Drug and Alcohol Rehabs in Australia

And for those needing these services, it is not easy or straightforward to reach out for help. Publicly funded beds can be very difficult to access, and the complexity is magnified if inpatient withdrawal/detoxification and onward referral to residential drug and alcohol rehabs in Australia is required. In some instances, if appropriate, clients can undergo community-based withdrawal via their General Practitioner, but then the waiting time for publicly funded drug and alcohol rehabs in Australia thereafter can be ridiculously long. Any benefits the client may have derived from undertaking the miserable community-based withdrawal will probably be long-lost through relapse by the time a rehab bed comes available. Even the inpatient withdrawal places have long waiting lists, and co-ordinating immediate transfer to residential rehab thereafter is can be somewhat perplexing via the Government or non-profit sectors.

On hearing that there are considerable waiting times to access in-patient detox – let alone inpatient beds in residential drug and alcohol rehabs in Australia – and many multi-agency hurdles to be negotiated and coordinated, many clients, their families and significant others, see little hope of a speedy resolution. This adds to the already immense stress that alcoholism and addiction foist upon everyone involved: including the caregiving agencies and clinicians who work tirelessly to improve matters but concede the major issues involved.

When clients and families are faced with these very difficult and time-consuming challenges, they will look for other admission opportunities other than Governmental and non-profit residential drug and alcohol rehabs in Australia, and consider the private sector. Why would they not, when witnessing the long and degrading descent towards the degradation – and ultimately death – of the addict or alcoholic?

There is, of course, the private hospital route, which offers insured and uninsured patients various length of stay options of rehabilitation or treatment.

There are quite a few private hospitals in Australia that offer ‘detox’ or as it now commonly called ‘withdrawal management’. Some provide medicated withdrawal and some do not unless medically indicated. Some have group programs during the detox phase of withdrawal which can be a useful distraction from unpleasant withdrawal symptoms. Some have short term rehabilitation attached with access to psychology and psychiatry. Private hospitals sometimes offer quicker admission than the public sector, but such short term residential drug and alcohol rehabs in Australia via this route cannot alone solve the addict’s problems, nor those of the family.

Many people believe once detox has occurred then everything will return to normal. This is rarely the case, as overcoming the physical dependence is only the beginning. Many people relapse and return to previous self-destructive behaviours unless they learn new positive behaviours and coping mechanisms very quickly. Therefore, post-detox rehab is hugely beneficial, and admission thereto should be coordinated well in advance.