PARTICIPATION IN THE FIRST MEETING OF THE NETWORK OF NATIONAL PREVENTIVE MECHANISMS OF SOUTHEAST EUROPE

24-25.05.2023, THESSALONIKI, GREECE

Representative of the Ombudsman-National Preventive Mechanism (NPM), MA Slavica Dimitrievska - State Counselor, participated in the first meeting for 2023 of the Network of National Preventive Mechanisms of Southeast Europe, organized by the Greek NPM as the chair of the Network for this year.

The first meeting's topic was "Monitoring the situation in mental health departments in penitentiary institutions." It thoroughly discussed the manner in which persons deprived of liberty who have been sentenced to a security measure or persons deprived of liberty whose mental health has been impaired while serving their sentence are treated.

Representatives of the National Preventive Mechanisms from Albania, Austria, Bulgaria, Croatia, Greece, Hungary, Kosovo, Serbia, Montenegro, and Slovenia attended the meeting. During the meeting and discussions, representatives from each NPM had the opportunity to share their experiences in monitoring the situation in the institutions where this security measure is carried out, the treatment and conditions in which persons deprived of their liberty with impaired mental health or a state of incomprehensibility are accommodated, and the challenges faced by NPM teams when carrying out this type of visit.

The meeting resulted in conclusions aimed at improving the situation, which are to some extent common to all countries, namely:

- Mental health disorders are increasingly prevalent among the prison population,
- Regardless of how such institutions are organized, whether in prisons themselves or as forensic departments within psychiatric hospitals, steps should be taken to ensure the simultaneous combination of punishment with individualized psychiatric care,
- Prison mental health departments or forensic departments should be adequately equipped with material and therapeutic resources,
- Clear boundaries between health workers and prison staff should be guaranteed,
- Such institutions should be adequately equipped with staff from all necessary profiles (health workers, psychologists, psychiatrists, social workers, etc.),
- Persons placed in these departments should be adequately informed and consent to the therapy they receive, documentation about them should be kept appropriately, with particular care regarding the confidentiality of the data,
- Permanent and regular supervision by an external body is required, which will exercise control and supervision over the overall process,
- Prison authorities should be aware that inadequately provided mental health care for persons deprived of their liberty constitutes inhuman or degrading treatment.