9. Other activities to prevent ill-treatment Lively international co-operation We have already worked as a national preventive mechanism for 12 years. We are happy to share our experience, but also need new inspiration. This is why we again, in 2017, took part in several meetings with our foreign colleagues – both bilateral and within the South-European Network of NPM and the new European project of meetings of NPM. We ourselves co-organised an international meeting held in Prague. Comment procedures We presented comments on governmental draft amendments to the Imprisonment Act and the Remand Act, the Social Services Act, decrees defining the material and personnel standard for sobering-up stations, and a methodical material on detention in social services. Disseminating the standard of prevention of ill-treatment Within regular teaching, our own training activities and participation in conferences, we ―― trained some 90 workers in social services – the topic is prevention of ill-treatment of people dependent on nursing care and findings from our visits to facilities for elderly citizens; ―― trained officers of regional authorities as to how they can contribute in inspection of psychiatric hospitals to the prevention of ill-treatment, especially as regards involuntary treatment and means of restraint; ―― provided a lecture for a hundred senior citizens – participants in the Senior Academy of the Brno Municipal Police – as to how they should defend themselves against ill-treatment; ―― provided a lecture to students of law and international relations, public guardians, workers in geriatrics and social services on the results of systematic visits. We regularly contribute to professional journals Social Services and Czech Prisons and occasionally also to the journal Social Work Magazine and the Florence journal intended for paramedics. 31