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The stereotype of who struggles with alcohol dependence is shifting. According to a recent survey by Alcoholics Anonymous, the typical member in Australia today is a woman over 50, university educated and in employment. Female members outnumbered men for the first time in 2025. Clean Slate Clinic's senior clinician, Fiona Faulkner, points to a generation of women who came of age in changing workplaces, often drinking to fit in, while also navigating the physical and hormonal shifts of menopause. What felt manageable for years can quietly become dependence.

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Alice Hansen's experience captures this pattern. A Tasmanian with a tennis scholarship, a degree and a career in tourism, she first entered rehabilitation in 2008 and returned to the same ward 26 times. She credits continuity of doctor-led telehealth care following detox with breaking the cycle. She is now sober, runs marathons, is learning to sail, and leads wellness retreats in Tasmania.

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Around 40,000 Australians present to emergency departments for alcohol withdrawal every year, with 70 per cent relapsing within 30 to 90 days of detox. The system manages the acute episode, then discharges people back into the same circumstances that led to their admission. As Fiona explains, this is not a personal failure but a systems failure, one that removes support at exactly the moment people are most vulnerable.

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Clean Slate Clinic has proposed a National Hospital Avoidance Program to close this gap, offering 90 days of structured post-detox support at an average cost of $3,700 per patient, compared to $12,000 to $20,000 in repeat acute care. It is a fixable problem, and the evidence shows that continuity of care changes lives.

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Read the full story in the Canberra Times

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