Fewer People Are Getting Alcohol and Drug Treatment in Australia. Here's Why That Should Worry Us
New national data shows the number of Australians accessing alcohol and other drug treatment has fallen. For young people, the figures reveal both a warning sign and a clear opportunity for earlier support.
The Australian Institute of Health and Welfare (AIHW) has released its Alcohol and other drug treatment services in Australia annual report 2024–25, the most comprehensive national picture we have of who is accessing publicly funded alcohol and other drug (AOD) support, and who isn’t.
On the surface, the numbers look steady. Treatment agencies delivered around 244,400 treatment episodes to an estimated 127,800 people aged 10 and over in 2024-25. But look a little closer and a more concerning trend emerges: since 2019-20, the number of people accessing treatment has dropped by 8.2 per cent, falling from 139,295 to 127,804, with treatment rates falling from 623 to 527 per 100,000 people. Fewer people are walking through the door, even as the need for youth alcohol and other drug treatment remains urgent.
At Sir David Martin Foundation, this data matters to us directly. The programs we fund through our service partner Mission Australia, including Triple Care Farm and Youth Network aftercare, exist to make sure young people don’t fall through the gaps this report is starting to reveal.
What young people are actually presenting with
The report confirms something we see reflected in the young people supported through the programs we fund: substance use patterns shift significantly with age, and the drug of concern for a 15-year-old looks very different to that of a 45-year-old.
Cannabis was by far the most common principal drug of concern for the youngest clients, accounting for 53 per cent of treatment episodes for those aged 10–19 and 24 per cent of episodes for those aged 20-29. Methamphetamine was the standout concern for those aged 30-39, at 32 per cent of episodes. Alcohol, by contrast, only overtakes these as the dominant concern from age 40 onward, accounting for 45 per cent of episodes for people aged 40–49, rising to 75 per cent for those aged 60 and over.
Of the 117,132 people who received treatment for their own alcohol or drug use in 2024-25, 7.7 per cent (9,009 people) were aged 10-19. Among clients accessing treatment for the very first time, 14 per cent were in this same age bracket, a reminder that adolescence is often when substance use first surfaces and when early intervention can have the greatest impact.
Young people need a different kind of care
One of the more telling findings is how differently young clients are treated once they do reach a service. Across most age groups, counselling was followed by assessment only as the two most common treatment types. But for clients aged 10-19, the pattern was different: counselling (42 per cent) was followed by support and case management (29 per cent), rather than a standalone assessment.
Older clients (those aged 40 and over) were also more likely to receive withdrawal management, at 7.8 to 9.8 per cent of episodes, compared with just 3.5 per cent for clients aged 10-19. This may mean that young people are less likely to need clinical detoxification, or it could mean that there are not enough youth-specific withdrawal services available to access. David Martin Place was the first and remains the only youth-specific withdrawal centre in NSW.
What we do know is that young people benefit from wraparound, relationship-based support that helps them navigate school, family and identity alongside substance use. It’s exactly the model of care that underpins the youth-specific programs we fund, where treatment is never just about the substance itself.
The system is growing, but access still isn't equal
There is genuine good news held in this report. Over the ten years to 2024-25, the number of publicly funded AOD agencies across Australia grew by 66 per cent, from 791 to 1,316. That’s a substantial national investment in treatment capacity.
But more than half of those agencies (55 per cent) are located in major cities, leaving young people in regional and remote communities with far fewer local options. For a young person in a rural town already facing stigma and long waitlists, “more services nationally” can still mean “no services nearby.”
There is also a quieter warning in the referral data. Diversion into treatment, where police, courts or other services connect someone with support rather than punishment, has fallen sharply, from 17 per cent of referrals in 2015-16 to just 7.2 to 8.0 per cent in 2024-25. Diversion pathways are one of the clearest opportunities for early intervention, particularly for young people whose substance use is only just beginning. A declining diversion rate suggests fewer young people are being caught by that safety net before things escalate.
Reasons for hope
It isn’t all difficult news. Among clients who did access treatment, 59 per cent of episodes ended in an expected or planned completion in 2024-25, a figure that has stayed remarkably stable since 2015-16. The median length of treatment was four weeks for people receiving support for their own alcohol or drug use, and self or family referral remains the single most common way people find their way into care.
That last point matters enormously for families. It confirms that parents, siblings and loved ones are still the most powerful bridge between a young person and the help they need. Families don’t need to wait for a crisis or a court order to reach out. Often, they’re the ones who notice first.
What this means for young Australians, families and our work
Read together, these findings paint a clear picture. Young people present differently, need different care, and are being reached through diversion less often than they were a decade ago, all while overall treatment numbers decline. That’s not a reason to lose hope. It’s a reason to invest in the pathways that work: family-led referral, relationship-based case management (like aftercare workers in our Youth Network), and youth-specific programs that meet young people where they are, before their substance use becomes entrenched.
This is precisely the gap the programs we fund are designed to close. Triple Care Farm supports young people aged 16 to 24 through withdrawal, rehabilitation and aftercare in a setting built around connection rather than clinical detox. Youth Network aftercare extends that support in four locations nationally into the community once formal treatment ends, because recovery doesn’t stop when someone walks out the door.
The AIHW’s data is a call to action, not a statistic to file away. Every percentage point in this report represents a young person, and often a family, navigating one of the hardest chapters of their life. The earlier we reach them, the better their chances.
If you’d like to help more young Australians access the early support they need, donate to Sir David Martin Foundation or learn more about the programs we fund.
Sources
Australian Institute of Health and Welfare (2026). Alcohol and other drug treatment services in Australia annual report 2024–25. Canberra: AIHW.
