the national board of institutional care applied. The design and layout of the institutions’ premises has also proved to be important when applying these special powers. During this year’s inspections, the issue of incidents of threats and violence as well as staff ’s treatment of inmates has also received special attention. Separate care An important premise is that individuals cared for at one of the National Board of Institutional Care’s institutions have the right to associate with others. The National Board of Institutional Care is able to limit this right in certain cases. It may prevent an individual from associating with others if this is required due to an individual’s special care needs, their safety or the safety of other individuals (separate care). Separate care must be adapted to the individual’s specific care needs. A decision on separate care must be reviewed continuously and always reviewed within seven days since the last review.4 During the inspection of the special residential home for young people Långanäs, it emerged that a decision on separate care is a prerequisite for an individual to be cared for in one of the home’s treatment departments, Trollebo. According to the home, the department specialises in receiving young people with very special needs. The department, therefore, has a higher staff density than other departments within the National Board of Institutional Care. Individuals in Trollebo are described by the home as individuals who act out with neuropsychiatric disabilities, mental problems and difficulties with social interaction. During conversations with the staff, it emerged that several of the young people had received habilitative measures in accordance with the Support and Service for Persons with Certain Functional Impairments Act (1993:387). When examining decisions on separate care, the Parliamentary Ombudsmen’s employees noted that the reasoning in the majority of the review decisions were identical. According to a mapping exercise conducted by the National Board of Institutional Care in 2017, the average length of care for an individual in the department was 16 months. The mapping exercise also revealed that the longest time an individual had been admitted to the department, and therefore placed in separate care, was seven years. Following the inspection, the Parliamentary Ombudsman stated that the details that had emerged regarding the lengthy care periods led to several questions. For this reason, the Parliamentary Ombudsman announced that an inspection of the special residential home for young people Brättegården would be made in the near future, as a department there admits young people with similar problems. Thereafter, there may be reasons for the Parliamentary Ombudsman to return to the conditions at the special residential home for young people Långanäs.5 4 See Section 15 d of the Care of Young Persons Act, Section 14 a of the Secure Youth Care Act and Section 34 a of the Care of Substance Abusers Act. 5 See the Parliamentary Ombudsmen’s report p. 5-7 and 15, ref. no. O 57-2019. 53