Introduction
In December 2015, the Australian Government announced the release of the Australian Government Response to the National Ice Taskforce Final Report (the Response). The Response underpinned the National Ice Action Strategy (NIAS), which was endorsed by the Council of Australian Governments (COAG) on 11 December 2015.
The Australian Government is investing approximately $561 million over four years from 1 July 2016 in drug and alcohol treatment services, as part of a $713 million investment in reducing the impact of drug and alcohol misuse on individuals, families and communities under the Drug and Alcohol Program.
Approximately $412.1 million of this investment is provided to Primary Health Networks (PHNs) to commission locally based treatment in line with community need. This includes the $241.5 million committed under the NIAS. This funding is delivered through the Australian Government’s Drug and Alcohol Program and aims to improve the access to, and effectiveness of drug and alcohol treatment services in the community.
The main source of data about specialist drug and alcohol treatment services in Australia is the Alcohol and Other Drug Treatment Services National Minimum Data Set (the AODTS NMDS), compiled on an annual basis from administrative data by the Australian Institute of Health and Welfare (AIHW).
PHN-commissioned specialist alcohol and other drug treatment providers collect data, in accordance with the AODTS NMDS, on in-scope specialist treatment services and provide it to the AIHW. This data is reported by the AIHW in the Alcohol and other drug treatment services in Australia 2017–18 report. Alcohol and other drug treatment agencies funded by PHNs under the Drug and Alcohol Program submitted data to the AODTS NMDS for the first time in 2016–17.
The following set of data visualisations present information at the PHN level, based on data reported during the
2017–18 AODTS NMDS collection cycle, as well as selected trend analysis incorporating data from the 4 previous collection cycles. While PHNs were established on 1 July 2015, data collected since 2013–14 is presented to show the trends within each PHN prior to the establishment of the boundaries.
The data presented is from all publicly funded AOD treatment services (which includes PHN-commissioned services) that have reported to the AODTS NMDS.
Australia as a whole comprises 31 individual PHNs. Some states/territories consist of single PHNs, while others are made up of multiple PHNs.