Psychiatric hospitals
members of the therapeutic team. There was no regular communication between
individual personnel groups in the ward and no agreed therapeutic arrangements.
The wards do not have a system which would comprehensively determine the objectives and treatments constituting the entire therapeutic activity of the ward and
also for individual patients.
The representatives of the Mechanism also found that insufficient resources
are allocated for therapy in the majority of establishments. However, the quality
of therapeutic activities was often unacceptable, e.g. some patients who attended
organised therapy in the ward played electronic games (with their themes not being specially chosen) which can hardly be considered therapy.
An alarming example of this problem is the treatment of sexual offenders271.
A psychologist who completed the Postgraduate Studies in Sexology conducts
individual meetings with patients on sexual education once a week for an hour.
A meeting with one patient lasts approximately 20 minutes. At each meeting a new
subject is presented to the patient (e.g. psychosexual development of human beings, the concept of norms in sexology, impact of psychogenic factors on sexual
disorders, social and cultural determinants and the role of sex, myths and stereotypes related to human sexuality), who also receives written materials and signs
document to confirm that he/she has read them. Each subject is described on 1-2
pages of academic material presented in a way difficult to understand for someone
who is not an expert in the field. According to an expert of the NPM, such sexual
education for the patients of the ward is highly controversial and unlikely to be effective, and in the case of some psychotic patients it can even be dangerous. It will
most certainly not replace the appropriate individual therapy.
The visits also revealed problems with exchange of information between establishments if the level of detention is changed which disrupts the continuity of
treatment and thus reduces its effectiveness.
Some hospital discharge papers lacked any information on therapy or psychotherapy of the patient at the establishment and/or guidelines on psychological
and psychotherapeutic activities which would allow to continue psychotherapy
rather than start it from scratch in another establishment.
In two establishments272 the visiting team found violations of the patients’ right
to intimacy and privacy during medical examinations, namely, the psychiatrist talked
to patients only during the ward round, in the presence of other staff and patients, and
a guard was present during all examinations taking place outside the establishment.
Regional Forensic Psychiatry Centre in Gostynin.
Voivodeship Psychiatric Hospital in Warta, Regional Forensic Psychiatry Centre in Gostynin.
271
272
101
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