Victoria

In 2020–21, 354 publicly funded alcohol and other drug treatment agencies in Victoria provided over 90,000 treatment episodes to around 37,100 people (tables Agcy.1, SCR.21).

Victoria reported:

  • a 39% increase in treatment episodes from 64,546 in 2018–19 to 89,971 in 2020–21 due to a new collection system capturing additional service types that were not able to be reported previously (such as assessments and support); and a 68% increase in treatment episodes compared with 2011–12 (53,574) (Table ST VIC.2)
  • more clients are using AOD services in 2020–21 than 2013–14, after adjusting for population growth (634 clients per 100,000 population compared with 580 per 100,000, respectively)
  • there was a 10% increase in clients between 2018–19 (33,699) to 2020–21 (37,082), due to flexible AOD treatment delivery with improved reporting and some system changes. Client numbers increased gradually from 2013–14 (29,548) (Table SCR.21).

The visualisation shows that 89,971 treatment episodes were provided to 37,082 clients in Victoria in 2020–21. This equates to a rate of 1,538 episodes and 634 clients per 100,000 population, which is higher than the national rate (1,079 episodes and 618 clients per 100,000 population).

In 2020–21, nearly 7 in 10 (69%) clients in Victoria attended 1 agency and received an average of 2.4 treatment episodes, which is higher than the national average of 1.7 treatment episodes (tables SCR.21, SCR.23). This is due to the nuances of Victoria’s data collection system, where each type of treatment results in a separate treatment episode.

Client demographics

In 2020–21:

  • over 8 in 10 (81% or 32,142) clients in Victoria received treatment for their own alcohol or drug use, of which over 3 in 5 (62%) people were male (Figure VIC1; Table SC VIC.1, SCR.27)
  • 0.3% (113) of all clients reported sex as ‘other’, the highest proportion reported across all states and territories in the collection period. This category was collected for the first time in 2018–19 (Table SC.VIC.1)
  • nearly 3 in 5 (56%) of all people were aged 20–39 years
  • 8.8% of all clients identified as Indigenous Australians, which is lower than the national proportion (17%)
  • the majority (81%) of all clients were born in Australia and mostly (95%) reported English as their preferred language (tables SC VIC.1–3, SC.4, SC VIC.21–22).

The visualisation includes a series of horizontal bar graphs showing that, in 2020–21, just under three in five (58%) of all clients were male, 56% were aged 20–39 and 9% were Indigenous Australians in Victoria. Nearly all clients (95%) listed English as their preferred language and most (81%) were born in Australia.

Patterns of service use

Over the period 2016–17 to 2020–21, 112,884 clients received treatment in Victoria.

Of these clients:

  • the majority received treatment in a single year (65%)
    • 16% (17,579) received treatment for the first time in 2020–21
    • a further 49% (55,391) received treatment in only one of the four collection periods (excluding 2020–21)
  • 22% (24,985) of clients received treatment in any 2 of the 5 years
  • 8.3% (9,375) of clients received treatment in any 3 of the 5 years
  • 3.6% (4,047) of clients received treatment in any 4 of the 5 years
  • 1.3% (1,507) of clients received treatment in all 5 collection years (Table SCR.28).

Drugs of concern

In 2020–21, for clients in Victoria receiving treatment episodes for their own alcohol or drug use:

  • alcohol was the most common principal drug of concern in 2020–21, accounting for 31% (23,039) of treatment episodes, overtaking amphetamines (26% or 19,255), which was the most common principal drug of concern in 2019–20 (29%) (Figure VIC2; Table ST VIC.6).

The grouped horizontal bar chart shows that, in 2019–20, the most common principal drug of concern in treatment episodes provided to clients in Victoria for their own drug use was amphetamines (29%). This was followed by alcohol (28%), cannabis (16%), and heroin (5.3%). Cannabis was the most common additional drug of concern (10%), followed by nicotine (9.6%), alcohol (8.1%), and amphetamines (5.5%).

In 2020–21, for clients receiving treatment for their own use of amphetamines:

  • methamphetamine was reported as a principal drug of concern in over 3 in 5 (62%) of treatment episodes (Figure VIC3a)
  • smoking was the most common method of use in 60% of episodes where methamphetamine was the principal drug of concern, followed by injecting (19%) (Figure VIC3b).

Victoria is working with service providers to encourage more specific reporting of amphetamine use (for example, to reduce the use of ‘amphetamines not further defined’ code where possible).  

