We believe that spending free time actively would also be useful for residents in terms of therapy and maintaining their mental, physical and thus related work skills. In particular, this would prevent residents from sitting resignedly in the ward during the weekend, smoking more or even becoming restless, irritable and difficult to manage due to the lack of work and monotony. In their response to the preliminary report, the management of the home explained that they had recently received younger residents without the formers’ consent on the basis of court orders and were thus faced with a very diverse population in terms of interest and motivation. Their staff also noticed that interest in more intensive activities in free time was increasing. So far, activities at weekends have not particularly been planned in advance, but were certainly implemented occasionally in accordance with the residents’ expressed interest (for the most part, these included socialising during walks or board games). Since interest in activities during weekends was increasing, the occupational therapist had already committed herself for this purpose, together with the responsible registered nurse at the unit, and they had prepared activities for weekends (Saturdays, Sundays, holidays). According to the management of the home, the intensity of activities always correlates with the available staff, schedules and residents’ interest, which varies from day to day. The management of the home is striving to pay more attention to providing ongoing social and sports activities in the secure ward because this is in their genuine interest, and a happy service user is the basic criteria of quality. Zimzelen Retirement Home in Topolšica We determined that many activities were also available to the residents of the home at weekends. The cooperation between the occupational therapist and the staff in the ward, who try to provide various activities for the residents of secure wards also during weekends, was positive and complementary. Certain clarifications provided by female residents to whom we spoke revealed that, with some effort, the residents in the ward could feel even better. We thus proposed that the management of the home try to balance activities which enhance residents’ mental health and physical activities, which enable the residents to maintain a good psychophysical condition. We also recommended that occasional major activities (concert, children’s performance, dance, trip and similar) be organised at weekends and thus additionally vary the lives of residents during weekends. According to the management, the NPM’s recommendations were based on a female resident’s statement. On that note, the management added that residents’ statements reflected their current awareness of the situation, which was the result of their dementia. Activities that enhance residents’ mental health and physical activities also took place during weekends, which was evident from the activity plan available to the NPM and which was also established in the first sentence of its concluding findings. Providing more activities at the weekend was more difficult. Performances, concerts and the like are provided by external providers, who do not provide their services at the weekend. In the history of events on the home’s website, it was evident that some weekend events were occasionally organised. Jesenice Retirement Home Although the management of the home undoubtedly wished many activities to take place in dementia wards on Sundays and during holidays, to which the list of activities not being divided by days for the entire week particularly pointed, the NPM raised a question during its visit: were activities even possible if there was only one staff member on the ward? The concern was justified, as was also proven by the staff’s clarifications and the residents’ allegations stating that activities on Sundays and during holidays were reduced mainly to watching television and to visits by relatives. It must also be noted that the activities which the staff of both wards (Rožmarin and Sončna enota) manage to organise and implement in addition to their other duties require extra effort and present an additional burden. We were wondering how one trainee managed to suitable provide care and safety for 35 residents, who for the most part were suffering from dementia, and also implement certain activities (reading stories), which was certainly a great burden for him. The same also applies to the employee in the Rožmarin unit. We thus stated that the management of the home has to re-assess its staffing structure in dementia wards at weekends and during holidays and if necessary provide at least two permanently present staff members on every ward. If staffing standards fail to allow the aforementioned, we proposed that the management contact the relevant ministry with a request to change staffing standards and also to inform the Ombudsman thereof. 62 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