1.1 Visits to social care institutions (residential homes for the elderly) Provision of information Nursing homes provide future residents with written or verbal information about life in a nursing home and a secure ward already prior to the admission, while upon the admission, they are presented with additional information material, which usually consists of the house rules, price list of services, information about complaint and appeal procedures, a brochure containing information about dementia and similar. Because some homes do not have special brochures intended for the presentation of secure wards, the information obtained by residents may be somewhat inadequate. In inspecting the information material available, the NPM mostly missed a list of the representatives of rights in the field of mental health, together with their contact information, and/or the list of rights of a person accommodated in a secure ward according to ZDZdr. The supplementation of information material with names of representatives and their contact information, as stipulated by Article 16 of ZDZdr, was proposed by the NPM in relation to Trebnje HE, Bor HE, Danijel Halas Home, Olmo Home and Hmelina Home. The NPM also proposed that the latter three homes supplement the information material for residents admitted to the SW with the list of rights afforded to persons in the SW under ZDZdr. Moreover, it has been established that the information material of some nursing homes is not adapted so as to cover admissions to SWs. Therefore, the NPM proposed that this deficiency be eliminated. Specifically, the House Rules (or the House Rules brochure) do not indicate specific rules which apply to the secure ward (for example, in terms of departures from the ward). Most nursing homes agreed with the NPM’s recommendations. The exception was Ptuj RH which did not have a special brochure on HLSW and to this end explained that it had decided not to publish it because of a negative response by some future residents and their relatives. Therefore, the personnel present, describe and show these persons around the ward personally. Although the NPM welcomes this practice, it nevertheless considers that it would be useful if in addition to a (personal) presentation of the ward, both the residents and their relatives would also receive a brochure which they could later on examine again, either at home or after the admission. In this way, they could acquaint themselves with certain specific features of this ward and the rights of its residents that during the presentation by the staff, they might have not heard properly or have forgotten them. On notice boards in dementia wards of individual nursing homes, their residents have at their disposal various information which usually consist of the house rules, price list of regular and extra services, menus, timetable of daily activities, programme of events, explanation about complaint procedures and similar. The Mental Health Act stipulates that nursing homes are obliged to display a clearly visible list of rights afforded to a person under this act, and the house rules. The list must also include the official addresses of the representatives responsible for the area, in which the nursing institution is located. During its visit to Škofja Loka Centre, the NPM to this end proposed that the information displayed on the notice board in the HLSW be as soon as possible supplemented and/ or updated by adding the list of rights of the residents, the list of complaint procedures and the list of the representatives of the rights of persons with mental health conditions. In its response report, Škofja Loka Centre assured that it would undertake to do this. The display of the list of representatives, including their contact information, on the notice board was also proposed by the NPM during its visit to Danijel Halas Home. Moreover, it was proposed that the nursing home move the list of the rights of residents and the house rules to a more appropriate place. In its response report the nursing home stated that it had displayed the list of representatives, including their contact information. IMPLEMENTATION OF THE DUTIES AND POWERS OF THE NPM IN 2013 NATIONAL PREVENTIVE MECHANISM UNDER THE OPTIONAL PROTOCOL TO THE UN CONVENTION AGAINST TORTURE AND OTHER CRUEL, INHUMAN OR DEGRADING TREATMENT OR PUNISHMENT 33