Outreach teams were a core component of the public intoxication response service and reconnecting people with family and friends was their priority, Cohealth deputy chief executive Christopher Turner said.
"The overwhelming majority of people who are intoxicated in public just need a bit of support to get somewhere safe and that's a job best suited to our outreach teams," Mr Turner said.
When this wasn't possible, those in need were taken to sobering centres.
Less than three people a night were treated at Victorian sobering up centres on average during the first year of operations, despite the facilities having capacity for more than two dozen patients.
The state opposition slammed the empty beds as a sign of a failing system, but the government insisted it showed outreach programs were working.
There were 1040 separate stays across the facilities in Collingwood, St Kilda and on-demand services in regional Victoria from November 7, 2023 to October 30, 2024.
That averages out to 2.9 people per night, with facilities capable of treating 26 patients at once.
Workers responded to 24,600 instances of drunk people needing other supports during that time.
Over the most recent New Year celebrations, nine people attended the centres and outreach teams helped 280 people.
The numbers were encouraging, Victorian Alcohol and Drug Association chief executive Chris Christoforou said.
"If 1000 people have been taken to a sobering up centre in the last 12 months, then it is working," Mr Christoforou told ABC Radio.
"When you have the almost 25,000 people that have been engaged by the outreach service, then I think it's heading the right direction."
Victoria decriminalised public drunkenness in November 2023 and replaced it with a health-based response funded with $88.3 million over three years, centred around outreach teams and the sobering up centres.
The changes were sparked by the death of Yorta Yorta woman Tanya Day who was arrested for being drunk in a public place and died after hitting her head in a concrete cell at Castlemaine Police Station in 2017.
In June 2024, a man was struck by a car and died at an intersection at Wyndham Vale after he was turned away from a sobering up centre becausse of safety reasons.
Victoria decriminalised public drunkenness in 2023 and funded sobering up centres. (Con Chronis/AAP PHOTOS)
Victorian opposition leader Brad Battin claimed the new system had no effect on changing what happens to drunk people and called for police to have greater powers to "take people off the street who they believe are vulnerable".
"The whole system is failing," Mr Battin told reporters at Parliament on Monday.
"People who are in the most vulnerable position, if they're drunk in the community, need protection".
Government minister Steve Dimopoulos said the sobering up centres were important for a small number of people and helped prevent deaths in custody.
"It's a success if there are less people using it over time, because the message is getting through and the outreach is getting through," he said.
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