About twenty local residents and government and non-government service representatives attended the drug and alcohol rehabilitation forum at the Dubbo Neighbourhood Centre, to discuss the city's need for a facility.

Nguumambiny CEO Manager Lynn Field, who hosted the forum, said the discussions looked at what a Dubbo rehab facility would look like.

"It was really constructive," Ms Field said.

"The term rehab is so broad - today we have been looking at what programs do we need in place to make it successful? Let's nail down what we want in it."

Representatives of the Aboriginal Legal Service (ALS), Apollo House, the Department of Family and Community Services (FACS) and an outreach worker from Orange based residential rehabilitation centre Lyndon House came together with members of the community to discuss the need for a local facility.

Jaimie Pearson, who has seen first hand how destructive substance abuse can be, was surprised at the number of services, particularly government services, which were represented at the forum.

"I was really impressed at the range of services that were in there, even DOCS, that wanted to help and want to support a rehab and detox service here in Dubbo," Ms Pearson said.

"I really think there needs to be a co-ordinated approach and that's what we had here today."

"This is all very new to me. For someone who has been affected personally, you can feel defeated not having access to services. So to see people here fighting for services - it's very uplifting."

Currently, addicts in Dubbo are forced to travel as far Brewarrina, Wagga Wagga or Sydney to undergo residential rehabilitation. Non-government organisation Lyndon Community is located in Orange for those who want to remain closer to home, but places are limited.

Margie McDonell underwent rehabilitation in Byron Bay many years ago, and said being forced to leave her family in order to get clean was "a killer".

"People shouldn't have to leave their family, their community, their support to get off [drugs]," Mrs McDonell said.

"We need something here. Rehab's a place where they can detox, from where they get support, information about what the drug is doing to their bodies and how to cope in the day to day, how to cope when you get out."

"If it's available they can get action, there's half the battle."

Mrs Field is now calling on the state and federal governments to put their money on the line.

"The next step is finding a property and getting some funding," she said.

"We can't find $10 million to run a rehab centre... If they put as much money into combating ice as they did into home grown terrorism we'd be laughing."