The waiting list for detox beds in the region is about six months, with a three month wait for places in residential rehabilitation facilities that can only be accessed once a person has detoxed and stopped using.

Windana Drug and Alcohol Recovery treatment chief executive Andrea McLeod said there had been a 70 per cent increase in the waiting list for people to enter their residential rehabilitation over the past two years.

And she called for urgent funding to better support those left languishing on waiting lists to help them better manage their addictions until they can access treatment.

"People don't get better when on a waiting list. By the time they do get in the situation is often even more compromised," she said.

"People are making a decision that they need to do something about their alcohol or drug use then being told they need to wait three to six months ... and often by then they are dealing with other issues such as homelessness."

Ms McLeod said the 70 per cent increase in the waiting list was partly compounded by COVID, which saw restrictions in residential rehabilitation services which has formed a backlog, and "some of the compounding unintended consequences of lockdown".

"I think over the past three years we've seen a change in substance use," she said.

"There's more alcohol related concern coming through that we have previously seen and I think it's directly attributed to COVID and lockdown along with the availability of alcohol. You can dial Uber and get alcohol delivered with no checks and we are seeing people who are in a pretty bad way because of alcohol related health issues and chronic health conditions.

"In young people we are seeing high alcohol and high cannabis use."

Ms McLeod said not only were services dealing with substance abuse, but a multitude of other conditions.

"What we are seeing now is more family violence, raised awareness of traumatic events in people often from childhood or the past, and we are seeing a much higher proportion of clients come through with co-occurring diagnoses of mental health conditions.

"We are not just treating substance abuse but a whole lot of other issues.

Many are also referred to rehabilitation from the criminal justice system, with some people bailed to a rehabilitation facility forced to stay in custody because those beds are not available.

"It's a perfect storm," she said.

With no detox beds available in Ballarat - the closest are in Bendigo, Geelong or Melbourne - Windana's Eureka service does support people detoxing at home but Ms McLeod said it had to be the right environment at home to be successful and that was not always possible.

"In regional areas the lack of available beds within the community is an issue - not everyone can travel and not everyone want to do detox or rehab outside their community because community is a huge part of successful rehabilitation," she said.

Ballarat Community Health provides community-based alcohol and other drug support and, to meet demand, recently launched a new after-hours service which quickly reached capacity.

"Ballarat Community Health are working hard to keep up with demand in Ballarat for alcohol and other drug support services. We strive to provide an assessment appointment within two weeks of initial intake," said alcohol and other drug services manager Suzanne Powell.

"Our new after-hours services have proven vital to the community, with individual sessions at capacity, highlighting the need for these types of after-hours services in the region."

Ms McLeod said supporting people while they were on waiting lists for residential detox and rehab beds was vital.

"There's opportunity to still engage and get people ready for rehab, to do health promotion and support people to think differently and have a real harm minimisation reduction approach. Being able to support people while on waiting lists still has to be funded, and currently it's not."

The Victorian Alcohol and Drug Association (VAADA) has called for fair and equitable access to AOD treatment across Victoria.

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Even before the pandemic drove the daily waitlist for treatment from 2385 in September 2020 to 4088 in December 2021, demand for treatment had burgeoned 87.5 per cent from 2014/15 to 2019/20.

"There has been a surge in alcohol related demand since the pandemic, no doubt fuelled by anxiety as well as long months in near isolation. Seventy per cent of Victorian alcohol and other drug treatment agencies have seen an increase in the prevalence and severity of alcohol related presentations," said VAADA executive officer Sam Biondo.

"We have seen unprecedented increases in demand since the pandemic with average wait times blowing out for some treatment types by over 25 per cent. This means extra weeks for those in desperate need of help in a queue, which for many dangerously increases the rate of attrition," he said.

"We need investment in additional workforce training and broader planning for tomorrow's workforce, with recruitment and retention of skilled workers increasingly difficult, especially in regional areas of Victoria.

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