for better conditions of work, living and treatment, and the appropriate staffing structure, which would enable safe and qualitative treatment, regardless of the NPM’s recommendations or opinions, but they expected the NPM to support them actively in accordance with its authorisations. The management believed that was the only way to protect the interests of persons with mental disorders, their integrity and dignity, in the long term, and contribute to the realisation of their fundamental rights arising from the Patient Rights Act and the ZDZdr. We recommended that Maribor University Medical Centre ensure the requisite number of staff for qualitative work and care of patients in the Unit for Forensic Psychiatry, and above all, to regularly and promptly fill vacant positions. In their response to the preliminary report on the visit in 2016, the management of the Department of Psychiatry stated that they would again inform the management of Maribor University Medical Centre of the relevant matter, particularly of the fact that the Official Gazette of the Republic of Slovenia published new Rules on the implementation of security measures of compulsory psychiatric treatment and care in a health establishment of compulsory psychiatric treatment at liberty and compulsory treatment of alcoholics and drug addict, which had already been submitted to the management of Maribor University Medical Centre and the Systematisation Committee of Maribor University Medical Centre. We recommended that the Unit for Forensic Psychiatry further strive to fill all envisaged posts of occupational therapists; until then, other staff members in individual wards should ensure the implementation of patients’ activities (e.g. visit to the gym). In their response to the preliminary report on the visit in 2016, the management of the Department of Psychiatry stated that the reply to the relevant recommendation was the same as submitted to the report of the previous visit. Some examples of good practice: • the walls were pleasantly decorated in sub-unit E1 of the Unit for Forensic Psychiatry with items made during occupational therapy and items by individual patients (wood burned plates). Posters with photographs from events where patients from this sub-unit were socialising (picking chestnuts, cooking day etc.) were also commendable; • the expert particularly commended the fact that Ljubljana University Psychiatric Hospital did not reject patients due to occupancy, but was tackling this issue by transferring patients to other suitable wards; • it is commendable that a walk in the vicinity of Ljubljana University Psychiatric Hospital is organised twice a day, regardless of the season or weather (after a morning meeting and in the afternoon after 5 pm) since the Hospital was aware of the importance of such walks, according to the occupational therapist; • according to our discussion partners, the rooms in Idrija Psychiatric Hospital were no longer locked, which is commendable; • at the time of the NPM’s visit, brochures with the house rules of the ward in Idrija Psychiatric Hospital were attached to the notice board; these are now handed out to patients or relatives, according to the ward staff, which the NPM finds commendable. Some examples of bad practice: • we recommended that Ljubljana University Psychiatric Hospital find a better way of accommodating patients than by placing a mattress on the floor. Until this issue is resolved in a suitable way, we proposed that a patient accommodated in a temporary bed be ensured the same living conditions as other patients; • we pointed out the inadmissible practice of an internal agreement in Idrija Psychiatric Hospital on wearing hospital clothes in order to prevent exits during the first few days of accommodation, particularly of patients admitted to secure wards on the basis of their own consent. Consent may be withdraw at any time, which is stated already in the patient’s consent form, and the patient may then leave the ward (if the court does not Issue an order on forced confinement). The NPM again repeated that experience shows that the practice of wearing hospital clothes does not contribute to strengthening the patient’s personal identity or self-confidence. Since the individualisation of clothing in secure wards might be an important part of the therapeutic process, we proposed 90 IMPLEMENTATION OF THE DUTIES AND POWERS OF THE NPM IN 2016 NATIONAL PREVENTIVE MECHANISM UNDER THE OPTIONAL PROTOCOL TO THE UN CONVENTION AGAINST TORTURE AND OTHER CRUEL, INHUMAN OR DEGRADING TREATMENT OR PUNISHMENT