Healthcare institutions Solitary confinement and restraint Physical conditions Staff training Staff training Healthcare institutions Solitary confinement and restraint Prevention Prevention Hospitalised prisoners A medical examination twice per day must be guaranteed for any person subjected to physical restraint. Stays in a seclusion room or the use of restraint must be regularly interrupted by short release periods in the open air; only exceptional circumstances can justify it being impossible to be released and thus must be explained. The architecture of the seclusion rooms must guarantee suitable accommodation conditions in terms of, for example, surface area, light and access to water and washing facilities. The layout of these rooms must be conducive to calming patients down and enable high quality bedding to be provided with the possibility of lying down with head raised; it must enable the patient to sit and eat in dignified conditions and allow the patient to see a clock. Television and music equipment must be able to be used in these rooms in complete safety. Video-surveillance devices in seclusion rooms must be prohibited as they violate dignity and invade on privacy. In addition, these devices are not necessary if the nursing presence is adapted to the patient's condition. Anyone placed in a seclusion room or restrained must always have access to a call button which must be responded to immediately. Patients placed in seclusion rooms must be able to receive their visitors in respectful conditions. The development of medical and nursing research on preventive professional practices must be encouraged with the aim of reducing recourse to solitary confinement and restraint measures. Physician, nurses and team training, in particular on violence and the patients' fundamental rights, must be strengthened. A postgraduate (third cycle) programme in treatment must be set up in order to enable nurses to develop recognised clinical expertise. Therapeutic and occupational activities must be developed within psychiatric departments in order to reduce boredom and tensions. Patients must be informed of units' internal rules and code of conduct to avoid arbitrary situations which are likely to bring about at-risk situations. A nursing staff presence, adapted to the specificities of the treatment units and the patients hospitalised in these units, must be guaranteed. Best endeavours must be used to ensure that a detained person committed to a hospital unit does not see his or her detention rights being curtailed. This requires, on the one hand, ensuring continuity regarding his or her administrative situation so as to avoid any interruption in care (external relations, nominative accounts, sentence adjustments, etc.) and, on the other, hospital units with the necessary logistics (exercise space, visiting rooms, activities, canteen, etc.). 159 2 2 2 2 2 2 2 2 2 2 2 2 1