The line graph shows that, from 2011–12 to 2018–19, ‘amphetamines not further defined’ was the most common drug of concern among amphetamine-related treatment episodes for clients’ own drug use. In 2019–20, methamphetamine became the most common drug of concern. The proportion of episodes for amphetamines not further defined decreased from 2017–18 (91% of amphetamine-related episodes) to 2020–21 (36.2%), while episodes increased for methamphetamines (from 5.9% to 61.5%).

The stacked horizontal bar chart shows the method of use for treatment episodes related to clients’ own use of methamphetamine, amphetamine, amphetamines not further defined, and other amphetamines in Victoria in 2020–21. Smoking was the most common method of use across all amphetamine codes (ranging from 52.0% to 63.9% of episodes), followed by injecting (ranging from 15.6% to 25.9% of episodes).

Victoria reported comparatively high incidences of ‘Not stated drugs’ in 2019–20 (15%) as the drug of concern. This proportion decreased in 2020–21 (2%), due to the work with service providers to encourage more specific reporting of drug of concern. For more information see the Data quality statement.

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:

  • cannabis was the most common (8.7% of episodes), followed by nicotine and alcohol (6.4% and 6.3% respectively) (Table ST VIC.7).

Over the period 2011–12 to 2020–21:

  • treatment episodes for alcohol replaced amphetamines as the most common principal drug of concern. The proportion of episodes have been gradually declining from 45% in 2011–12 to 31% in 2020–21, relative to all other principal drugs of concern. The number of episodes varied from 22,678 in 2011–12, falling to 15,820 in 2014–15 and rising to 23,039 episodes in 2020–21 (Table ST VIC.7)
  • amphetamines was the second most common principal drug of concern (26% or 19,255 episodes). The proportion of episodes with a principal drug of concern for amphetamines has increased from 10% in 2011–12 peaking at 30% in 2018–19, decreasing in 2020–21 (26%)
    • within the amphetamines group, methamphetamine was reported as the principal drug of concern for the first time in 2014–15 (2% of episodes), increasing to 6% in 2017–18. This was followed by a large increase in 2018–19 (43%), again increasing to 62% in 2020–21 (Figure VIC3a). The rise in episodes for methamphetamine is mainly due to improvements in agency coding practices for methamphetamines, although some of the increase in episodes could be related to increases in funded treatment services.
  • the proportion of treatment episodes for cannabis decreased from 23% in 2011–12 to 17% in 2020–21 (Figure VIC2; Table ST VIC.7).

Treatment

In 2020–21, for treatment episodes in Victoria:

  • counselling was the most common treatment type (27% of episodes) followed by support and case management (24%) (Figure VIC4; Table ST VIC.13).

In 2019–20, Victoria finalised implementation of a new data collection system (VADC) which allows agencies to report additional treatment types against the AODTS NMDS. As a result, there will be differences in the proportion of additional treatment types reported prior to 2019–20.

Over the period from 2011–12 to 2020–21:

  • counselling remained one of the most common main treatments for all episodes in 2020–21 (27%), albeit decreasing from 54% in 2011–12
  • support and case management as a main treatment increased from 12% in 2011–12, peaking in 2015–16 (30%) and falling to 24% in 2020–21 
  • withdrawal management decreased from 21% to 9% and ‘other’ treatment increased from 1% to 14% over the same period (Figure VIC4; Table ST VIC.13).

The grouped horizontal bar chart shows that, in 2020–21, the most common main treatment type provided to clients in Victoria for their own drug use was counselling (27.3% of episodes). This was followed by support and case management (23.5%), and assessment only (21.9%). Counselling was the most common additional treatment type (0.8%), followed by information and education (0.6%).

Agencies

In 2020–21, in Victoria:

  • only 3 of the 354 AOD agencies that received public funding were government treatment agencies
  • over 6 in 10 (62%) treatment agencies were located in Major cities, followed by Inner regional areas (29%) (Figure VIC5; Table Agcy.3)
  • Victoria does not have any areas classified as Remote or Very remote.

In the period from 2011–11 to 2020–21:

  • the number of publicly funded treatment agencies in Victoria increased from 136 in 2011–12 to 404 in 2018–19 dropping to 354 in 2020–21 (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.

The horizontal bar chart shows that most treatment agencies in Victoria were located in Major cities (220 agencies), followed by Inner regional areas (101 agencies) and Outer regional areas (33 agencies) in 2020–21. Of the total 354 treatment agencies, most (351 agencies) were non-government agencies.