24 THE GREEK OMBUDSMAN where needed”. However, the relevant draft bill on the reception of applicants for international protection was not submitted to the Hellenic Parliament. Psychiatric commitment In 2015 the NPM was already stressing the serious consequences that the many levels of the crisis and the continuing recession have had, both in the increase of mental disorders in the general population and in the increase in demand for psychiatric and psychological assistance, while at the same time noting the gradual collapse of the public system of mental health services due to insufficient funding. As a result, the successful completion of the effort for psychiatric reform, without excluding mental health from the priorities of social policy, is deemed to be of vital importance. This also reflects the positions of the Council of Europe’s Commissioner for Human Rights, as laid out in his document of 17 August 2016 to the Minister of Health and the Deputy Minister of Employment, following his visit to Greece. The political leadership of the Health Ministry, at the 2nd Mental Health Conference, set as a priority the reversal of the abandonment and deregulation of the public mental health system by rehabilitating the “maligned” idea of psychiatric reform. They planned for its revival and completion through well-prepared steps that will ensure a smooth transition from asylum-type care to the reliable care of the long-term mentally ill in community-type structures, the development of primary mental health care and the protection of patients’ rights and dignity. A draft bill has already been drawn up on the reorganisation and decentralisation of the Administration of the Mental Health Services, with the participation of mental health services recipients and their families, through voting rights. On 11 November 2015 – following up on the Authority’s related reports – the NPM made a visit to and on-site inspection of the Psychiatric Hospital of Attica (PHA). They identified the commitment of insane offenders to public treatment facilities (under Article 69 of the Penal Code) as a major problem, being of the opinion that confinement under guard hinders their treatment, and recommended that the co-competent Ministries of Health and Justice design a special care framework for the insane in order to put an end to the contradiction between their treatment as prisoners and as patients. For example, one suggestion is that all insane patients (patients of the PHA, the PHA Dromokaition and Psychiatric Divisions of the Papanikolaou General Hospital of Thessaloniki) be assessed by mental health specialists in order to create a psycho-judicial high-security unit, a measure that requires the collaboration of the Ministries of Health and Justice. The on-site inspection report (see Annual Report 2015, p. 140) was sent to the Ministries of Health and Justice. The Ministry of Justice responded in July 2016, acknowledging that the practice of guarding insane offenders at psychiatric hospitals is obsolete and reflects the thinking of the legal and psychiatric community