National Preventive Mechanism
daily schedule is structured, in the care of disoriented or dying persons and in
documentation, there can be unintentional negative or thoughtless actions
vis-à-vis the persons to be cared for. Sometimes, commissions draw attention
during their visits to the fact that grab bars, which have been moved aside,
cannot be reached by the elderly, that call systems do not work, that body
parts are exposed in front of third parties, that the bathroom door remains
open during a shower, that orientation aids are lacking, that new residents
are not given a tour of the facility and are not shown where the terraces are,
etc.
Research initiated on
prevention relevant to
human rights
The AOB has suggested a project to process the research literature on the
subject of “prevention”. University professor Stefan Titscher has submitted
a corresponding application-oriented project as project manager to the
Jubiläumsfonds of the Austrian National Bank and it has been approved.
Prevention to avert human rights violations is the focal point of the study.
The study is concentrating primarily on two types of institutions and
facilities in Vienna: retirement and nursing homes and hospitals that have
psychiatric wards. The key questions are: how can institutions and facilities,
where people are being cared for, integrate preventive mechanisms into their
work? And if this is increasingly possible, how can they be supported in doing
this more effectively and efficiently? In order to answer these questions, the
project will try to identify the indicators that (primarily) affect the quality of
care. The project is application-oriented, because the results are supposed to
provide a scientifically-based aid for the NPM for issues to be examined and
monitoring and control methods. The NPM sees such projects as part of its
statutory duty to cooperate with the sciences pursuant to Section 7 (3) of the
Ombudsman Act (Volksanwaltschaftsgesetz).
Central register for
restrictions of freedom
Protection of personal freedom while in group homes and other nursing
and care institutions and facilities has been regulated by federal law since
2005 (Nursing Home Residence Act). An important pre-condition for the
permissibility of a measure that restricts freedom is that there are no milder
means available. Therefore, minimising all efforts, frequency, scope and
intensity of measures that restrict freedom – i.e. technical, medication-based,
communicative and interactive encroachments on freedom (of movement) –
are a measure of quality. Care that is based on human dignity and human
rights is unthinkable without the active protection of personal freedom.
Therefore, this right to respect urges that institutions and facilities rethink
the use of measures that restrict freedom and evaluate them self-critically on
a regular basis. Sometimes, this does not occur with the necessary attention.
However, there are also traditional nursing homes that set this as a concrete
goal for themselves and plan their care in detail so as to look for and find
individual solutions for problems without intruding upon the autonomy of
the affected person. IT-supported care documentation systems (e.g. Vivendi)
facilitate the identification of risks and also allow targeted assessment of
measures taken to restrict freedom as a basis of ongoing self-evaluation. The
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