Anyone who visits the Czech Republic, even for a short period, will come face to face with the easy availability of alcohol on their first day here. Alcohol is available not just in pubs and restaurants, but also every corner store and supermarket.
The Czech Republic has some of the highest per capita alcohol consumption anywhere in the world. A visit to the website of the National Monitoring Centre for Drugs and Addictions provides a great deal of statistical information in both Czech and English regarding the consumption of alcohol and other drugs in the country.
Many foreigners in the Czech Republic come from countries where alcohol is heavily taxed or otherwise regulated by law and not so easy to access. Going from that into a place where alcohol is comparatively cheap and plentiful is a recipe for disaster for many foreigners here.
As easy as alcohol is to access, less easy is addiction counselling services in languages other than Czech. If you are a foreigner here and have found yourself with addiction issues, those problems will be compounded if you can’t speak Czech well enough to access the majority of counselling services available.
I created this page primarily to make the task of finding addiction counselling for non-Czech speakers a bit easier. However, Czech speakers will also be able to make use of what is here.
Services by Region
This is a list of various agencies that offer services in languages other than Czech, and to what degree they offer those services, in the various regions of the country.
This list is a work in progress and is designed to not only tell non-Czech speakers where they can get help, but also to show where in the country that help is still needed.
If you are an agency anywhere in the Czech Republic that can offer alcohol and other addiction counselling services in English or other world languages, and you are not listed here, please contact me with information that I can include about you on this list.
Central Bohemia
Progressive is a Prague based organization with services in the capital city and wider Central Bohemian region. While their focus is more on addictions to non-alcoholic substances, their Party Harm Reduction team visits music and other party type events in the region. If you attend such an event in Prague or the Central Bohemian region, make a point of seeing if Party Harm Reduction have a presence there when you arrive. The team members can speak English and offer a safe place for partygoers who are overcome by the effects of drugs or alcohol at the event. Party Harm Reduction can be contacted via their dedicated Facebook page as well.
Hradec Králove
Laxus is a non-profit organization that has their main office in Hradec Králove and have addiction counselling centres in a number of localities in the Hradec Králove and Pardubice regions. Their services are available to foreigners and many of their employees are able to speak English, German or other world languages.
RIAPS is a psychiatric, psychological and addiction treatment service that can offer basic addiction counselling and therapy in English as well as Czech. Their main office is in Trutnov, they also have an office in Dvůr Králové nad Labem.
Karlovy Vary
LIBEREC
Moravian Silesia
Renarkon is an Ostrava based organization that is able to give basic advice in English in their therapeutic centre. Their more advanced services, such as a therapeutic community and after-treatment centre are not available in languages other than Czech.
Olomouc
Pardubice
Laxus is a non-profit organization based in the Hradec Králove region that has addiction counselling centres in the Pardubice region as well. Their services are available to foreigners and many of their employees are able to speak English, German or other world languages.
Plzeň
Alcoholics Anonymous has a number of branches around the Czech Republic. They have meetings in Russian in their Plzeň branch.
Point 14 is a non-profit organization that serves both Plzeň and the surrounding area. They can provide services in English, Polish, Russian, Slovak and Ukrainian
Prague
Adicare is a psychological and psychiatric clinic that provides addiction counselling, psychiatric services (medication), psychotherapy and diagnostics in English as well as Czech.
Al-Anon/Alateen the Czech branch of Al-Anon/Alateen offers English meetings in Prague.
Alcoholics Anonymous has a number of branches around the Czech Republic. They have meetings in English and Russian in their Prague branch.
Progressive is a Prague based organization with services in the capital city and wider Central Bohemian region. While their focus is more on addictions to non-alcoholic substances, their Party Harm Reduction team visits music and other party type events in the region. If you attend such an event in Prague or the Central Bohemian region, make a point of seeing if Party Harm Reduction have a presence there when you arrive. The team members can speak English and offer a safe place for partygoers who are overcome by the effects of drugs or alcohol at the event. Party Harm Reduction can be contacted via their dedicated Facebook page as well.
Sananim is a non-profit organization that offers a range of services along with addiction counselling. They offer some of their addiction counselling services to non-Czech speakers, but you will need to contact them in advance for details of current availability.
South Bohemia
South Moravia
Renadi is a Brno base non-profit organization that is able to provide alcohol addiction consultation in English to a limited degree.
Ústí nad Labem
Vysočina
Zlín
Services in General
If you are a native Czech, or a foreigner with a good enough command of Czech that you can use counselling services in the language, you can use the interactive Map of Aid function on the National Monitoring Centre for Drugs and Addictions website to search for the services you require.
The map is divided into the various regions of the country. You can search not only for the counselling service you need, but also narrow the search to the region where you live.
Acknowledgement
The idea of this page came to me while I was taking part in the Dry February event of 2023. I spent a good portion of the month reaching out to many addiction counselling agencies as well as services for the settlement and integration of foreigners around the country to gather information to build the page.
I wish to extend my sincere thanks to those agencies who took the time to reply, even if it was to let me know they did not offer non-Czech language services.
I would also like to acknowledge those agencies who informed me that they did not offer non-Czech services, but found the idea of this page credible and interesting. It is my hope that they may take some inspiration from this page and eventually offer their services to non-Czech speakers.
Beyond Prague 