Guernsey Addiction Advisory Service to close after 51 years due to lack of funding
THE Guernsey Addiction Advisory Service is to close due to a lack of funding, and its residential dry house facility will be sold.
The decision was made at a charity’s directors meeting last month, and comes after almost three years of financial struggles following the termination of a States grant towards its counselling provision.
Director Dave Newman, who has run GAAS for the last 31 years, said closing the charity was a ‘sad occasion’, but added that all possible fundraising options had been exhausted.
‘The service was not sustainable running with just one member of staff.’
He said the ultimate irony was that the charity was asset-rich but cash-poor, owning outright the two buildings making up the residential facility, offices and counselling rooms at the top of the Grange, but no longer having the means to keep running them.
He added that the residential unit had helped almost 400 islanders in the past 30 years.
‘With today’s housing crisis, it will be a sad loss as a valuable source to the Bailiwick in assisting those needing its dry house facility to help them deal with the serious problems caused by their drug and alcohol issues,' Mr Newman.
The charity was set up in 1973 and has had several names, including most recently the Guernsey Alcohol Addiction Service. It marked its 50th anniversary last year.
It opened its first dry house facility in 1986, and in 1993 purchased an adjacent house and converted it into a residential unit capable of housing five residents in single rooms and two bedsits.
The charity has never received any States funding towards the dry house, which has always been financed through fundraising and rental income.
It had received a States grant to provide counselling services since the late 1970s until it was terminated following the tender process in December 2021.
Since then, the charity has been unsuccessful in obtaining any long-term financial support.
The dry house manager’s role had to be terminated in June 2023 due to a lack of funds, and the service since then has operated with only one member of staff and volunteers.
At the beginning of this year, the charity stopped providing accommodation in the dry house for new residents, and is currently looking to re-house its remaining four residents.
