Report on the Performance of Activities of the National Preventive Mechanism for 2015 to finding accommodation for persons with mental disorders who no longer require hospital treatment, but due to their psychophysical condition and their living conditions outside the institution are unable to provide for themselves and have nobody who is obligated and capable of providing for them. However, in some cases there are still problems with finding adequate accommodation outside the hospital. 3.4. Visits to homes for the elderly Trying to get a better insight into the system of institutional care for the elderly and the disabled, in 2015 we visited five social care homes: Home for the Elderly “Sveti Josip” in Zagreb, Home for the Elderly “Kantrida” in Rijeka, Home for the Elderly and Disabled “Sveti Polikarp” in Pula, Home for the Elderly and Disabled in Slavonski Brod and Home for the Elderly and Disabled “Vita Nova” in Bjelovar. These homes are all registered for the providing of social welfare service of permanent accommodation for the elderly and the disabled users. The homes in Pula and Bjelovar are privately owned, while the others are owned by the respective counties. The purpose of the visits, within the scope of authority of the NPM, was to determine the conditions in which persons who are in permanent care live, as well as the method of their placement into the relevant institution and the method of their treatment. It was also important to determine whether their specific needs are met, i.e. whether their fundamental rights and liberties are respected, for example the right to information, to respect of one’s private and personal life, protection of dignity, confidentiality of personal information, freedom of religion, prohibition of torture, inhuman or degrading treatment, ensuring adequate professional treatment, filing of complaints and the right to ownership. Special attention was paid to all situations that might represent limitation of the freedom of movement. Following each visit, individual reports with warnings and recommendations were given to the relevant home, its founder and the Ministry of Social Policy and Youth as the competent supervisory body. During the course of our visits, we found no treatment that could constitute torture or inhuman treatment, but we did find certain treatment that might constitute degrading treatment and violation of certain legal rights. The reasons behind this generally lie in insufficient knowledge of international standards and national regulations that regulate the rights of persons in institutional care, a paternalistic attitude that employees know best what users of their institutions need and consequently treat them as if they were children, or the lack of staff. In order to prevent the violation of rights of users, it is necessary to organize education sessions for all employees of homes for the elderly with regard to the issues of human rights of the elderly. All homes that we have visited are extremely clean and in good order, and the persons who are accommodated in them generally have positive comments about how the professional staff treats them. 20