If things feel unsafe or are urgent right now, do not wait for an appointment.
When veterans look for help with drinking or drug use, residential rehabilitation programs are often among the first options they find. Those programs suit some people, but they are not the only option DVA funds, and an admission is not the only way to start treatment.
Drinking is a common enough reason for people who have served to see a doctor, and raising it is not a decision about anything else. An appointment is an assessment, not a commitment to a course of treatment.
For many veterans that funding comes through DVA’s Non-Liability Health Care arrangements, which work differently from a compensation claim.
What this is: An appointment with Dr Douglas Brown, a Brisbane specialist in addiction medicine who treats alcohol and other drug dependence. His qualifications are MD, FRACGP and FAChAM. This is specialist medical care.
What DVA pays for
There are two main Veteran Cards and they work differently.
| CARD TYPE | GOLD CARD | WHITE CARD |
|---|---|---|
| Eligibility Type | Veteran Card – All Conditions (Gold Card) | Veteran Card – Specific Conditions (White Card) |
| What it covers | Clinically required treatment provided under DVA arrangements. This includes treatment for alcohol and other drug problems. | Treatment for conditions covered by your card. For eligible veterans, this can include all mental health conditions under Non-Liability Health Care, including alcohol use disorder and substance use disorder. |
The part many people miss
Eligible veterans can receive treatment for mental health conditions through Non-Liability Health Care (NLHC). That means you do not have to prove that your military service caused the condition, and you do not need to lodge a compensation claim first.
If you hold a DVA White Card, check that mental health treatment is included on it before your appointment. That is what makes White Card alcohol and drug treatment claimable.
Who is eligible?
Current and former full-time ADF members are eligible. This includes reservists who have completed at least one day of continuous full-time service.
Reservists without continuous full-time service may also qualify where their service included eligible disaster relief or border protection service, or involvement in a serious service-related training accident.
The rules are more specific than simply having served in the Reserves, so check your individual position with DVA if you are unsure.
If you are still serving
Health care is a condition of service, and it is provided through Defence, normally at a garrison health centre. While you are still in, that is the usual starting point, and it is a different arrangement from the DVA route described here.
Dr Brown is available to be seen through referral from your respective health centre.
What happens to the correspondence. A referral has to come from the base or from a GP. Correspondence after the appointment goes back to the referring GP only. What the base does with it from there is a matter for the base, not for this practice.
What it costs you
If the service is covered by your Veteran Card and the provider accepts DVA arrangements, there should be no gap fee for the consultation.
Veteran alcohol treatment and drug treatment are covered here where the card allows it. A provider accepting a Veteran Card agrees to take the DVA fee as payment for the covered service and bills DVA directly. Not every consultation at this practice is a DVA consultation, so it is worth saying which applies to you when you call.
Tell reception that you hold a Veteran Card when you make the appointment, and we will check your eligibility and set the billing up before you come in.
Say it before the appointment, not after. You can choose to be seen as a Medicare patient or a private patient instead, but DVA will not pay for a service that Medicare, a private insurer or a compensation payment has already covered in part or in full. If you already hold a referral written for Medicare billing, mention that when you ring.
Worth a phone call before anything else. Phone (07) 3180 6020 or email reception@drdouglasbrown.com.au.
Seeing an addiction specialist for veterans: how it works
The referral
You will generally need a valid referral from your GP for specialist medical treatment.
Ask your GP for a referral to an addiction medicine specialist and bring your Veteran Card to the appointment. If you do not have a referral yet, ring our reception to find out what the next steps are.
How this fits with Open Arms
Open Arms is a government counselling service. It is free, the phone line runs around the clock, and you can contact it yourself. No referral is needed and no Veteran Card is needed. Anyone with at least one day of continuous full-time service can use it, and so can the partners and children of a member who served from the Vietnam War onward.
An addiction medicine specialist is a doctor, and the work is medical: judging the risk in withdrawal, managing it, prescribing where medication helps, and treating the physical health around the use. There is a fuller explanation of what an addiction physician does if the distinction is new to you.
The two are not alternatives. Many people use both, and Open Arms is one of the places we accept a referral from.
Staying at home while you do it
For some people an admission is the safer course. Others can be treated while they keep living and working at home. Which applies is a clinical decision, not a preference. How outpatient specialist care works, and who it does not suit, is set out on the private outpatient treatment page.
Where an admission is the safer course, Dr Brown holds admitting rights at Damascus Health Service at Brisbane Private Hospital, subject to bed availability at the time. An admission there is arranged by referral, either to him or to the Damascus intake team.
