PSYCHIATRIC CLINICS + The Joint Commission chose facilities operated by various organisations in three Länder for its first visits. It held preliminary meetings with the competent supervisory authorities in which it provided the facilities with information regarding its legal bases, remit, tasks and powers, as well as the methodology applied during visits to facilities providing residential nursing care for the elderly. In November the Joint Commission went on a factfinding visit to a care home and nursing home for the elderly. The visit was conducted under real conditions and thus gave the Commission the opportunity to test its methodology. In November 2015 the National Agency began conducting visits to residential nursing homes for the elderly, and by the end of the period under review it had visited three facilities in Hesse, RhinelandPalatinate and Thuringia. No comments were yet available at the time of this Annual Report going to press. Mobility as a basic need and expression of life and the possible consequences of (forced) immobility, particularly as regards the increased potential risk of falling and its contribution to changes in personality. In August a delegation from the Joint Commission accompanied the Austrian Ombudsman Board, at its invitation, on a visit to a residential care home and nursing home for the elderly. This enabled the Joint Commission to gain a first-hand insight into the methodology applied in Austria to such visits. After preparing aspects regarding the content of its own future visits it became clear that in order to gain sufficient insight during a visit the Joint Commission will have to hold numerous separate meetings and carry out a comprehensive on-site examination of the care records. It thus had to draw up concrete plans for its visits and also to develop a methodology appropriate to each type of facility. 8 – PSYCHIATRIC CLINICS In recent years the Joint Commission has visited three psychiatric clinics. On account of the additional members who joined the Commission being competent in this field, it was able to look at psychiatric clinics in more depth in the period under review and to once more conduct visits to such facilities. The Joint Commission first outlined its mandate in a psychiatry trade journal and explained its tasks in this area. 30 In preparation for its visits it adapted its general visit documentation to the special requirements in the field of psychiatry, and looked through and updated the available material. Account was also taken of the legal and organisational circumstances of the deprivation of liberty in psychiatric clinics as well as the competencies and activities of other commissions conducting visits. The Joint Commission’s first visit took it to a facility in Baden-Württemberg. In preparation for this visit the Joint Commission held a meeting in the Ministry for Labour and Social Affairs, Families, Women and Senior Citizens, during which the mandate, tasks and powers of the National Agency as well as standard procedure when conducting visits were discussed. The report of the visit was not available at the time of the Annual Report 2015 going to press. 30 National Agency, “Die Nationale Stelle zur Verhütung von Folter”, in: 34 Recht und Psychiatrie (2016), p. 80–81 35