[Self-help: a new concept in health care. II. Present status in Czechoslovakia and its perspectives]

The second part of the paper devoted to the activities of mutual aid groups, patient clubs and lay associations focused on health care gives an account of these activities in the CSSR. Self-help is usually controlled by professional workers and frequently takes the shape of patient clubs and other clubs. The author discusses the sociotherapeutic clubs of recovered alcoholics, clubs in the area of mental health clubs devoted to interhuman and partner relationships. He describes club and self-help activities of the Association of the Handicapped--clubs for patients with disseminated sclerosis, clubs of parents and friends of handicapped children, etc. He informs on clubs for those who want to lose weight, clubs for cardiac patients and clubs of stoma-patients and emphasizes the need of extensive self-help in health care.