still live in the old building. Providing quality food, personal hygiene items, clothing and linen for patients in the above facilities remains problematic. The increase in the funding of the 2019 programme of mental health care195 is to be noted positively. The budget of each component of the programme196 increased accordingly. However, unfortunately, despite almost 9-% increase in the shelter component, the cost per 24 hours of a beneficiary’s stay in a shelter remains the same.197 Furthermore, despite the increase in the funding, the price of a bed-day for patients receiving long-term treatment has also not been changed.198 Despite the above positive steps, mental health care remains one of the most important challenges in the country and needs significant fundamental reforms. According to the existing situation, similar to the previous years, the following issues remain problematic in the Bediani Psychiatric Hospital – the Centre of Mental Health of East Georgia and the Academician B. Naneishvili National Centre for Mental Health: overcrowding in wards;199 the absence of private space for patients and the failure to respect their privacy; inadequate environment for patients; the failure to uphold sanitary and hygienic norms of buildings and personal hygiene of patients; the existing practice of physical and chemical restraint; lack of access to timely and adequate treatment of somatic diseases; absence of appropriate psychosocial rehabilitation and supporting services; lengthy hospitalisation neglecting patients’ will and involuntary medical intervention. In the 2015 parliamentary report, the Public Defender assessed the above as inhuman and degrading treatment of patients and the position of the Special Preventive Group remains the same in this regard. There is a problem of the presence of security personnel during conversations between a patient and a medical professional in the forensics unit of the Academician B. Naneishvili National Centre for Mental Health. The CPT is of the view that the core security in patient accommodation areas should be provided by health-care staff, using appropriate means of environmental and dynamic security. The routine presence of security staff, not just on the perimeter but actually within patient accommodation areas, is unnecessarily intimidating to patients and not conducive to the establishment of a therapeutic 195 In 2019, the budget of the programme was set at 24 million Lari. In 2018, the programme budget was 20,550 million Lari. 196 Community ambulance services, psychological rehabilitation; children’s mental health; psychiatric crisis intervention service for adults; community based mobile team service; psychiatric inpatient services for adults with mental disorders; psychiatric inpatient services for children with mental disorders; the shelter component for disabled persons with mental disorders. 197 In 2018, the budget of the shelter component was GEL 567.3 and the cost per 24 hours of a beneficiary’s stay in a shelter was GEL 17. In 2019, the budget of the shelter component is GEL 620.5 and a cost per 24 hours of a beneficiary’s stay in a shelter remains GEL 17. 198 In 2019, similar to 2018, the price of a bed-day for patients receiving long-term treatment is 23 GEL. 199 Patients are not provided with the minimum standard of eight square metres of living space as established by Order no. 385 of the Government of Georgia of 17 December 2010 on Approving the Statute on the Procedure and Terms of Licensing Medical Activities and Issuing a Permit for Inpatient Facilities, Annex 2. 75