6 – PSYCHIATRIC CLINICS
6.1 – OUTDOOR EXERCISE
6.4 – INFORMATION ON RIGHTS
Every person deprived of their liberty should
be offered at least one hour of outdoor exercise
per day. Children and juveniles should be offered
considerably more time outdoors for exercise.
Patients must receive written information on
their rights in the psychiatric facility. Where
young people are concerned, this information
should be provided in an age-appropriate form.
6.2 – DOCUMENTATION OF
COERCIVE MEASURES
6.5 – CCTV MONITORING
Persons held in psychiatric facilities should not
be
subjected
to
uninterrupted
and
indiscriminate CCTV monitoring. Under no
circumstances can CCTV monitoring replace
the presence of members of staff. The reasons
for the use of CCTV monitoring should be
documented. In addition, the person concerned
must be informed that monitoring is taking
place. The mere fact that the camera is visible is
not sufficient. It should be possible for the
person concerned to discern whether the camera
is running.
All coercive measures should be documented
comprehensively,
comprehensibly
and
completely. The measure must be documented
in writing. This includes documenting which less
severe measures have already been tried and an
explanation of why they failed.
6.3 – PHYSICAL RESTRAINT
34
The use of physical restraints is only to be
ordered as a last resort, on the basis of clear and
precisely defined criteria, and for the shortest
possible period of time. Persons under physical
restraint must be observed continuously and
personally by therapeutic or care staff who are in
direct proximity to the detainee (one-on-one
supervision). For any physical restraint applied
for more than just a short period of time, a court
35
decision is required. The measure should be
discussed with the detainee concerned
36
afterwards. The detainee should also be
informed after the measure of the possibility to
have a court review the permissibility of the
37
restraint procedure.
6.6 – RESPECTFUL TREATMENT
Patients should be treated respectfully. For
example, staff members should indicate their
presence by knocking on the door before
entering a room, and should, as a rule, speak to
patients using polite forms of address.
6.7 – CONFIDENTIALITY OF
CONVERSATIONS
In psychiatric facilities, measures should be
introduced to ensure that phone calls can be
made confidentially.
34
See part III. 2.5 – “Physical restraint”
Federal Constitutional Court, judgment of 24/07/2018, file
no.: 2 BvR 502/16, margin no. 69
36
DGPPN [German Society for Psychiatry and
Psychotherapy] (2018): “S3-Leitlinie: Verhinderung von Zwang:
Prävention und Therapie aggressiven Verhaltens bei
Erwachsenen.” URL:
https://www.dgppn.de/_Resources/Persistent/154528053e2d1
464d9788c0b2d298ee4a9d1cca3/S3%20LL%20Verhinderung
%20von%20Zwang%20LANG%2BLITERATUR%20FIN
AL%2010.9.2018.pdf (last retrieved on 27/02/2019)
37
Federal Constitutional Court, judgment of 24/07/2018, file
no.: 2 BvR 502/16, margin no. 85
35
31
Select target paragraph3
Connect to a paragraph
Connect to an entity
Disable highlights
Add to table of contents