In its response to the preliminary report, the institution stated that the employees do their best; however the residents’ wishes are very different – some wish to keep their personal items in drawers and cupboards, and not on shelves or on the wall. b) Ensuring privacy Living in SCI in departments with ten or more residents, often also in multi-bed rooms or with additional beds being added to small rooms or common areas due to overcrowding, residents undoubtedly miss the privacy that they are used to at home. It is therefore that much more important for special social care institutions to try and provide as much privacy as possible to its residents, if this is of course possible in the context of a secure department. In this respect, two recommendations were made to Dom Nine Pokorn Grmovje: •T  he NPM recommended that the management try to find an appropriate solution for the privacy of residents in the bathroom or toilet, perhaps by purchasing locks which can be unlocked from either side despite a key being in the lock. The NPM further recommended that “engaged/vacant” signs be placed on the doors temporarily, which would let the residents know whether a bathroom is free or occupied. In its response to the preliminary report, the institution explained that they immediately organised plasticised boards which can be placed on the hook when a toilet or bathroom is occupied. •T  he NPM recommended that the institution try to include a room in the plan of the new facility where residents would be able to meet with visitors in the department. Such a room could also be used for other purposes, e.g. court hearings and similar, i.e. always where a meeting needs to be held with the resident without the presence of other residents or staff, where leaving the secure department is not be possible for safety reasons. In its response to the preliminary report, the institution stated that in the light of the excessive shortage of space and continual overcrowding of the secure department (too many residents with a capacity of 12 beds), this was impossible to ensure. In the verification process for a secure department in 2013, in line with the given possibilities, they met the technical conditions, which however – due to the interests of users classified at care level IV, who were placed in the unit by a court decision without consent – had to be adapted (the calm down area has been rearranged into a living area, double room). The institution further stated that they were looking into the possibility of ensuring privacy during visits by socialising in the common area (which is rarely completely empty) and in the dining room outside the secure department. A common area is foreseen in the construction of the extension; however, the question remains whether discretion can be provided if two or more visits take place at the same time. The institution emphasised that the staff were doing their best under the given circumstances. The majority of the visits take place in the secure department (in the resident’s room) or, in warmer weather, in the wooden summerhouse on the lawn of the secure department. c) Use of special precautionary measures During its visits to special social care institutions, the NPM pays a lot of attention to the implementation of SPM. The ZDZdr stipulates when to speak of SPM, which conditions have to be met for these measures to be implemented, and which procedure must be followed for them to be implemented. If deficiencies in the implementation of SPM are established during our visits, we provide a corresponding recommendation, as was the case with Hrastovec SCI, described above. During our visit to Impoljca Retirement Home, we established the use of lap belts, which the NPM believes meet all the signs of SPM of physical restraint using belts. Regardless of the institution’s further claims that they do not implement SPM, several recommendations were made: •W  e recommend that in the event of any kind of physical restraint corresponding to the legal definition of SPM, the institution observes the conditions and limitations stipulated by the ZDZdr, IMPLEMENTATION OF THE DUTIES AND POWERS OF THE NPM IN 2017 NATIONAL PREVENTIVE MECHANISM UNDER THE OPTIONAL PROTOCOL TO THE UN CONVENTION AGAINST TORTURE AND OTHER CRUEL, INHUMAN OR DEGRADING TREATMENT OR PUNISHMENT 59