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

 In 2024–25, 337 publicly funded alcohol and other drug (AOD) treatment agencies in Victoria provided 96,640 treatment episodes to 35,492 people (tables Agcy.1, SCR.21).

Victoria reported:

• An 8.3% decrease in client numbers in 2024–25 (35,492) compared with the previous year (38,700).
• Client numbers increased gradually from 2013–14 (29,548), with the largest increase in clients from 2017–18 (33,006) to 2019–20 (37,391).
• Fewer clients are receiving AOD services in 2024–25 than 2013–14, after adjusting for population growth (572 clients per 100,000 people, compared with 580, respectively).
• Clients received an average of 2.7 treatment episodes, which is higher than the national average of 1.9 treatment episodes (tables SCR.21, SCR.23). This is due to:
  • The number of clients receiving two or more treatment episodes is rising and those receiving 1 treatment episode dropping (Table SCR.22). Note: due to the different way Victorian data systems count episodes they are not comparable with other states and territories, as episode counts will be higher (see Data Quality Statement for further information).
• There was a similar number in treatment episodes in 2024–25 (96,640) compared with the previous year (97,509) (Table SCR.21).
• The number of treatment episodes increased by 71% since 2013–14 (56,392) to 2024–25 (96,640) (Table SCR.21).
• 7 in 10 (68%) clients in Victoria attended 1 agency in 2024–25.

Client demographics

In 2024–25:

• 8 in 10 (77%) clients in Victoria received treatment for their own alcohol or drug use, of which 3 in 5 (61%) people were male (Figure VIC 1, tables SCR VIC.1-2).
• 6.2% of all clients reported sex as ‘another term’, the highest proportion reported across all states and territories in the collection period. ‘Another term’ replaced the category ‘other’ in 2022–23 (Table SCR VIC.2).
• Half (52%) of all people were aged 20–39 years.
• 1 in 10 (11%) of all clients were Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander (First Nations) people, which is lower than the national proportion (19%).
• The majority (82%) of all clients were born in Australia and most (93%) reported English as their preferred language (tables SCR VIC.1–4, SCR VIC.9–10, SC.5).

New and returning clients

In 2024–25:

• 2 in 5 (38%, 13,559) of all clients were a new client, who had not previously received treatment since 2013–14, when client reporting was enabled.
• 3 in 5 (62%, 21,841) of all clients were returning clients, who have previously received AOD treatment from a service at some point since 2013–14 (Table SCR.28).

Drugs of concern

In 2024–25 in Victoria:

• Among clients receiving treatment for their own alcohol or drug use (70,639 episodes)
  • Alcohol was the most common principal drug of concern, accounting for 38% (27,053) of treatment episodes.
  • Methamphetamine (24%, 16,740) was the second most common principal drug of concern, followed by cannabis (16%, 11,019) (Figure VIC 2, Table ST VIC.6).
• Where additional drugs of concern were reported, cannabis was the most common (11% of episodes), followed by nicotine and alcohol (9.2% and 7.6%, respectively) (Figure VIC 2, Table ST VIC.7). 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 2024–25, for clients who received treatment for their own use of methamphetamine (16,740 episodes), the most common method of use was smoking (58%) (Figure VIC 3, tables ST VIC.6 and ST VIC.10).

From 2015–16 to 2019–20, the method of use (injecting or smoking) for the principal drug of concern was used to identify methamphetamine-related treatment episodes, due to data quality issues and limited coding options within some states and territories over this period.

Between 2015–16 and 2024–25:

• Alcohol was the most common principal drug of concern, increasing from 30% of all treatment episodes in 2015–16, rising to 38% in 2024–25. The number of episodes rose from 18,396 in 2015–16 to 27,053 in 2024–25 (Figure VIC 2, Table ST VIC.7).
• The number of treatment episodes for methamphetamine has risen over this period and appears to be still rising from 2019–20, when improvements in reporting reliability is evident, increasing from 12,472 to 16,740 in 2024–25. 
  • Methamphetamine has risen from 17% of all treatment episodes to 24% over this period to become the second most common (Figure VIC 2, Table ST VIC.7)

Treatment

In 2024–25, for treatment episodes in Victoria (96,640):

• Support and case management (27%) was the most common treatment type, followed by counselling (21%) (Figure VIC 4, Table ST VIC.13). 

Between 2015–16 to 2024–25:

• Support and case management is the most common treatment type in 2024–25 overtaking counselling. It has dropped from 30% of all treatment episodes in 2015–16 to 27% in 2024–25.
• Counselling was one of the most common treatments provided until 2023–24 (23%) falling to 21% in 2024–25, this proportion has nearly halved since 2015–16 (37%).
• Assessment only as a main treatment rose from 13% in 2015–16 to 20% in 2024–25.
• Withdrawal management dropped from 14% to 8.8% and ‘other’ treatment rose from 1.1% to 19% over the same period (Figure VIC 4, Table ST VIC.13). 

Increases in ‘other’ treatment in Victoria relate to additional funding for programs where the main treatment type was categorised as ‘other’. This includes other types of services coded within the Victorian Alcohol and Drug Collection (VADC) (which started in 2018), these may not align with standard main treatment types. See technical notes for further information on how the VADC counts treatment episodes. 

Agencies

In 2024–25, in Victoria:

• Only 3 of the 337 AOD agencies were government treatment agencies .
• 3 in 5 (58%) treatment services were located in Major cities, followed by Inner regional areas (30%) (Figure VIC 5, Table Agcy.3)
• Victoria does not have any areas classified as Remote or Very remote.

Between 2015–16 to 2024–25:

• The number of publicly funded treatment agencies in Victoria increased from 129 in 2015–16 to 404 in 2018–19, dropping to 337 in 2024–25 (Figure VIC 5, Table Agcy.1).
• The increase in agency numbers over time in Victoria is attributed to counting each location of a service delivery outlet, which may be located in different areas for a single agency.