Alcohol and other drug treatment services in Australia annual report

Support includes activities such as providing emotional support to a client who occasionally calls an agency worker. Case management is usually more structured than support; it can assume a more holistic approach, taking into account all client needs (including general welfare needs) and encompasses assessment, planning, linking, monitoring and advocacy (Vanderplaschen et al. 2007). See glossary for further information on support and case management.

In 2021–22:

• around 1 in 7 (15% or 35,351) treatment episodes reported a main treatment of support and case management
  • over 1 in 7 (13%) treatment episodes included support and case management for clients’ own alcohol or drug use
  • around 2 in 5 (39%) treatment episodes were for clients seeking treatment for someone else’s alcohol or drug use 
• most support and case management treatment episodes for a client’s own alcohol or drug use were for people whose principal drug of concern was alcohol (38%), amphetamines (23%) or cannabis (23%) (tables Trt.3, Trt.37).

Client profile

In 2021–22, for clients whose main treatment was support and case management:

• three in 5 (59%) clients were male
• more than 2 in 3 (68%) people receiving treatment for either their own or someone else’s alcohol or drug use were aged 10–39
• for people receiving treatment for their own alcohol or drug use, 19% identified as Indigenous Australians, compared with 12% of people who received support and case management for someone else’s use (tables SC.18–20).

Treatment profile

Among support and case management treatment episodes for clients’ own alcohol or drug use and someone else’s alcohol or drug use:

• the proportion of episodes lasting 1 day was higher for clients receiving treatment for someone else’s alcohol or drug use (65%) than for their own alcohol or drug use (13%) 
• Most (78%) treatment episodes for support and case management lasted from one day to 3 months.

Over the 10-year period to 2021–22:

• for clients receiving treatment for their own alcohol or drug use, treatment episodes lasting one day increased from 9% in 2012–13 to 13% in 2021–22, while episodes lasting one to 3 months fell from 35% in 2012–13 to 30% in 2021–22
• the proportion of treatment episodes for someone else’s alcohol or drug use that lasted 1 day rose substantially from 2012–13 (12%) to 2018–19 (87%) before falling in 2021–22 (65%)
• median treatment duration for own alcohol or drug use dropped over this period from 47 days to 38 days since 2012–13, and for someone else’s alcohol or drug use median treatment duration dropped from 36 days to 1 day (tables Ov.11, Trt.39).