New AIHW Report on Alcohol and Other Drug Treatment Services

More than half the people seeking help for drug use are aged between 20 and 39, with two-thirds being male, according to athe Australian Institute of Health and Welfare's (AIHW) new report Alcohol and other drug treatment services in Australia 2011-12.
The report also shows that alcohol is the most common principal drug of concern, with cannabis, amphetamines and herion making up the top four. Data was collected from government-funded agencies and included the episodes of treatment they provide. AIHW spokesperson Amber Jefferson said that treatment was provided by about 660 agencies and, while this number was down slightly on 2010-11, the number of episodes closed by the agencies had increased by two per cent to more than 153,600 in 2011-12.
Most treatment episodes for people receiving help for their own drug use were for clients aged 20-29 (28%) and 30-39 (29%), while 12% were for clients aged 10-19 and 20% were for clients aged 40-49.
“Over two-thirds of these clients were male,” Ms Jefferson said.
“In four out of five episodes, the client reported more than one drug of concern, and alcohol remained the most common drug overall even when additional drugs were considered,” Ms Jefferson said.
Counselling was the most common type of treatment, followed by withdrawal management.
The median length of treatment episodes has gradually increased-from 17 days to 26 days between 2003-04 and 2011-12.