SUCCESS Significant changes were introduced to regulations regarding the rights of residents of social care homes and 24-hour care facilities in the amended act on social care homes 33. The currently applicable regulations oblige 24-hour care facilities to keep files of fully incapacitated residents. Those files must include, among other things, the decision of the guardianship court on granting the permission for placing such individuals in the facility. Hence, the discussed legislative change imposes an obligation on 24-hour care facilities to actually verify the legality of resident’s stay. It also imposes an obligation on legal guardians to obtain court’s permission to place a fully incapacitated person in a 24-care facility. The said changes follow the argument put forward by the National Mechanism for the Prevention of Torture that the legal status of individuals signing the agreement should be verified. If legal guardians are the ones to sign the agreement one should add a copy of the court’s ruling or certificate of the appointment of a legal guardian to the resident’s files34. Additionally, what is also noteworthy is the amended wording of Article 68a of the act on social welfare in the context of ensuring appropriate staffing levels, in which item 5 was added specifying the required number of people employed in the facility in reference to a number of residents. Pursuant to item 5 of the said act, the person running a 24-hour care facility is obliged to employ individuals (...)under part-time contracts for at least 1/3 of full time equivalents per one person residing in the facility, not less than for 4,5 FTE, yet working time of the natural person running the facility that satisfies the conditions mentioned in item 4, includes 1/2 of the FTE and in case of running more than one facility 1/2 FTE from only one facility. Furthermore, the implemented legislative changes impose an obligation on the management of social care homes and 24-hour care facilities to obtain a medical certificate issued for a specified period of time, not exceeding 6 months, in case there is a need to restrict resident’s contacts with the outside world. In line with the wording of the provision: should the lack of care constitute a threat to life or significantly endanger the health of the resident with mental disorders, the director or the head of such a home may restrict the possibility for the said person to independently leave the premises of the social care home on the basis of a doctor’s certificate issued for a specified period not exceeding 6 months that indicates the rationale behind such a restriction. Such a restriction is formulated in writing and comprises, among other things, the period for which it was issued, the reasons for establishing the restriction and well as information about the right to submit a motion for the withdrawal of the restriction to guardianship court having a territorial jurisdiction over the location of the facility. The management of the facility shall deliver the notification of restriction to the resident, his/her legal guardian as well as to the guardianship court. 33 34 Act of 19 July 2019 on the amendment of the act on social welfare and the act on the protection of mental health (Journal of Laws [Dz. U.] of 2019, item 1690). Cf. Report of the Commissioner for Human Rights on the activities of the National Mechanism for the Prevention of Torture in Poland in 2018. Report of the Commissioner for Human Rights on the activities of the National Mechanism for the Prevention of Torture in Poland in 2019 25