Czech Therapeutic Communities in the 2012 Addiction Treatment Facility Survey.

BACKGROUND AND AIMS: Within the past twenty years therapeutic communities (TCs) have become a major segment of drug treatment services in the Czech Republic. This paper describes the availability of such facilities, the specific characteristics of their staffing, the types of services provided, and the clients referred to them. An analysis of therapeutic communities informed by the 2012 addiction treatment facility survey is presented on the basis of a summary of available data that have been continuously collected and published by the National Monitoring Centre for Drugs and Drug Addiction. METHODS AND SAMPLE: An online questionnaire survey entitled "2012 Drug Services Census" was carried out in 2012 among programmes providing services for substance users and other target groups associated with the issue of non-substance-related addiction disorders. The study sample comprised programmes which reported that they provided services based on the therapeutic community approach. A client census was also performed; the determining day was 20 June 2012. RESULTS: Out of a total of 255 programmes that responded, 15, with a capacity of 293 slots, were providing services following the therapeutic community principles. The largest number of the therapeutic communities (3) was located in the Central Bohemia region. They were mostly facilities with the status of a social service. They employed a total of 214 staff members, which corresponds to an equivalent of 199.3 full-time jobs, with psychotherapists accounting for the largest segment (34.3). In addition to (psycho)therapy, all the therapeutic communities under scrutiny also offered their clients interventions involving social work, education, and other supporting services, with most of them also providing aftercare. According to the survey, the therapeutic communities included in the sample had 319 clients in total, the majority of them being aged 15-44 (85%) and males (60%). The most common target group comprises users of illegal drugs, alcohol, and psychoactive medicines, pathological gamblers, and other specific populations, such as clients with psychiatric comorbidities and pregnant women and mothers. CONCLUSION: Despite their limited capacity and uneven geographical coverage, therapeutic communities in the Czech Republic represent a standard, highly structured type of addiction treatment facility that provides services for a wide range of clients with various co-occurring problems and specific needs. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]