DirectLine

Victoria State

Metro/Regional

Local Government Areas (LGAs)

Definitions

Methods

Victoria State

Alcohol and drug-related telephone counselling and referral services in Victoria

Source: Turning Point
Analysis by Turning Point
Creative Commons License 
ERP from ABS release dated 28 September 2023 (Population estimates by age and sex, by LGA, 2001 to 2022)
Last update: 19 April 2024

Download data

Metro/Regional

Alcohol and drug-related telephone counselling and referral services in Victoria

Source: Turning Point
Analysis by Turning Point
Creative Commons License 
ERP from ABS release dated 28 September 2023 (Population estimates by age and sex, by LGA, 2001 to 2022)
Last update: 19 April 2024

Download data

Local Government Areas (LGA)

Alcohol and drug-related telephone counselling and referral services in Victoria

Source: Turning Point
Analysis by Turning Point
Creative Commons License 
ERP from ABS release dated 28 September 2023 (Population estimates by age and sex, by LGA, 2001 to 2022)
Last update: 19 April 2024

Download data

Definitions

Drug categories

  1. Alcohol = alcohol involvement, with or without other drugs/substances.
  2. Amphetamines (Any) = all amphetamines (e.g. amphetamine, methamphetamine).
  3. Amphetamines (Meth) = crystal meth or ice. This category is a subset of Amphetamines (Any).
  4. Analgesics = pain relief medications, such as aspirin or paracetamol, and other non-opioid analgesics.
  5. Antidepressants = antidepressant, such as citalopram or sertraline.
  6. Benzodiazepines = benzodiazepines, such as alprazolam or diazepam (may include drugs that act like benzodiazepines, such as zolpidem).
  7. Cannabis = cannabis or hashish.
  8. GHB (Gamma-hydroxybutyrate) = GHB
  9. Hallucinogens = hallucinogen, including LSD or mushrooms.
  10. Heroin = any heroin.
  11. Illicit Drugs (Any): indicates case where any illicit drug was primarily involved in the event, including heroin, opioids, amphetamines, cannabis, stimulants, hallucinogens, inhalants, or other illicit drugs not explicitly mentioned.
  12. Inhalants = any volatile substance, inhalant or solvent, such as chrome or petrol.
  13. Opioids = opioid, including opioid analgesics such as morphine or oxycodone.
  14. Other Sedatives = a sedative (excluding opioids and benzodiazepines) was involved in the event, such as barbiturates, anaesthetics or ketamine.
  15. Other Stimulants = stimulants, including cocaine or ecstasy.
  16. Pharmaceutical Drugs (Any): indicates case where a prescription drug was primarily involved in the event, including antidepressants, antipsychotics, benzodiazepines, analgesics, sedatives, pharmacotherapy, steroids or another medication (prescribed or non-prescribed) not explicitly mentioned.
  17. Pharmacotherapy = synthetic opioids, such as those used in opioid replacement therapy, including methadone and buprenorphine.

Gender categories

  • Null refers to either missing or other gender. 

Age group categories

  • Null refers to missing age

Methods

Scope

AODstats provides the ability to track trends of acute harms at the community level, and help inform policy and strategies to intervene and minimise the impact or spread of these harms.

This information provides a convenient, interactive, statistical resource for policy planners, drug service providers, health professionals and other key stakeholders, interested in the harms relating to alcohol and other drug use in Victoria.

Data Analysis

For further information on the analysis, please see the methods document (the document opens in a new tab).

  • Data indicator: Telephone counselling services
  • Data Source: Turning Point
  • Details of data analysis: Data for counselling, information and referral-based telephone calls are extracted from Turning Point’s DirectLine database, which includes services provided to Victorians to discuss alcohol and other drug related issues. Data is presented based upon residential location.

Metrics presented

  • Numbers: cell sizes less than 5 are obfuscated in line with ethics and data custodian requirements. Some other categorical data may also be obfuscated if a category can be calculated by subtracting any remaining categories from the total.
  • Rates: rates are calculated in several ways. These include crude rates, age-specific rates and age and gender-standardised rates. Rates are calculated using the most recent mid-year ERP data (where practical).  For visualisations and download sheets, crude rates are calculated for the total population, males and females. Age-specific rates are calculated for age groups in visualisations and download sheets.  Rates reported on the AODstats population pyramid visualisation are age and gender-standardised rates.  Crude rates, which can allow for adjustment of population sizes across different areas, however these do not adjust for certain demographic attributes (specifically age and sex). The advantage to using crude rates and age-specific rates are particularly important from a policy perspective, to understand what is influencing the rates. For example, it is important for policy and services to be aware if an area has more men and younger people. However, the use of age/sex-standardised rates in the population pyramids, allows for specific age and gender comparisons across areas to be made more accurately.
  • Population estimates: ABS estimated resident population (ERP) on age, sex and statistical local areas is used throughout AODstats based on calendar year of data. For financial year datasets, the earliest year is used (e.g. 2012/13, 2012 ERP is used).

Limitations

There are limitations to using administrative data for purposes other than what it was originally intended when collected. This includes:

  • Incomplete or missing data and inadequate coding.
  • Some drugs are already in pre-determined drug categories and it is not possible to group them differently or include more specific drug information. In addition, sometimes drug information is not collected and therefore surrogate measures are used. The limitation to this is there will be events that are missed when they should be included and conversely events included when they should not be.
  • Location information is dependent upon dataset and the majority of times LGA is the smallest area provided, and sometimes only state based data is available.
  • Crude rates are used, which do not allow for certain demographic attributes (age and gender) to be compared accurately across areas, and also rates based on small numbers can produce unstable results. However, we have used age-specific rates for age groups, which does allow for age-specific comparisons. We have also used age and gender-standardised rates in the population pyramid.
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Terms & Conditions

Disclaimer:

The information on this website is for non-commercial use only, including educational, scholarly, research, and personal projects that will not be marketed, promoted or sold in a financial transaction. We provide the data in good faith and attempt to make the information as current and accurate as possible. You may use the data from AODstats provided that you do so for a purpose that is reasonably related to the purpose for which AODstats has been provided to you. If you use these data you are required to acknowledge that the source of the information is AODstats, which is owned by Turning Point, Eastern Health.

Limitations:

The availability of some primary data may vary over time, and there may be a time lag in gaining access to data for analysis and mapping. For some map areas, the data is not available due to the need to maintain confidentiality (through suppression of values less than 5, as agreed with data custodians). Data collection can vary between jurisdictions and therefore we advise caution in comparisons between jurisdictions. Where data is available, jurisdictional statistics have been provided, however, we are unable to provide national statistics at this time.