Part I
regulations, direct coercion in social care homes, in the form of people’s
isolation, may be used for up to 8 hours (Article 5(1) of the DC Regulation) which excludes people’s long-term stay in isolation rooms. Therefore, there is no need to arrange them in the same way as the other rooms
available to the residents. It should be borne in mind, however, that the
priority of security does not justify non-compliance with the requirement
to arrange the isolation rooms in such a way so as to respect the dignity of
the residents.
During the visits conducted in 2016, the NMPT representatives also
identified the problem of insufficient supervision exercised by family judges over social care homes. According to Article 43(1) of the Act of 19 August 1994 on Mental Health Protection190 (hereinafter referred to as the
AMHP), the requirement for conducting, by judges, of supervision over
the lawfulness of admitting persons with mental disorders to social care
homes, over respecting their rights and over the conditions existing in the
institutions, applies only to social care homes for mentally ill persons or
mentally retarded persons. Persons with mental disorders may, however,
be placed in various types of homes, e.g. homes for persons with chronic
somatic diseases, if this is justified by their somatic condition and if they
are referred to such a home by the referring entity. In practice, therefore,
it may happen that because of the construction of the above-mentioned
provision, a given social care home is not supervised by a court at all, despite having mentally ill residents191. In the opinion of the NMPT, such
a solution puts some residents of social care homes in an underprivileged
position as they may be deprived of their liberty for a period not subject
to verification and not specifically determined. This violates the guarantee
of every human being’s personal liberty, as well as closes the possibility
to demand verification of the person’s status through direct contact with
a visiting judge.
Both above mentioned issues were highlighted by the CHR in his letter
to the Minister of Health, containing an opinion on the bill amending the
Mental Health Act and certain other acts192.
Dz. U. of 2016, item 546.
e.g. SCH Kalina in Suwałki.
192
Letter of 27 October 2016, ref. no. KMP.022.4.2016.
190
191
63
Select target paragraph3
Connect to a paragraph
Connect to an entity
Disable highlights
Add to table of contents