The First Inpatient Alcohol Treatment Facility in the Czech Republic: case study of the Tuchlov institution (1923-1938)
Abstract
BACKGROUND: A continuous tradition of institutional inpatient alcohol treatment in what is now the Czech Republic dates back to 1948. At present this type of treatment generally involves what is known as the "Apolinar Addiction Treatment Model", the origin of which is associated with the person of Jaroslav Skála and the Apolinar centre.
Prior to the establishment of this treatment system, there were three institutional inpatient facilities specialising in the treatment of alcohol dependency in what was then, or was later to become, Czechoslovakia. They were located respectively in Velké Kunčice (1911 to 1915), Tuchlov (1923-1939), and Istebné nad Oravou (1937-1939).
AIMS: Using a case study, to explore the origin, operation, and dissolution of the specialised inpatient alcohol treatment facility in Tuchlov, the first establishment of its kind in what is now the Czech Republic, and to discuss its role in the development of the treatment system which came into being after World War II. METHODS: Qualitative content analysis of available historical documents was used to collect the data.
The subject matter of the documents was categorised with respect to their association with the commencement and development of the phenomenon of institutional inpatient treatment. RESULTS: Through the agency of the Czechoslovak Temperance Association, the Ministry of Public Health and Physical Education operated the first specialised alcohol treatment institution in the Czechoslovak Republic from 1923 to 1938.
Qualitative analysis of historical documents confirmed the existence and efficiency of a fully-fledged institutional treatment facility, which from 1923 to 1938 provided alcohol treatment to male patients in Tuchlov. Its treatment model built upon that applied by the institution in Velké Kunčice.
Partly funded from the national budget, the Tuchlov institution was a unique facility of its kind in the era of what is known as the "First Republic".