In a preliminary analysis of data from a community survey of psychiatric disorders in urban Christchurch, 157 of the 1018 adults interviewed met diagnostic criteria for alcohol abuse and/or dependence. The subjects who met the criteria for alcohol abuse and/or dependence were more likely to have used mental health services than the population at large, although 39% of those with an alcohol disorder had never used any form of mental health service. We examined the impact of severity of alcohol disorder, duration of disorder and gender on the use of services among those with an alcohol disorder. Duration of disorder was not related to use of mental health services. Women are more likely than men to use these services. However, the most important finding was that those with the most severe disorders were most likely to have used mental health services.