Report of the Human Rights Defender on the activities of the National Preventive Mechanism in Poland in 2012 ple, simple cooking supervised by the carer, the use of kitchen appliances in practice, learning how to move around the city and extending the circle of acquaintances in one’s social environment. The third advanced stage (also carried out in a study) is to establish the acquired skills and teach and practice the running of a household on one’s own, the rules of co-existence among neighbours and local community, moving around the city on one’s own and participation in handling official matters and formalities. – The Social Care Centre in Chorzów also established bilateral cooperation with a corresponding German centre, consisting in organisation of severalday long exchanges of groups of residence and the traineeships of the employees of one centre in another. The said exchanges have been organised since 2007. In 2011, the German partner submitted a proposition to the City Office in Chorzów to jointly implement the EU’s “Inclusion” programme for 2012-2014 with the Social Care Centre “Republika”. The programme, which covers three modules divided between the programme partners from Germany, Poland and Hungary, namely, living in the community, education and work of the disabled, is currently being implemented. – The residents of the Social Care Centre No 1 in Grudziądz may keep pets which do not pose any threat to or inconvenience for other residents. The residents of the Social Care Centre Pogodna Jesień in Łódź take care of a parrot and an aquarium with fish in the living room. – In some of the visited centres, the practice is to enable the persons to be admitted to the centre or their guardians to visit the centre earlier, read the regulations and learn the rules in place in the given centre (Social Care Centre in Chorzów, Social Care Centre No 1 in Grudziądz, Social Care Centre in Olkusz) or a social worker visits the future resident of the centre in his/her place of living or treatment in order to collect information about his/her health, fitness, interests, etc. (Social Care Centre in Choroszcz, Social Care Centre in Racibórz). – The Social Care Centre in Wieleń upon Noteć provides round the clock health care for its residents. – The management of the Social Care Centre in Pleszew undertook to establish a special unit for persons with the drinking problem within a ward for chronically mentally ill patients. The patients will stay for up to 6 months in the unit. The personnel were trained by the specialists from the State Agency for the Prevention of Alcohol-Related Problems (PARPA) in Warsaw. The therapy in the unit will include individual talks, with the focus being on resources and skills instead of problems and additional classes being of- 82