53 30. It is also essential that appropriate procedures be in place in order to protect certain psychiatric patients from other patients who might cause them harm. This requires inter alia an adequate staff presence at all times, including at night and weekends. Further, specific arrangements should be made for particularly vulnerable patients; for example, mentally handicapped and/or mentally disturbed adolescents should not be accommodated together with adult patients. 31. Proper managerial control of all categories of staff can also contribute significantly to the prevention of ill-treatment. Obviously, the clear message must be given that the physical or psychological ill-treatment of patients is not acceptable and will be dealt with severely. More generally, management should ensure that the therapeutic role of staff in psychiatric establishments does not come to be considered as secondary to security considerations. Similarly, rules and practices capable of generating a climate of tension between staff and patients should be revised accordingly. The imposition of fines on staff in the event of an escape by a patient is precisely the kind of measure which can have a negative effect on the ethos within a psychiatric establishment. C. Patients' living conditions and treatment 32. The CPT closely examines patients' living conditions and treatment; inadequacies in these areas can rapidly lead to situations falling within the scope of the term "inhuman and degrading treatment". The aim should be to offer material conditions which are conducive to the treatment and welfare of patients; in psychiatric terms, a positive therapeutic environment. This is of importance not only for patients but also for staff working in psychiatric establishments. Further, adequate treatment and care, both psychiatric and somatic, must be provided to patients; having regard to the principle of the equivalence of care, the medical treatment and nursing care received by persons who are placed involuntarily in a psychiatric establishment should be comparable to that enjoyed by voluntary psychiatric patients. 33. The quality of patients' living conditions and treatment inevitably depends to a considerable extent on available resources. The CPT recognises that in times of grave economic difficulties, sacrifices may have to be made, including in health establishments. However, in the light of the facts found during some visits, the Committee wishes to stress that the provision of certain basic necessities of life must always be guaranteed in institutions where the State has persons under its care and/or custody. These include adequate food, heating and clothing as well as - in health establishments - appropriate medication.

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