Medically reviewed by Kristel. Last reviewed 4 September 2026.
Check what you can get at home first. Australia has a large publicly funded and non-government treatment sector, and private health cover carries only a two month waiting period for psychiatric care, even for a pre-existing condition. Thailand is worth considering when waiting lists, cost or your own environment make treatment at home unworkable.
That is the short version, and it is not the version most overseas centres lead with.
If life is in danger, call 000. For 24 hour crisis support anywhere in Australia, call Lifeline on 13 11 14, text 0477 13 11 14, or use the online chat. If someone has overdosed, call 000 first and stay with them.
Start with the free national line, whatever you decide
The National Alcohol and Other Drug Hotline is 1800 250 015. It is free, confidential and available 24 hours a day, and it puts you through automatically to the Alcohol and Drug Information Service in the state or territory you are calling from.
One caveat before you dial: the South Australian service operates between 8.30am and 10pm rather than around the clock. Outside these hours, call 13 14 65 for 24-hour mental health triage; in an emergency, call 000.
It is an information and referral line, not a sales line. Finding out what exists near you before you speak to any private centre, here or overseas, costs nothing.
For the comparison you are here to make, our four week programme starts at USD 10,900, with medical detox and two months of aftercare inside that figure and flights on top. You can hold it against a quote from an Australian private hospital without ringing anyone first. When you do want to talk, phone or WhatsApp +66 985 245 093.
What treatment in Australia actually looks like
Most people picture a residential rehab when they picture treatment. The national data says something different.
In 2024-25 there were 1,316 publicly funded alcohol and other drug treatment agencies operating in Australia, according to the Australian Institute of Health and Welfare. Around 69% were non-government organisations, and they delivered 72% of all treatment episodes.
Counselling was the most common treatment, at a third of episodes. The average episode lasted about three and a half weeks, median 25 days. In 2023-24, roughly 19% of episodes were delivered in a residential setting.
So the sector is large, and much of it costs the client little or nothing. What it mostly is not is a four week residential stay available on demand. That distinction matters more than any price comparison on this page.
Medicare and private health cover: check this before anything else
We do not take Australian private health insurance, and no overseas centre will bill your fund. Everything below is a reason to look at home before you look at us.
Medicare supports parts of the pathway rather than the whole of it: GP consultations, some psychiatric and psychological services, medicines through the PBS. Healthdirect’s guidance is to ask each rehab service directly about its fees and any Medicare rebates, because the answer varies by service. We would tell you the same.
Private health cover has two rules worth understanding properly.
Waiting periods for hospital psychiatric care, rehabilitation and palliative care are capped at two months, even where the condition is pre-existing. Most other pre-existing conditions carry a twelve month wait. The Department of Health guidance on waiting periods and exemptions sets this out.
And if you have already served two months on any level of hospital cover, you can upgrade to higher benefits for psychiatric care in a private hospital without serving a further wait. As the Commonwealth Ombudsman explains, that exemption can be used once in a lifetime.
If you hold any hospital cover at all, that is worth a phone call today. Four questions for your fund:
- Does my policy cover hospital psychiatric services, and at what benefit level?
- Have I served the two month waiting period on my current cover?
- Am I eligible for the once per lifetime upgrade exemption?
- Which private hospitals near me have an agreement with the fund for this admission?
If those answers make treatment at home affordable, take it.
Waiting times: the honest picture
There is no national published waiting time for residential rehab in Australia, which is part of the problem. The evidence sits in inquiries rather than in a dataset, and much of it is dated.
A 2017 Victorian Ombudsman investigation found 250 publicly funded rehabilitation beds across the state, only 15 of them outside metropolitan Melbourne, and recorded people waiting six weeks, two months and longer for a bed. Victoria has funded further beds since.
Submissions to the NSW parliamentary inquiry into drug rehabilitation services in regional, rural and remote New South Wales described waits of roughly two to six weeks depending on the service, with availability sharply worse outside the cities.
Further back, the New Horizons review, conducted by UNSW’s Drug Policy Modelling Program for the federal government, put unmet demand at 200,000 to 500,000 people over and above those already in treatment in any given year.
