Help Me Stop (www.helpmestop.org.uk) is a breakthrough non-residential alcohol and drug treatment service launched in recent months in London. The Help Me Stop “Dayhab” service is based on the successful US Intensive Outpatient Programme model, which has been proven to produce the same results as the traditional residential treatment model, but at only one tenth of the cost.
With COVID-19 keeping many of us in our homes, and access to addiction treatment becoming much harder, Help Me Stop has now launched a Digital Dayhab solution to operate alongside the Company’s existing first centre in West London.
The UK is currently failing in the way alcohol and drug addicts can access suitable treatment. Every year in the UK 500,000 people are looking for addiction treatment, but less than 3% are accessing rehab due to the very high cost of residential treatment. Price and disruption to lifeare the two most common reasons for clients not finding suitable Rehab.
A typical residential centre will charge £25,000 for 4 weeks – the Help Me Stop Digital Dayhab service provides 75 hours of intense treatment over 4 weeks for £1,750 – less than 10% of the cost. The service consists of a combination of group and one on one sessions, and there is also a supplementary recovery service and family programme available alongside the core programme.
The first Help Me Stop Dayhab centre was successfully launched in the summer of 2019 and has to date performed to plan. Due to the current epidemic, however, the Company has temporarily paused its branch expansion programme, to focus on the launch of its new online service, which is already signing up clients and showing signs of taking off successfully.
It should be noted that the new online service has the potential to attract clients from all over the UK and is not geographically restricted. Help Me Stop therefore has the ability to bring affordable Dayhab to both the home and the high street.
Help Me Stop is not only generating significant demand and demonstrating its viabilityin the UK market, mirroring the US experience, it is also a totally scalable business with potential to expand quickly across the UK in the next 3-5 years with a combination of online and high street units, in the process disruptingthe marketplace by putting recovery within reach for many thousands of people.
The current offer document for Help Me Stop assumes a branch roll out to up to 12 branches by 2023. The Directors believe that the new Digital Service has the potential to easily replicate and possibly exceed that growth pattern. The business is projecting Ebitda of £3.5m by 2023, which based on an exit multiple of 10 (industry average is 9-13) would produce a value of £35m, equivalent to a return of 8 x cash.
The business qualifies for EIS and will be issuing shares both before and after the tax year end, providing the ability for investors to carry income tax relief back to 2018-2019 tax year, if required.