Secure unit and risk management practices in a long-term mental health institution in Slovenia

Škraban, Juš (author)

The article addresses risk management in an institution in Slovenia that provides long-term residential care in the field of mental health. It briefly describes the country-specific context of institutional care, especially in secure units, as places where coercive measures are permitted. The article includes an analysis of an action research project embedded in the process of deinstitutionalisation. Firstly, it demonstrates that three types of placement act as the primary risk management strategy in the institution. Secondly, it shows that neither the general risk management strategies nor the risk assessment method used are centred on the individual, but rather serve to ensure the safety of the unit. The article suggests that the secure unit and its practices are repressive and violate human rights. The transformation of secure units must be a primary goal of deinstitutionalisation.

• Language: English
• Keywords: human rights, mental health, risk management, deinstitutionalisation, secure units, social work, Slovenia
• Work type: Article
• Typology: 1.01 - Original Scientific Article
• Organization: FSD - Faculty of Social Work
• Publication status: Published
• Publication version: Version of Record
• Year: 2024
• Number of pages: Str. 9-28
• Numbering: N. 42
• PID: 20.500.12556/RUL-181397
• UDC: 364-786.2(497.4)
• ISSN on article: 1647-0737
• DOI: 10.4000/13x59
• COBISS.SI-ID: 236259587
• Publication date in RUL: 03.04.2026

Record is a part of a journal

• Title: E-cadernos CES
• Publisher: Centro de Estudos Sociais
• ISSN: 1647-0737
• COBISS.SI-ID: 522044953

Licences

• License: CC BY 4.0, Creative Commons Attribution 4.0 International
• Link: http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/4.0/
• Description: This is the standard Creative Commons license that gives others maximum freedom to do what they want with the work as long as they credit the author.

Secondary language

• Language: Portuguese
• Title: Unidade de segurança e práticas de gestão de risco numa instituição de cuidados continuados de saúde mental na Eslovénia
• Keywords: človekove pravice, duševno zdravje, varovane enote, ocena tveganja, deinstitucionalizacija, socialno delo, Slovenija