"Skála used to say: 'If one of those thirty patients at this ward remains sober, the effort is worth it, for the sake of this person that returns to normal life.' That was my view too. Always when I was giving a lecture, I would say: 'Maybe three fourths [of patients] do not want to listen. I am saying this for those few persons who will be succesful and who will be able to remain sober long-term.'"
“We started with strong spirits. He [patient] could bring some concentrate. He gets emetine and as soon as he smells alcohol, he vomits. This way, he vomited even after drinking beer and we expected that based on the pharyngeal (gag) reflex, conditioned reflex would develop. It did not work at all. We dumped this idea very fast, it was a too drastic method. It stopped being applied after 20 years of use.“
„ I always believed that someone guides our steps, someone keeps a watchful eye on us and that it is a matter of life and death. I have always been an optimist, never a pessimist. I kept my optimism even though events happening around me were unpleasant. Even when it concerned my husband or children, I always believed that everything will turn to good and that the Providence would be more favourable."
„It had negative impact on our three children. Although they were gifted pupils, they were not allowed to get the needed credentials that would allow them to enrol at a secondary school. Neither one, nor the second, nor the third. My worries about their future lead me to gird my loins and go pleading to all the people in charge and tried to explain: 'This is not my children's fault, I'll ruin their lives, I cant watch, do nothing and let this happen.'”
Helena Škopková was born on the 13th of July in Telč as the eldest of three siblings. After six years, the family moved to Plzeň. She went to elementary school there and started attending secondary school. During the holiday, she helped at her grandparents’ farm in Telč, later on, she managed the whole farm. The witness graduated from the Faculty of Medicine in Plzeň. She got married and had three children. She was board-certified in psychiatry in 1964. She specialised in treating alcohol addicts in the psychiatric hospital in Dobřany. She went through her psychotherapy training under the guidance of professor Skála with whom she later collaborated. She got her second board certification in 1969. The doctor’s husband was a dean of the Faculty of Civil Engineering. The family was persecuted for his opposition to the August occupation of 1968. The witness started prescribing Antabus (disulfiram) and started using the aversive therapy in the Dobřany hospital. She became a member of the International Council for Alcoholism. She attended meetings and conferences in Western Europe. She organised meetings of permanently abstaining patients. She used positive motivation for her patients. During the 1990s, her life was turned upside down by the illnes of her daughter, a successful athlete. Her daughter died in May 2007. The change that followed after 1989 allowed Helena Škopková to study and travel more intensively. She refused to get pensioned. She worked a chief physician until the autumn of 2018. She still works as a psychiatrist. She lives in Starý Plzenec. She tends her garden and studies German language. Her strong faith has been giving her strength and a positive outlook all her life.
