Report of the Human Rights Defender on the activities of the National Preventive Mechanism in Poland in 2012 7.  Right to contact with the outside world During their stay in hospital, all patients, including detained patients, should have ensured the contact with the outside world in the form of uncensored and unread correspondence (also by electronic means, using their own devices with access to mobile internet), unsupervised talks by phone (also using their own mobile phones) and visits without the presence of the hospital staff273. The right to contact, related to the patients’ right to respect for their private and family life274, was often violated in the visited establishments. The visiting team found that in some establishments275 the patients newly admitted to the hospital or transferred from other establishments did not have the possibility to use any form of contact with the outside world or such a possibility was very limited. The problem concerned also the patients placed in the observation rooms or sections. In half of the visited establishments276 the employees of the Mechanisms found considerable limitations of the rights of detained patients with regard to telephone calls, such as restrictions on use of their own mobile phones and calls from payphones. In only one of the visited establishments, the patients, with the exception of those placed in observation rooms, could use laptops with access to mobile internet without any limits.277 The representatives of the Mechanism found out that, to protect children against traumatic experiences related to a visit to the psychiatric ward, three visited hospitals278 did not allow or did not recommend the contact of detained persons with children up to 14 years of age, and in one establishment with children up to 7 years of age. Such restrictions are not grounded in the applicable legal 273 Pursuant to Article 13 of the Act on the protection of mental health, a person with mental disorders staying at the psychiatric hospital has the right to contact his family and other persons without any restrictions. 274 Article 22(1) of the Act of 6 November 2008 on patient’s rights and the ombudsman for patients rights (Dz. U. of 2012, item 159). 275 Regional Forensic Psychiatry Centre in Gostynin, Voivodeship Psychiatric Hospital in Olsztyn, Voivodeship Hospital for Neurotic and Psychiatric Patients in Lubiąż. 276 Regional Forensic Psychiatry Centre in Gostynin, Autonomous Public Voivodeship Hospital in Gorzów Wielkopolski, Voivodeship Hospital for Neurotic and Psychiatric Patients in Lubiąż, Voivodeship Hospital for Neurotic and Psychiatric Patients in Suchowola. 277 Voivodeship Psychiatric Hospital in Olsztyn. 278 Public Health Care Centre in Łuków, Autonomous Public Voivodeship Hospital in Gorzów Wielkopolski, Dr Józef Babiński Specialist Psychiatric Hospital Health Care Centre in Łódź. 102