persons with disabilities 3.9 Residential units for persons with intellectual and other disabilities According to a goal of the 2012 government resolution on individual housing and services for persons with intellectual disabilities, no person with a disability should be living in an institution after 2020. It has been estimated that there are some 40,000 persons with intellectual disabilities in Finland. According to a statistical report compiled by THL (42/2017), there were 920 intellectually disabled residents in institutional care (191 of whom were minors). The number of long-term residents was 795 (131 of whom were minors). Long-term residents refers to clients for whom a decision has been made on long-term care or who have been in care for more than 90 days. The total number of units falling under the remit of the NPM – units where residents may be subjected to restrictive measures – is 856. Of these, 830 units offer full-time care (397 are run by private service and 433 by public service providers). In addition, 920 persons live in 26 units. On visits to units providing institutional care and housing services for persons with disabilities, special attention is paid to the use of restrictive measures and the relevant documentation, decision-making, and appeals procedures under the provisions of the Act on Special Care for Mentally Handicapped Persons, which entered into force on 10 June 2016. According to the preliminary work on the Act, the restrictions must be highly exceptional and used only as a measure of last resort. If a person in special care repeatedly requires restrictive measures, it should be assessed whether the unit they are currently residing in is suitable and appropriate for their needs. The practices of the unit should always be assessed as a whole. Restrictive measures should only be resorted to when this is necessary in order to protect another basic right that takes precedence over the basic right subject to restriction. It follows from this principle that restrictive measures should never be used for disciplinary or educational purposes. The purpose of the visits is to assess the use of restrictive measures, as well as the living conditions and the accessibility and feasibility of the facilities, while appraising the attainment of the disabled residents’ right to self-determination and the availability of adequate care and treatment. With the ratification of the UN Convention on the Rights of Persons with Disabilities, the Parliamentary Ombudsman became part of the mechanism referred to in Article 33(2) of the Convention, designated to promote, protect, and monitor the implementation of the rights of persons with disabilities. For this reason, the Ombudsman also paid attention to the implementation of the rights specified in the Convention on his visits. The number of residential units of intellectually and physically disabled persons visited in 2017 was 19. One of the units was a full-time residential unit for disabled persons. The other sites were units for intellectually disabled people. There were disabled residents under involuntary special care in three of the units visited. Most of the visits (11) were made unannounced. Three of the units were run by private service providers. One of the visits was made during the evening. 69