Drug & Alcohol Rehab in Sunshine Coast: 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.

Speak to a clinician about treatment from Sunshine Coast

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 Sunshine Coast

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 Sunshine Coast

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 rehab on the Sunshine Coast

Unlike some areas, the Sunshine Coast QLD does have residential rehabilitation available. WHOS Najara at Nambour is a publicly funded, not-for-profit residential drug and alcohol rehabilitation service treating alcohol and other drug dependence, with co-occurring mental health support; it is a residential drug-free treatment programme based on the therapeutic community (TC) model for men and women, sometimes referred to locally simply as the TC known as Najara. It is free or low-cost, accessed by assessment, and usually has a waiting list. Phone (07) 5476 0877. Private residential retreats and health retreats also operate in the wider Sunshine Coast and Noosa area, and further south toward Brisbane; each sets its own fees and admission criteria, so you should confirm these directly with any of the alcohol rehab centres on the Sunshine Coast you are considering. The free AODS service above can also refer you to residential detox or rehab where that is the right step, which is worth knowing before you weigh up treatment abroad.

What residential rehab costs in Australia

Publicly funded residential rehab, such as WHOS Najara, is free or low-cost, with demand often outstripping places. Private residential rehab is charged per stay, and the range is wide. Published Australian directories and cost guides list private 28-day residential programmes from around AU$7,000 to AU$40,000 or more, with mid-tier private centres commonly in the AU$25,000–35,000 band and premium retreats higher again. Health insurance may cover part of a stay depending on your policy and level of cover.

For comparison, Sierra’s residential programme abroad is a published £9,900 for 28 days (roughly AU$19,000 at mid-2026 exchange rates), private room included, with any hospital detox billed separately. That sits below much of the Australian private range, largely because the cost of running a clinic in the rural Spanish countryside is lower, not because the evidence-based clinical standard is.

Cost ranges are indicative, drawn from published Australian rehab-cost guides and public directories, dated above. They are not quotations. Every centre sets its own fees; confirm directly.

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 Sunshine Coast 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

Addiction affects everyone differently, and no single route will treat addiction the same way for two people, so weigh these against how substance dependence or substance addiction is actually showing up in your life. Start with the free AODS or Lives Lived Well service if you are unsure, if cost is the barrier, or if you want to stay near family and work. ADIS on 1800 177 833 if you want confidential advice today before deciding anything. WHOS Najara or a referral to residential detox if you need supervised withdrawal and residential care and can wait for a place. A private Australian retreat if you want to be admitted quickly, need detox and rehab under one roof, and can meet the cost. Treatment abroad only if a private stay at home is out of reach, distance from your usual triggers would genuinely help, and you can travel and do not need an immediate hospital detox. Use AA or NA, or another self-help fellowship, alongside whatever you choose, both for day-to-day sobriety support and for relapse prevention once the formal treatment program ends, since relapse is a real risk whichever route you take.

If treatment abroad is worth a conversation, our team will tell you honestly whether it fits your situation, and point you back to a local drug and alcohol rehabilitation service if it does not. You can read how admission works, and what happens before you travel, on our admissions page, as part of your wider recovery journey.