Hospitals and psychiatric institutions in psychiatric departments thus have a significant influence on the number of isolations, restrictions, conflicts, coercive measures, suicides and attempted escapes. High-quality furnishings and clean rooms are experienced by patients as an expression of respect and affect their mental well-being and thus their potential for aggression. There is a connection between the amount of private space per person, comfort, good visual monitoring in the wards and a reduction in the number of isolations and restrictions. Sufficient private space is important for the well-being as well as the protection and control needs of the patients. A needs-based design of the psychiatric medical facilities and patient rooms can thus provide essential positive stimuli for the health of the patients. Shared rooms in particular should be refurbished in order to guarantee the patients sufficient privacy and personal space. This includes the individual use of sanitary rooms. On the recommendation of the NPM, the legal entities of the medical facilities promised improvements in the spatial conditions, some of which have already been implemented. New space concept for Child and Adolescent Psychiatry of Vienna General Hospital An examination of the University Department of Child and Adolescent Psychiatry in Vienna showed that the new building, which is due to be opened in the first six months of 2020, includes a generous space concept. As far as the Hospitalisation Act is concerned, single rooms and an outside area are planned. Attention was paid to the de-escalating effect of room design and architecture that prevents suicide when designing the new building. Cramped conditions have meant that there have been too few lockable areas to date. The consequence is that wards 06 and 07 were locked for all patients, sometimes for several days, in order to protect individual patients who are suicidal or in danger of escaping. The doors to the wards were open for a maximum of several hours per day. The management and team dealt with locking the doors in a sensitive way and took great pains to ensure that those in out-patient care can enter and leave the wards without delay insofar as possible. However, locking the doors to the wards constitutes an intrusion into personal rights. The new building now has smaller units that can be locked for short periods of time. Other patients are thus no longer affected when measures that restrict freedom are necessary for individual patients. Furthermore, the hospital promised to examine alternatives to locking the doors to the wards (e.g. personalised chip wristbands, alarm systems). Cramped conditions in the IMC ward of Vienna General Hospital 47 A visit to the University Department of Psychiatry and Psychotherapy, ward 4C (IMC), of Vienna General Hospital showed that male and female patients were accommodated together in four-bed rooms without permanent privacy screens. This is even more critical, as – unlike intensive care in the somatic area – the patients have to spend several weeks in the ward.