Alcohol and other drug treatment services in Australia: state and territory summaries

In 2017–18, the majority of closed episodes for all clients, included:

• assessment only as the most common main treatment in South Australia (42% of episodes), followed by counselling (21%), and withdrawal management (18%) (Figure 19; Table SE SA.20)
• where an additional treatment was provided as a supplementary to the main treatment, other treatment (12%) was the most common additional treatment, followed by counselling (8%).

Over the period 2013–14 to 2017–18:

• the proportion of closed treatment episodes where assessment only was a main treatment fluctuated, peaking at 44% of episodes in 2013–14 and falling to 39% in 2014–15
• counselling as a main treatment type also fluctuated, from 22% in 2013–14, to 25% in 2016–17 and to 21% in 2017–18
• the proportion of closed episodes where assessment only was the main treatment remained considerably higher in South Australia than the national rate (ranging from 15% to 16%) (Tables SE SA.20 and ST.2).

  The high proportion of treatment episodes for assessment only is related to assessments provided under the Police Drug Diversion Initiative (as described in the previous section).