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registers drawn up within the Home for Elderly People Mărășești, Vrancea county; the
registers regarding the application of the measures of restriction of the freedom of movement
- the Psychiatric Hospital for Safety Measures Grajduri, Iași County; the register of special
events in the Medical-Social Assistance Unit "Dr. Elena Popovici” Flămânzi, Botoșani
county. The identification, recording and reporting of traumatic marks is an important
guarantee against ill-treatment in places of detention.
We mention some of the deficiencies encountered by the NPM, depending on the place
of detention visited:
- psychiatric hospitals: ● the existence of the surveillance / safety rooms in which were
accommodated also patients voluntarily admitted, spaces that were closed and in which the
right to privacy of patients was not respected (the rooms presented in principle the
characteristics of the isolation rooms, but did not fulfill the specific conditions for the
arrangement of the protected enclosure) in the Voila Psychiatric Hospital; ● non-observance
of the legal provisions in the case of the involuntary admission procedure (also at the Voila
Psychiatric Hospital, at our recommendation, the hospital management acted promptly); ●
applying the measure of containment and isolation without observing the law in the matter
(repeated containment in the case of the same patient; containment applied in wards, in the
presence of other patients; isolation applied for the purpose of punishment); ● the patients
were not informed about their rights, nor about the complaints procedure; ● there was no
informed consent for the hospitalization signed by the patient, although the hospitalization
was considered voluntary; ● overcrowding (in Voila Psychiatric Hospital, in the intermediate
rooms there were even 7 beds, some of the beds were so close to each other that they were
touching the bed next to them; in the Psychiatric Hospital for Safety Measures Grajduri, the
hospital capacity was 240 beds and 384 patients were admitted, not being insured an area of
7m2 and 20m3 of air, according to the legal provisions); ● most of the rooms were not
personalized, even if according to the Norms of the European Committee for the Prevention
of Torture, special attention must be paid to decorating both the rooms and the recreation
spaces in order to visually stimulate the patients;
Considering the adoption, by the Plenary of the Parliamentary Assembly of the Council
of Europe, on June 26, 2019 of the Resolution and Recommendation on the elimination of
coercive measures in mental health, it was recommended to the Ministry of Health to develop
a strategy, at the level of the Ministry of Health, for phasing out the application of measures
of constraint in the field of mental health and addressing this problem in the sense of respecting
human rights, as well as training the personnel involved in the use of therapeutic interventions
which don’t restrict the freedom of movement, including techniques of de-escalation.
- residential centers for children: ● the children were not informed about their rights in
the center (for example, in the "St. Marcellin Champagnat" Placement Center, Sector 6
Bucharest the Charter of the Beneficiary was drawn up, but, in the file of each beneficiary,
there was no document to prove that the beneficiaries have been informed about their rights;
the representatives of the center claimed that the information was made verbally, but the
visiting team found that the beneficiaries confused the rights with the obligations, which
proves that, if it was done, it was a poor information, not adapted to the level of understanding
of the children); ● lack of procedures for making, recording and solving complaints; ● lack of
box for notifications / complaints, situation found at the “Sf. Marcellin Champagnat”; in the
Center for emergency reception and evaluation of children - Community Services Complex
no. 3 Buzau there was a box, but it was located at a height of 1.70 m., Being inaccessible to
children of small stature; ● the poor supervision of the beneficiaries (in the family placement
center for children Beclean, Bistrița-Năsăud county, the educators ensured 24h shifts only
PEOPLE’S ADVOCATE
ANNUAL REPORT 2019
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