When this is not the right route
This page describes one way in. It does not suit everyone, and it is worth saying where it stops.
- If withdrawal itself carries real risk, an admission is usually safer. A previous seizure or delirium, several substances at once, significant liver or heart problems, or nobody at home are the usual reasons.
- If what you want is a residential program, this is not one. DVA funds those as well, and Open Arms or your GP can point you to them.
- If what you need first is someone to talk to rather than a medical assessment, Open Arms is the faster door.
- If things are bad right now, do not wait for an appointment. Call 000, or Open Arms on 1800 011 046.
An assessment can tell you which of these you are.
Getting there
Distance and transport come up often for veterans outside Brisbane. DVA can book a car with a driver to take you to approved treatment locations. The service is called Booked Car With Driver and it has its own eligibility rules. If you do not qualify for it, you can claim your travel costs back instead. Both are arranged through DVA, not through a medical practice, so ask DVA about them directly.
Video appointments work differently under DVA. DVA requires the first consultation with a medical specialist to be in person, and allows telehealth for the appointments after it. Where attending in person is not realistic, a telehealth first consultation can be considered through DVA’s prior approval arrangements. This is stricter than the Medicare rule described on the private outpatient treatment page, which does not apply when DVA is paying.
If you are the family
Partners and parents are often the ones reading this. Two things are worth knowing.
The first is about appointments. A consultation is with the patient. Where the person you are worried about is not present, the arrangement is different, and reception will tell you what applies before you book.
The second is that you can get support in your own right. Open Arms works with families of serving and ex-serving members, not only with the member.
If you are ringing on someone else’s behalf, say so, and we can tell you what is possible before anyone commits to anything.
A note on service background
Douglas served for eight years as a permanent Royal Australian Air Force Medical Officer, including in aviation medicine and Defence primary health care. He continues to serve in the RAAF Reserve as a Squadron Leader in a senior primary health leadership role, with responsibilities spanning clinical governance, workforce planning, policy and alcohol and other drug-related work across Defence.
For GPs and Open Arms clinicians
We accept referrals for veterans on the same basis as any other specialist referral, including referrals from Open Arms and from hospital discharge planners. Please mark the referral for an addiction medicine specialist and note the card type, so that billing is correct from the first appointment.
What we find most useful to include: substances and pattern of use, previous withdrawal attempts and how they went, current medications, relevant physical health, and any DVA conditions already accepted.
Waiting times. DVA referrals are seen in the same order as any other referral, and urgent referrals can be discussed by phone.
Phone (07) 3180 6020 or email reception@drdouglasbrown.com.au.
Where to go next
- If what worries you is what happens physically when you stop drinking: alcohol withdrawal.
- If you want to know what treatment looks like without going into a residential program: private outpatient treatment.
- If what you need is an independent report rather than treatment: medicolegal drug and alcohol reports.
- If you would rather talk to someone before deciding anything, Open Arms, 1800 011 046, any hour.
Support available in Australia
These services are free and independent of this practice. They are worth having whether or not you ever call us.
- Open Arms — Veterans & Families Counselling 1800 011 046 — for current and ex-serving ADF members and their families, twenty-four hours.
- 000 — for a medical emergency.
- Adis Queensland 1800 177 833 — Queensland alcohol and drug support, twenty-four hours.
- National Alcohol and Other Drug Hotline 1800 250 015 — connects you to the service in your state; hours vary by state.
- Lifeline 13 11 14 — crisis support.
- Family Drug Support 1300 368 186 — for families and friends.
This page gives general information about DVA funding arrangements and about treatment for alcohol and drug use. It is not individual medical advice, and it is not a substitute for assessment: what is safe for one person is not safe for another. Entitlements depend on your own circumstances, and DVA is the authority on them.
Where this information comes from
The DVA arrangements described here are taken from the Department’s own published material, checked on 3 September 2026:
- Department of Veterans’ Affairs, General practitioner and medical specialist services — card types, referral, and the rule that a provider bills DVA directly.
- Department of Veterans’ Affairs, Non-Liability Health Care (mental health) for veterans — eligibility, including reservists with continuous full-time service, disaster relief and border protection service, and serious service-related training accidents.
- Department of Veterans’ Affairs, Permanent telehealth information for clients — when a consultation can be held by video and when it must be in person.
- Open Arms — Veterans & Families Counselling, Who we help — who can use the service, including partners and children.
Entitlements change. Each link should be checked against the current page before you rely on it.
Reviewed by Dr Douglas Brown, MD FRACGP FAChAM, addiction medicine specialist, AHPRA MED0002140538. Last reviewed: 2 September 2026.