None of this means you will wait. Some services take people quickly. It does mean the answer depends on where you live and what you can pay, so ask for the actual wait at the actual service rather than accepting a general impression, ours included.
What Thailand costs, and what it does not include
Our fees start at USD 10,900 for four weeks. That covers five to seven days of medical detox where the substance requires it, the residential programme, and two months of aftercare once you are home. Flights are on top.
We publish that figure, which several centres in Thailand do not. We are also not the cheapest centre in Thailand and do not claim to be. Some charge meaningfully less, some close to double. If entry price is your only criterion, we are not the answer.
Set against private residential treatment in Australia, commonly quoted in the tens of thousands of dollars for a month, the arithmetic including airfares usually favours travelling. Set against publicly funded or non-government treatment at home, it does not, and no honest comparison can make it.
The fuller breakdown sits on our cost of rehab in Thailand page.
Regulation and accreditation in each country
This is where Australia has a genuine structural advantage, and it deserves saying plainly.
Under the National Quality Framework for Drug and Alcohol Treatment Services, Australian governments agreed that alcohol and other drug treatment providers must be accredited against at least one recognised accreditation standard, with a compliance date of 29 November 2022. There is a national benchmark, and you can ask any provider which standard it holds.
Thailand licenses treatment facilities through its Ministry of Public Health, and a facility’s permit governs which clinical services it may deliver, including detox and psychiatric care. What Thailand does not have is a single national quality framework an Australian family can check the same way from home.
Some Thai centres hold international accreditation such as CARF. We do not hold CARF accreditation. If independent accreditation is your deciding factor, that is a legitimate reason to choose differently, in Thailand or in Australia.
What we put in front of you instead: a single site in Hang Dong District outside Chiang Mai, capped at 20 clients, a full time on site psychiatrist in Dr Suttipan Takkapaijit, and an arrangement with Chiang Mai Ram Hospital for anything needing hospital care. Credentials are on the team page.
Ask every centre the same three questions: who is medically responsible, what happens if you need a hospital, and what the centre is accredited against.
Aftercare and continuity of care
Australia wins this one on structure.
Treatment at home means the people who assess you, treat you and follow you up can be the same people, in the same city, with your GP in the loop. That continuity is one of the strongest clinical arguments against going anywhere.
Our programme includes two months of aftercare at no extra cost, delivered remotely. It is useful and it does not replace a clinician in your suburb. Arranging Australian continuing care before you fly is part of the plan, not an afterthought.
Distance, and how it cuts both ways
Distance is the real reason most Australians look at Thailand, and it is not only a marketing line. Where drinking or using is welded to a particular city, circle and routine, being several thousand kilometres away does clinical work that a facility forty minutes from your front door cannot.
It costs you something too. Family sessions become video calls across a time difference, flights from the east coast connect through Bangkok and take most of a day, and you come home to an environment that has not changed while you have.
Do not book flights before a clinical assessment, in case withdrawal needs stabilising in Australia first.
Visa requirements depend on your passport and programme length, and they change. Check with the Thai embassy or consulate rather than any treatment centre’s summary, ours included.
Australia and Thailand side by side
| Australia | Thailand (our programme) | |
|---|---|---|
| Typical cost | Free to low cost in the publicly funded and non-government sector; private residential commonly quoted in the tens of thousands for a month | From USD 10,900 for four weeks, plus flights |
| Medicare | Supports parts of the pathway; confirm rebates with each service | Not applicable |
| Private health cover | Hospital psychiatric benefits possible; two month waiting period cap; once per lifetime upgrade exemption | Not accepted, no fund will bill |
| Waiting for a residential bed | Varies widely by state and service; worse outside the cities | Admission dates arranged directly |
| Accreditation | National Quality Framework requires a recognised standard | Ministry of Public Health licensing; we do not hold CARF |
| Aftercare | Local and continuous, with your GP in the loop | Two months included, delivered remotely |
| Distance from your environment | Close to home, close to triggers | Deliberate separation, harder family contact |
Which one fits you
Choose Australia if you hold hospital cover with psychiatric benefits, if a service near you has capacity, if a hospital admission is clinically indicated, or if continuity with a local team matters more than separation from your environment.
