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 2020–21, when the client reported additional drugs of concern:
- nicotine was the most common (26% of episodes), followed by cannabis (21%) (Table ST SA.7).
Over the period 2011–12 to 2020–21:
- alcohol replaced amphetamines as the most common principal drug of concern for clients in 2020–21 (37%). However, the proportion of alcohol as a principal drug of concern decreased from 50% (4,337) of episodes in 2011–12 to 27% (3,059) in 2016–17, rising to 37% (3,756) in 2020–21, relative to all other principal drugs of concern (Table ST SA.7)
- amphetamines as a principal drug of concern have increased over this period from 16% in 2011–12 and have fluctuated between 34–37% of episodes from 2016–17. Amphetamine treatment episodes increased over this period from 1,414 in 2011–12, peaking at 4,288 in 2018–19, falling to 3,411 in 2020–21
- for episodes where amphetamines was the principal drug of concern, methamphetamine was reported in 2.0% of treatment episodes in 2011–12 rising to 18% in 2014–15, then 50% in the next year, increasing to 79% in 2019–20 and falling to 71% in 2020–21 (Figure SA3a). The rise in episodes may be related to increases in funded treatment services and/or improvement in agency coding practices for methamphetamines.
The proportion of treatment episodes for amphetamines as a principal drug of concern has been consistently higher in South Australia than the national proportion (33% and 24% respectively). 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).
In 2020–21, for treatment episodes in South Australia:
- counselling was the most common main treatment (37% of episodes), followed by assessment only (26%) and withdrawal management (17%) (Figure SA4; Table ST SA.13)
- where an additional treatment was provided as a supplementary to the main treatment, support and case management (14%) was the most common additional treatment, followed by counselling (8%). See technical notes for further information on calculating proportions for additional treatment type.
Over the period 2011–12 to 2020–21:
- counselling as a main treatment fluctuated from 28% in 2011–12, to 21% in 2017–18 rising to 37% in 2020–21
- withdrawal management fell from 22% in 2011–12 to 17% in 2020–21 and rehabilitation also fell from 12% to 2% over the same period
- the proportion of episodes where assessment only was the main treatment (fluctuating from 44% in 2013–14 to 32% in 2019–20 then falling to 26% in 2020–21) remained considerably higher than the national proportion (ranging from 14% to 20%) (Tables ST SA.13, Trt.4).
South Australia reported a high proportion of treatment episodes where assessment only is the most common treatment type, relating in part to the SA Police Drug Diversion Initiative (PDDI).