,913 in 2022–23, before rising back to 3,535 in 2023-24:
  • For episodes where amphetamines were the principal drug of concern, the proportion of treatment episodes with methamphetamine has increased since 2014–15 (from 18% to 78% in 2023–24) (Figure SA 3).
  • The rise in episodes is likely to be related to both increases in funded treatment services and/or improvement in agency coding practices for methamphetamine.

The proportion of treatment episodes for amphetamines as a principal drug of concern has been consistently higher in South Australia than the national proportion (32% and 26% respectively in 2023–24). This is related to a state government legislated program regarding assessments provided under a Police Drug Diversion initiative. The program results in comparatively high proportions of engagement with methamphetamine users.

In addition, due to the Cannabis Expiation Notice legislation in South Australia, adult simple cannabis offences are not diverted to treatment and so are not included in the data (see the Data Quality Statement).

Treatment

In 2023–24, for treatment episodes in South Australia (11,196):

• Counselling was the most common main treatment (43% of episodes), followed by assessment only (20%) and withdrawal management (17%) (Figure SA 4, Table ST SA.13).
• Where an additional treatment was provided as a supplementary to the main treatment, support and case management (16%) was the most common additional treatment, followed by counselling (8.8%). See technical notes for further information on calculating proportions for additional treatment type.

Over the period 2014–15 to 2023–24:

• Counselling as main treatment has almost doubled from 24% in 2014–15 to 43% in 2023–24.
• The proportion of episodes with rehabilitation as main treatment fell from 8.4% to 1.5%.
• The proportion of episodes where assessment only was the main treatment has almost halved since 2014–15, falling from 39% to 20% in 2023–24.  
• However, the proportion of assessment only episodes in South Australia remained considerably higher than the national proportion between 2014–15 to 2022–23 (ranging from 16% to 22%) (tables ST SA.13, Trt.3).

The high proportion of assessment only treatment episodes relates in part to the SA Police Drug Diversion Initiative (PDDI).

Agencies

In 2023–24, in South Australia:

• 3 in 5 (63%) AOD treatment agencies were non-government agencies (Table Agcy.1).
• 3 in 5 (60%) of all treatment agencies were located in Major cities, followed by Outer regional areas (21%) and Inner regional areas (13%) (Figure SA 5, Table Agcy.3).
• In Very Remote areas all agencies (2) were government organisations.

Over the 10 years from 2014–2015 to 2023–24, the number of publicly funded treatment agencies in South Australia increased from 89 to 91 (Table Agcy.1).