Report of the Human Rights Defender on the activities of the National Preventive Mechanism in Poland in 2012 sion of a night shelter for the homeless, first aid in emergency situations and preventive consultative, informative and educational activities. The Centre also carries out activities in the area of prevention of alcoholism and early therapeutic intervention. The statute of the Centre in Chorzów stipulates that its main tasks include running a  sobering-up station and, inter alia, providing addiction consultancy, addiction therapy, preventive health care and training and educational activities, as well as promoting sobriety. In Suwałki the sobering-up station operates a  Hotline for Persons with an Alcohol or Drugs Problem, or Involved in Domestic Violence (800 137 200). The hotline operates from 1:00 p.m. until 6:00 p.m., Monday through Friday. The number may be reached toll free via the landline as well as any mobile network. 6.4 Areas requiring improvement 1. Treatment During the visits to sobering-up stations, the representatives of the NPM each time analyse whether the practice in the given station is to require the admitted persons to undress or not. In the majority of visited stations, the intoxicated persons cannot remain in their own clothes.149 The fact that they take off their clothes themselves and voluntarily is of secondary importance with regard to the fact that the majority of stations do not allow those persons to remain in their own clothes. The representatives of the NPM also recorded a case of an intoxicated person being forcibly undressed from his clothes.150 It should be noted that in some sobering-up stations the patients did not receive any substitute clothes151 or substitute footwear152. In one of the visited stations, the persons admitted had to take off only their trousers153 while in others all of their clothes. The most extreme case encountered by the employees of the NPM was the requirement to deposit also the underwear.154 This latter practice was considered to be degrading treatment of persons deprived of liberty. 149 Sobering-up Station in Zamość, Sobering-up Station in Białystok, Sobering-up Station in Toruń, Sobering-up Station in Włocławek, Sobering-up Station in Piła, Sobering-up Station in Konin, Sobering-up Station in Chorzów, Sobering-up Station in Warsaw, Sobering-up Station in Opole. 150 Sobering-up Station in Chorzów. 151 Sobering-up Station in Konin, Sobering-up Station in Zamość, Sobering-up Station in Białystok, Sobering-up Station in Włocławek. 152 Sobering-up Station in Chorzów, Sobering-up Station in Konin, Sobering-up Station in Warsaw. 153 Sobering-up Station in Opole. 154 Sobering-up Station in Chorzów. 72