Consider Thailand if the wait where you live is long enough to be dangerous, if private treatment at home is out of reach financially, if privacy in a small community or a professional role is a real constraint, or if your environment is so tied to using that staying in it undermines the attempt.
What treatment with us involves
The Orchid Recovery is a private residential addiction and mental health treatment centre in Hang Dong District, Chiang Mai, Thailand, for English speaking adults from overseas. One site, a maximum of 20 clients, no outpatient service and no detox only stays.
Programmes run four, eight or twelve weeks. They open with medical detox where it is needed, move into residential treatment, and finish with aftercare at home.
If you would rather start with your own city, we have pages for Sydney, Melbourne, Brisbane and Perth, plus an overview of how we work with clients across Australia. If methamphetamine is the substance in question, getting help with ice in Australia is the more useful starting point.
When you want to talk it through, contact us and ask hard questions. If what you describe sounds better served at home, we will say so.
Sources
- Australian Government Department of Health, Disability and Ageing, National Alcohol and Other Drug Hotline
- Lifeline Australia, crisis support 13 11 14
- Australian Institute of Health and Welfare, Alcohol and other drug treatment services
- Department of Health, Disability and Ageing, National Quality Framework for Drug and Alcohol Treatment Services
- Department of Health, Disability and Ageing, waiting periods and exemptions
- Commonwealth Ombudsman, mental health treatment and private health insurance
- Healthdirect, drug and alcohol rehabilitation
- Victorian Ombudsman, alcohol and drug rehabilitation services following contact with the criminal justice system, 2017
- Parliament of New South Wales, inquiry into drug rehabilitation services in regional, rural and remote NSW
- National Drug and Alcohol Research Centre, UNSW, New Horizons review
Frequently Asked Questions
Is rehab in Thailand cheaper than rehab in Australia?
Against private residential treatment in Australia, usually yes, including airfares. Against publicly funded or non-government treatment at home, no, because much of that sector costs the client little or nothing. Our fees start at USD 10,900 for four weeks. Which comparison applies depends on your cover and on what has capacity near you.
Does Medicare or private health insurance cover rehab in Thailand?
No. Medicare does not cover treatment overseas and no Australian fund will bill for a stay with us. Before ruling out treatment at home, check whether your hospital cover includes psychiatric benefits, since the waiting period for psychiatric care is capped at two months even for a pre-existing condition.
How long is the wait for residential rehab in Australia?
It depends on the service and the state, and there is no single national figure. Inquiry evidence has described waits from around two weeks to several months, with availability worse outside the capital cities. Call 1800 250 015 and ask about current waits near you rather than relying on a general figure.
Is treatment in Thailand regulated?
Facilities are licensed by Thailand´s Ministry of Public Health, and the permit determines which clinical services a centre may deliver. Australia goes further, requiring providers to hold a recognised accreditation standard under the National Quality Framework. Some Thai centres hold international accreditation such as CARF. We do not.
How long does it take to get to Chiang Mai from Australia?
There is no direct service. Expect a connection through Bangkok and most of a day door to door from the east coast, longer from Perth or a regional airport. Do not book flights before a clinical assessment, in case withdrawal needs stabilising in Australia first.
What happens with aftercare when I come home?
Two months of remote aftercare are included in the fee. It supports what you built in treatment and does not replace a clinician where you live. Arrange Australian continuing care, whether a GP, a psychologist or a local service, before you travel rather than after you land.
What does the USD 10,900 cover, and what is extra?
It covers five to seven days of medical detox where the substance requires it, four weeks of residential treatment at a single 20 client site, and two months of aftercare after you fly home, at no additional charge. Flights from Australia are the main addition. Eight and twelve week programmes sit above that figure and are quoted on enquiry.
How does admission work from Australia?
The first contact is clinical, not commercial. We take a history of what you drink or use, how much, when you last had it, your prescriptions, your physical health and any past withdrawal, and a clinician decides whether travelling is safe and whether residential care is the right level for you. Admission dates are agreed after that. Book flights last.
