Estimating met demand for alcohol and other drug treatment in Australia

Abstract

Aims: To estimate the amount of alcohol and other drug (AOD) treatment provided and number of treatment recipients in Australia in 2011-12, and document an approach for future estimates internationally.

Design: We combined multiple data sources to estimate the amount of treatment received: administrative data on AOD treatment funded by the Australian and state/territory governments, survey data from treatment providers and programme evaluation data. The various data sources were reconciled, using published studies of treatment activity, to estimate the unique number of treatment recipients.

Setting: Treatment funded by the Australian and state/territory governments provided by general practitioners, specialist treatment services, hospitals, community- and hospital-based ambulatory mental health-care services and allied health professionals.

Participants: People receiving AOD treatment in the above settings.

Measures: Annual quantum of AOD treatment (encounters, episodes, consultations) and the number of unique treatment recipients.

Findings: In 2011/12 we estimated 1.6 million episodes of care, consultations or encounters, noting that measures of treatment are not comparable. Based on a range of conversion rates to account for people accessing treatment multiple times in that year, we estimated that the number of Australians in receipt of AOD treatment ranged from 202 168 to 232 419. This is an underestimate and subject to error. Using the upper range of the estimate, on average each treatment recipient made 4.7 visits to a general practitioner (GP) or allied health professional providing mental health services for AOD treatment, and had 1.2 treatment episodes with a specialist AOD treatment provider and/or hospital.

Conclusions: Between 202 168 and 232 419 Australians are estimated to have received alcohol and other drug treatment in 2011-12. The comprehensive approach used to calculate this estimate, combining multiple independent data sets across treatment settings and programmes, can be replicated in other countries.

Keywords: Alcohol and other drug treatment; Australia; episodes; measurement; met demand; recipients.