Key findings
Agencies
- Half of agencies (54%) were public/government.
- Fewer than one in 10 agencies (8%) were in Remoteand Very remote Australia.
Clients
- 19 out of 20 treatment episodes (96%) were for clients seeking treatment for their own drug use.
- The median age of those in treatment was 32.
- Three in 10 episodes (29%) were for clients aged 20–29, the largest age cohort.
- Two in three episodes (66%) were for males.
- When compared with their proportions in the general population, Indigenous Australians were over-represented in treatment episodes.
Drugs
- Half of all episodes (53%) had multiple drugs of concern.
- Almost half of episodes (48%) had alcohol as the principal drug of concern, the highest proportion since the collection began.
- One in 10 episodes (10%) had heroin as the principal drug of concern.
- Despite being a principal drug of concern in only 2% of treatment episodes, nicotine was the third most common drug of concern reported overall (20%).
Treatment
- Counselling was the most common treatment type (42% of episodes).
- One in 10 (9%) episodes nominated more than one treatment type.
- Two in 10 (19%) episodes were court or police referrals.
- Three in 20 (15%) episodes had withdrawal management (detoxification) as a main treatment.
- The median duration for a treatment episode was 22 days.
- The most common referral method was self-referral (35%).