As the future of the Island's only residential drug treatment facility for women, Fair Havens, hangs in the balance, its former executive director Anne Vance is moving on to greener pastures.

The Tyron Daily Bulletin of North Carolina reported that Ms Vance has accepted a position as the head of an addictions treatment centre in Sunny View, Polk County, NC.

Meanwhile, meetings were taking place this week between the National Drug Commission, Council Partners Charitable Trust and the Fair Havens board on the future of the 18-bed facility from which she resigned last month.

Ms Vance will assume the role of administrator at a non-profit addictions treatment and renewal centre called Pavillion at the end of the month, according to the North Carolina paper.

She was hired following a search which spanned the United States over the course of a year.

The paper noted her “long list of accomplishments in the field of addiction treatment and recovery” including stints as administrator of the Betty Ford Clinic in California and Crossroads Treatment Center in Antigua, which she started at the urging of musician Eric Clapton.

“Anne brings a wealth of experience that will help Pavillion go to the next level,” Pavillion board chairman Dale Holl told the Tyron Daily Bulletin.

“Her clinical experience, her marketing skills and her international contacts will be real assets to us as we seek to further develop our work as an international treatment centre.”

Ms Vance resigned from from Fair Havens in December after one year at the helm. Shortly after, the board closed the facility citing low occupancy levels.

While 32 women were admitted to the programme during last year, there have been no new admissions since July 2002.

The facility moved from Victoria Street in Hamilton to new premises on Verdmont Road, Smith's in 2002 in anticipation of an upsurge of demand.

The move expanded capacity from 12 to 18 beds and a significant number of staff were added but the patients failed to materialise.

Mrs. Vance's position at Fair Havens was taken over by Bermudian Elaine Charles but Tuesday, The Royal Gazette learned that Ms Charles had also resigned.

Ms Charles said the board was unhappy with her unilateral decision to re-open the facility New Year's Eve as three of the women housed there had nowhere to go.

As of Friday, no official announcement had been made on the fate of the treatment centre.