Drug and Alcohol Rehab in Geelong: the honest guide

Clinically reviewed byNerea Encinas SánchezDirector of the centre, MSc General Health PsychologyRegistered psychologist, COPAO AO13857

Checked for accuracy on 28 July 2026. Next review due July 2027. This page is general information about our programme and is not a substitute for advice about your own situation.

Speak to a clinician about treatment from Geelong

Confidential, no obligation, and no referral fee is paid to anyone for sending you here.

Speak to a clinician+44 1202 653136

Free drug and alcohol services in Geelong

Start here, before you consider paying for anything. These services are free, they are local, and for a great many people they are enough on their own. We publish them because a centre that only tells you about its own programme is not giving you the full picture.

Checked 28 July 2026. Commissioned services are retendered periodically, so confirm the current provider with the authority before you travel to an appointment.

AA and NA meetings in Geelong

Mutual aid meetings are free, they run most days, and there is no waiting list, no referral and no assessment. You can walk into one this week. They work alongside whatever else you choose rather than instead of it, and plenty of people use them and nothing else.

What actually happens at a first meeting

You do not have to speak, and you do not have to give your surname. Most meetings open with a reading, someone shares for a while, and others speak if they want to. It lasts about an hour, and it is free, though a basket goes round for the room hire. Nobody takes a register and nobody will ask you to commit to anything.

An open meeting can be attended by anyone, including family. A closed meeting is for people who think they may have a problem themselves. If the first group does not suit you, the next one along will feel different, because each has its own character. The usual advice is to try three before deciding it is not for you.

We link the official finders rather than print a timetable, because meeting times and venues change and a stale listing sends someone to a locked door. Checked 28 July 2026.

Residential and private rehab for people in Geelong

Geelong does have a residential rehabilitation centre of its own, the Windana Barwon Therapeutic Community in Corio, a not-for-profit residential service reached through the DirectLine intake line rather than by paying privately. That sets Geelong apart from many regional towns, where a residential stay always means travelling. Beyond the public system, dedicated private residential centres are mostly not based in Geelong itself; the private and luxury residential clinics that market to Victorians tend to be in Melbourne, on the Mornington Peninsula, interstate or overseas. In practice, choosing private residential care usually means travelling, which is worth knowing when you weigh up treatment further afield.

What treatment costs

Through the public system the cost is little or nothing: Barwon Health and Windana are funded to treat people at no charge or low cost, which is why they are the right first step for most people. Private residential care is a different market. As a guide, published Australian directories put private residential rehabilitation at roughly A$8,000 to A$30,000 a month, with premium or executive centres above A$40,000, and a private 28-day stay in Melbourne or Sydney commonly quoted between A$15,000 and A$55,000. Sierra’s £9,900 for a 28-day programme, private room included, sits well below the premium end of the Australian private market, because the cost of running a centre in the Spanish countryside is lower, not because the care is.

Cost figures are indicative ranges compiled from published Australian directories and provider information, dated above. They are not quotations. Every centre sets its own fees.

Considering residential treatment abroad?

Sierra Recovery, Málaga, Spain

Most people who look abroad are not chasing sunshine. They are trying to get far enough away from the people, the places and the routine that keep the drinking or the using going, because they have already discovered that stopping while all of that is still fifteen minutes away does not hold. That distance is the whole point, and it is the one thing a clinic near Geelong cannot give you.

Sierra Recovery is a working farmhouse on forty hectares of olive groves in the Málaga countryside, about forty five minutes from the airport and roughly three hours from most UK airports. It is small, the team is English-speaking, and the same clinicians treat you from the first day to the last. What follows is what that actually buys, stated plainly enough that you can compare it with anything else you are considering.

What matters when comparing	Sierra Recovery
Is it actually licensed	A registered health centre entered in the Registro Andaluz de Centros, Servicios y Establecimientos Sanitarios (the Andalusian register of health centres, services and establishments) under N.I.C.A. 67331, authorised by the Junta de Andalucía. You can look it up yourself on the public register.
What it costs, in full	£9,900 for the 28-day residential programme, published on the site up front. All rooms are individual. You get an itemised written quotation before admission.
Who pays whom	No referral fees are paid or accepted, in either direction. Nobody earns a commission for sending you here, which is worth checking about any centre you are comparing.
What the clinical work is	Three group sessions a day five days a week, individual therapy three times a week, and a seventeen-module psychoeducation curriculum. The approach adapts the method of PROMIS Clinics, treating addiction in the United Kingdom since 1986.
Where the limits are	It is not a hospital and not a detox unit. Where a medically supervised detox is clinically needed it is completed in an appropriate medical setting before admission and billed separately. Qualified nurses are part of the team throughout the stay.
Who you speak to first	Our admissions team, all of them clinicians, working to the standards set by our clinical director. The assessment is free, and if a service closer to home suits you better, we will say so.
What happens afterwards	Aftercare is agreed before you leave: a session every week for a full year, online or in person at the PROMIS clinics in London, which is more than 48 sessions in the twelve months after discharge. A written handover goes to your GP so nothing has to be explained from scratch.

Every figure above is published elsewhere on this site and can be checked. See pricing, regulation and licensing and the programme.

Which option is right for you

Start with Barwon Health or DirectLine if you are unsure, if cost is the barrier, or if you want to stay near family and work. Windana’s Barwon Therapeutic Community if you want residential care within Geelong and are willing to go through the public intake process. Private residential in Melbourne or interstate if you need a bed quickly and can pay for it, or want more privacy than the public system offers. Treatment abroad only if private care at home is out of reach, distance from your usual surroundings would help, and you are well enough to travel and do not need an immediate medical detox. Use AA or NA alongside whatever you choose. If you would like to talk it through honestly, including whether we are the wrong choice for you, read how admission to Sierra works or ask us.

Sources and verification

• Barwon Health, Drugs & Alcohol Services (03 4215 8792), 181 Moorabool Street, Geelong
• Victorian Government / DirectLine, central intake for government-funded AOD treatment (1800 888 236)
• Windana, Barwon Therapeutic Community, Corio, Geelong (residential rehabilitation)
• Alcoholics Anonymous Australia (1300 222 222) · Narcotics Anonymous Victoria (1300 652 820), meeting finders
• City of Greater Geelong, local alcohol and other drug resources
• Australian private residential price ranges, compiled from published provider and directory figures (not endorsements)
• Junta de Andalucía register, Sierra Recovery, N.I.C.A. 67331 · Sierra pricing · Sierra regulation & licensing

All figures dated 25 July 2026. Each price and contact detail should be confirmed on the provider’s own page before you rely on it.