DVA-Funded Rehabilitation Programs for Mental Health & Addiction
Reviewed by South Pacific Private’s clinical team: October 2026.
If you or someone else is in immediate danger, call 000. If you need support right now, Open Arms provides free confidential counselling for veterans and their families – 24/7 on 1800 011 046.
Some veterans reach a point where things aren’t working the way they used to. Drinking or drug use that’s become unmanageable. Gambling, or other impulses, that have become hard to control. Low mood, poor sleep, or patterns that are difficult to explain to the people closest to them.
For some, this isn’t the first time they’ve looked for help. That’s common, and it doesn’t mean treatment can’t work.
If that sounds familiar, for you or for someone close to you, support is available.
South Pacific Private is a licensed private psychiatric hospital on Sydney’s Northern Beaches. Since 1993, our multidisciplinary team of psychiatrists, doctors, nurses and therapists has treated addiction and mental health conditions. We are contracted with the Department of Veterans’ Affairs (DVA), and our intake team can confirm what your DVA cover includes. The call is completely confidential, with no obligation to take it further.
Treating Addiction and Mental Health Together
For many veterans, presenting problems don’t exist in isolation. Alcohol or drug use, gambling addiction, compulsive sexual behaviour and other impulse control difficulties, depression and anxiety often co-exist. And treating them separately often isn’t enough.
At South Pacific Private, our team treats these conditions together. Care begins with an over-the-phone assessment with our intake team. From there, our multidisciplinary team, including psychiatrists, doctors, nurses, and therapists works to understand what sits beneath the symptoms, not only how they appear today.
Our program is grounded in Pia Mellody’s model, which understands addiction, depression, anxiety, trauma and co-dependency as rooted in early developmental experiences. Many of the veterans we see carry developmental trauma that long predates their service. Rather than working only with how these patterns look today, our team looks at where they began. Understanding those origins is often what makes long-standing patterns possible to work with.
This is demanding work. It asks people to look at things that are easier left alone. Our team supports each person through it, at a pace that’s clinically safe for them.
Assessment helps determine whether our program is the right fit. If it isn’t, our intake team can point toward services that may suit better.
A Calm Setting for the Work Ahead
South Pacific Private is a private hospital, with 24-hour clinical care accredited to the National Safety and Quality Health Service (NSQHS) Standards. Its setting, though, is not what many people picture when they think of a hospital. Curl Curl, on Sydney’s Northern Beaches, is quiet and close to the ocean – a calmer, less clinical environment that can make it easier to settle in and focus on the work. The care itself remains intensive and clinically structured.
This work also happens alongside others who understand what it is to carry something similar. Group psychotherapy is central to the program – a chance to be honest in a room of people who recognise the experience, with therapists guiding the work throughout.
What Our Core Inpatient Program Involves
The core of treatment at South Pacific Private is a three-week inpatient program. Veterans stay on-site and take part in a structured daily program that combines:
✓ Group psychotherapy
✓ Psychiatric assessment and review
✓ 12-step informed addiction treatment, using an abstinence-based model
✓ Medically supervised detox, where this is clinically required
✓ 24/7 nursing care
✓ Continuing care case management
Planning for Life After Inpatient Treatment
Leaving hospital after three weeks of intensive treatment is its own kind of challenge. Continuing care case management is built into the program so that no one goes home without a plan in place.
Every veteran is assigned a Continuing Care Case Manager and meets with the same person twice during their admission. Together they build an aftercare plan shaped around what life will actually look like at home. That can include referrals to a therapist, psychiatrist, local 12-step meeting, or a community drug and alcohol team for ongoing case management. It may also involve our Family Program, the Transitions Program or other day programs, and relapse-prevention support where relevant.
Continuing care doesn’t end at discharge. The same Case Manager follows up after seven days and again at six weeks, to ask how things are going and what support is needed.
Our intake team can talk through what may be appropriate and what DVA cover applies.
South Pacific Private offers integrated inpatient treatment programs for mental health, trauma, and co-occurring conditions – including medically supervised withdrawal management and stabilisation for those who need it.
Transitions is an abstinence-based program aimed at supporting clients to transition back into their communities after intensive residential treatment to reduce relapse in early recovery.
