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£20,000 relief for Alan's drug fight
By Peter Slee South Wales Evening Post June 1985
Alan Douglas admits to being something of a relieved man.
A £20,000 cheque has just landed in the letterbox of his
Uplands Crescent, Swansea office.
Now he knows that the work he and his small team carry out in trying
to combat growing alcohol abuse is assured for the immediate future
at least.
More than that, they are now able to begin thinking about building
up a service that is already viewed with some envy from other parts
of Britain.
For it's thought they offer the only counselling advice scheme
of its type in the UK offering help to both alcohol and drug abusers
of every description side by side.
Right Moment
The help-line has been operating for some time on an informal basis.
The £20,000 - plus cheque now means the service can be built
upon to try and cope with the ever-growing menace of drug and alcohol
addition.
The cash for the Welsh Office is being added to the £19,000
or so the group receives from West Glamorgan Health Authority.
"It would have been almost impossible to carry on without
it," says Mr Alan Douglas, director of the West Glamorgan Council
on Alcohol and Drug Abuse.
"Our whole operation might well have collapsed under the sheer
weight of numbers had we not received it and been able to increase
staff at just the right moment."
The centre at 75 Uplands Crescent first opened its doors to the
public in 1979. Then it dealt solely with alcohol-related problems.
Now people suffering from drug abuse are entering its doors in bigger
numbers than ever before.
Almost 300 people are expected to seek help form the centre this
year alone. It's a tide which shows little sign of being stemmed.
But whatever pressure the centre finds itself under, nobody is
ever turned away. And paramount to the centre's thinking is the
way in which everyone who seeks help is seen as an individual rather
than as a client or patient.
University College, Swansea is just about to start a two-year evaluation
of the centre's work.
Mr Douglas' biggest worry now is that the number of drug abusers
will eventually catch up with those people with alcoholic problems.
"There's literally nothing you can't buy on the streets of
Swansea today". He says.
"If you want it you can get it and fairly cheaply. It's a
problem that's grown in particular over the past five years and
it's one that's never been as bad as it is now.
"People from every class, every occupation and every background
are coming to us."
Mr Douglas a former customs and excise officer who has headed the
Swansea tea, since its inception, insistent however that whatever
the problems and however big they seem, he doesn't get depressed
about the job in hand.
"But you only have to look at the number of people who walk
out of here having been successfully helped for your reward,"
he says, "What else is needed!"
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