Drug & Alcohol Rehab in Greenwich: the main options, compared

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.

The picture in Greenwich

Greenwich is a Royal Borough in southeast London, sitting on the south bank of the Thames, and its residents are served by the same National Health Service (NHS) and local-authority treatment system as the rest of London, covering substance abuse of all kinds, including alcoholism and drug rehabilitation. Nationally, alcohol is the substance most adults name when they start treatment, followed by opiates, cocaine and other drug addiction issues, and the front door to help is the same for all of them: a free community service, a GP, or a mutual-aid meeting. You do not need a diagnosis or a referral to make the first call, whether that means alcohol addiction, drug addiction, or both, and every route below is confidential. Being in a large, well-connected borough means there is more than one way in, which the table below sets out. Where drug or alcohol addiction sits alongside a separate mental disorder or other mental health conditions, affecting both physical and mental health, this is usually called dual diagnosis and needs its own medical diagnosis, and NHS and council pathways are set up to refer people on to a GP or psychiatrist for that, alongside the addiction treatment itself, including managing drug withdrawal safely where it applies.

Speak to a clinician about treatment from Greenwich

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 Greenwich

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 Greenwich

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.

Private residential rehab for people in Greenwich

There are no residential rehab centres based in Greenwich itself. Residential detox and rehab for Greenwich residents happen either by referral through the NHS and council service above, or privately at centres elsewhere. The nearest private residential options sit further out in Kent, Essex and the wider South East. In practice a residential stay almost always means travelling, whichever route you choose, which is worth knowing when you weigh up treatment abroad. Whatever you are told about any private treatment centre, check its current registration and rating with the Care Quality Commission (CQC register) before you commit; that is the CQC’s job for centres in England, and the equivalent regulator for wherever a centre is actually based.

As a guide to cost, published UK directories list residential rehab in England from around £12,000 to £40,000 a month, with almost nothing credible under £10,000 a month. Sierra’s £9,900 for a 28-day programme, private room included, is roughly a third of what a comparable UK stay costs, because the cost of running a clinic in the Spanish countryside is far lower, not because the care is.

Cost ranges checked the date above. Indicative published UK ranges, not quotations.

What a residential rehab treatment centre usually includes

Whichever rehab centre or treatment programme you are weighing up, in the UK or abroad, a good residential rehabilitation should cover the same core parts across the different types of addiction treatment: a proper assessment, medically supervised detox where that is needed, a structured mix of individual and group therapy, sometimes called psychotherapy or group psychotherapy, such as cognitive behavioural therapy (CBT) or dialectical behavioural therapy (DBT), attention to the psychology and cognition behind addictive behaviour as well as any physical and psychological effects of long-term substance use, and an aftercare plan for when you go home, since long-term recovery depends far more on what happens after discharge than on the stay itself. Ask any centre you are considering how it covers each of these, not just its headline price.

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 Greenwich 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 the free council service, FRANK or Drinkline if you are unsure, if cost is the barrier, or if you want to stay near family and work. Use AA or NA alongside whatever else you choose. Private residential in the UK if you need detox and rehab together under one roof, are not fit to fly, or need to stay close to home. Treatment abroad only if a private UK stay is out of reach, distance from your usual triggers would help, and you can travel and do not need an immediate hospital detox. If a local option is the better fit, we will tell you so.

People looking for help for drug and alcohol problems in Greenwich search in different ways, rehabs, a rehab clinic, alcohol rehab services, rehab treatment centres, drug rehab in Greenwich, rehab greenwich or simply greenwich rehab, but they usually mean one of the five routes above; there is no dedicated in-borough centre, so the practical difference is where you travel to, not what is available. Whether the need is residential addiction treatment for alcohol and drug addiction, an addiction treatment programme closer to home, or support with drug abuse or an ongoing addiction to drugs more generally, ask the same questions of any rehab programmes on your shortlist: what is the length of stay, what do the daily therapy sessions actually cover, and what happens once you receive ongoing support back in Greenwich and the surrounding areas. A good rehab programme, wherever it is based, should help you achieve long-term recovery, not just get through a stay in rehab, and it should cover the different drug and alcohol addictions people arrive with, not a single template. That kind of long term recovery is the real measure of success, not the brochure.

Whether you choose the free community route, drug rehab further afield in the UK, or treatment abroad, the same questions apply: what does the treatment programme actually include, who provides the therapy, and what aftercare is there once you are back in Greenwich. Alcohol rehab and drug rehab are not single events, whichever route you take. Outpatient support through the free service, mutual aid, and any residential stay all work best when there is a clear aftercare plan attached, so the gains made in a rehabilitation programme are not lost once ordinary life in Greenwich resumes. If you would like to talk it through, our admissions page explains exactly how assessment, arrival and the first days work.