DVA Funding: How Cover Works
For eligible veterans, DVA cover can include inpatient alcohol and drug rehabilitation alongside treatment for mental health. Our intake team will contact DVA directly to confirm what your DVA card covers prior to admission.
Because South Pacific Private is a DVA-contracted private hospital, admission is a recognised part of our arrangement with the department. For eligible veterans, that can make the funding pathway more straightforward.
Gold Card
Veteran Card – All Conditions
Gold Card holders are generally eligible for DVA-funded treatment at South Pacific Private.
White Card
Veteran Card – Specific Conditions
If you’ve served at least one day of continuous full-time service in the ADF, you can get a White Card that covers treatment for any mental health condition, even if it isn’t related to your service.
White Cards issued for specific service-related conditions are also accepted. Our intake team confirms your cover with DVA before admission. No DVA card yet? Our intake team can help you work out the next step.
Support for Families and Loved Ones of Veterans
When veterans struggle with addiction, trauma, or a mental health condition, it affects the people closest to them too. Partners, parents and children often hold things together and do it without much guidance. At South Pacific Private, we believe families should have support of their own and not have to carry it alone.
For families of veterans who are not ready for the treatment conversation yet, our Family Education Day, an online one-day program, offers ways to communicate more openly with a loved one and set clear and effective boundaries. No prior knowledge, or prior involvement with South Pacific Private, is required.
Our Family Program is a four-day program for the families of people in treatment. It offers a place to understand what your family member is going through, and to begin looking after your own wellbeing too.
If you’re a partner or family member of a veteran and reaching out on their behalf, our intake team can talk you through how treatment works and what support is available.
Our Family Program is offered onsite and online. It is an intensive and interactive program designed specifically to bring together and treat both the individuals who have struggled with substance use and mental health and who are now in recovery and their families, partners and loved ones.
The Family Education Day is an introductory one-day online program for family members, partners, friends, and carers supporting someone with mental health or co-occurring conditions. No prior knowledge is required – the program is open to anyone navigating this with someone they care about.
Our intake team is available to answer your questions.
Call
1800 063 332
now.
How to Get Started
There’s no pressure to have everything worked out before getting in touch. The first step is simply a conversation.
Our intake team can talk through the situation, explain how the program works, and confirm your DVA cover with the department directly. If it helps to have them ready, your DVA card details are useful for that conversation.
Contact our intake team on 1800 063 332 or through the enquiry form. It’s a no-obligation conversation – a chance to ask questions and understand the options. Any information shared is treated confidentially and in line with our privacy policy. DVA arrangements can change. Our intake team will confirm your cover with DVA before admission.
Contact South Pacific Private
Fill out the form below and a member of our intake team will be in touch.
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Frequently Asked Questions
For eligible veterans, DVA cover can include inpatient treatment for alcohol and drug use alongside treatment for mental health conditions. As a DVA-contracted private hospital, we don’t need separate DVA prior approval to admit you into our inpatient program. Our intake team contacts DVA directly to confirm what each veteran’s card covers before admission.
Yes. South Pacific Private is contracted with the Department of Veterans’ Affairs. Admission is a recognised part of our arrangement with the department, which can make the funding pathway more straightforward for eligible veterans.
Admission to South Pacific Private requires a referral from a GP or psychiatrist. Our intake team can explain what is needed during the first call.
For eligible Gold Card holders, DVA covers clinically required treatment at contracted private hospitals. Some items, such as medications supplied on discharge, may attract a co-payment. Our intake team confirms costs with DVA before admission.
If you have at least one day of continuous full-time service, your White Card can cover treatment for any mental health condition, not only service-related ones. Our intake team confirms cover with DVA before admission. If DVA cover doesn’t apply, private health insurance or self-funding may be options, and we can talk these through.
Day programs, including the Transitions Program, may be covered by DVA but need DVA approval before they start. Our intake team can explain the process as part of aftercare planning.
Yes. Partners and family members can contact our intake team to understand how treatment works and what DVA cover may apply. Treatment is voluntary, so the veteran will need to take part in the assessment. For families whose loved one isn’t ready yet, our online Family Education Day offers practical ways to communicate and set boundaries.
South Pacific Private is a licensed private psychiatric hospital with 24-hour clinical care, accredited to the National Safety and Quality Health Service (NSQHS) Standards. Our three-week inpatient program treats addiction and mental health conditions together.
