Substance use and addiction services

Substance use and addiction services include prevention, treatment, and rehabilitation, as well as support for everyday life

Substance use and addiction services help people in situations where alcohol, drugs, tobacco and nicotine products, gambling or other addictions cause harm. The services include prevention, treatment and rehabilitation, as well as support for everyday life, such as day centre activities, outreach substance use work and temporary accommodation.

Service needs change along with society, and at the same time the well-being services counties must find new ways to respond to the growing need for treatment and support. The Finnish Institute for Health and Welfare (THL) monitors service use and the overall situation using register data and surveys in order to develop services to better meet people’s needs.

Substance use and addiction services in health care and social welfare

The number of clients seeking care for substance use and addictions in primary health care increased significantly between 2019 and 2024. The increase is partly explained by a structural reform in services, where the focus of treatment has shifted from specialised health care to primary-level services.

Alcohol remains the most common reason for service use, but contacts related to drug use have increased the fastest in relative terms. In primary health care, the strong growth in opioid substitution treatment in particular has been highlighted between 2019 and 2024.

In specialised health care, the number of clients has decreased in both outpatient and inpatient care. In occupational health care, the main reasons for visits are related to alcohol misuse and smoking.

In institutional services within social welfare substance use and addiction work, treatment periods related to alcohol have decreased significantly over the past 10 years. In contrast, the number of treatment periods related to drug use has remained roughly unchanged. In specialised services of social welfare substance use and addiction work, an estimated 25,000 clients were recorded between July and September 2025.

Availability of substance use and addiction services

According to a survey conducted in 2024, all wellbeing services counties provide basic outpatient care, but support for, for example, behavioural addictions and quitting nicotine products varies.

Low-threshold services are not available in all wellbeing services counties.
Read more about availability

The number of clients in opioid substitution treatment continues to grow

Opioid substitution treatment is a key component in the treatment of opioid dependence and harm reduction. According to health care registers, nearly 10,000 clients received opioid substitution treatment in 2024, and the number has increased annually since 2019.

Clients in opioid substitution treatment are typically aged 30–49, and the majority (86%) are aged 20–49. Based on register data, opioid substitution treatment among minors is still rare. Similarly, there were only few older clients aged 65 or over.
Indicator data in Sotkanet
Read more: Information about indicators in Sotkanet

Read the full report (Julkari) (abstract in English) 

Changes in institutional substance use and addiction rehabilitation

The number of clients in institutional rehabilitation has decreased by approximately one fifth compared to 2020. Although the number of places and personnel has remained unchanged, the number of clients and treatment periods has declined.

Service provision is strongly concentrated among private providers.

The data are based on surveys conducted in 2025 and 2021.
Read more about institutional rehalibilitation 

Source

Jääskeläinen, M ym. Tilasto- ja rekisterikatsaus päihde- ja riippuvuushäiriöihin sosiaali- ja terveyspalveluissa. Teoksessa Kuussaari, K ym. (toim.) Päihde- ja riippuvuuspalvelujen tila – ratkaisuja muuttuviin tarpeisiin (Julkari) (in Finnish) (forthcoming 6.5.2026)

Next publications on the topic 

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