Violence, psychiatric patients and the role of police in the republic of slovenia

Duševno zdravje v Republiki Sloveniji od leta 2008 ureja Zakon o duševnem zdravju. Na podlagi drugega odstavka tega člena pa je ministrstvo izdalo tudi Pravilnik o načinu sodelovanja med zdravstvenim osebjem in reševalno službo ter policijo, ki velja od leta 2009. Pred tem sta to področje urejala Zakon o zdravstveni dejavnosti in Zakon o nepravdnem postopku. Duševna motnja je bolezen, ki lahko prizadene vsakega posameznika na različne načine in v kateremkoli življenjskem obdobju. Tem so skupne motnje bioloških in psiholoških funkcij, ki prizadenejo mišljenje, zaznavanje, čustvovanje, vedenje, spomin in prepoznavanje. Kadar je bolnik duševno bolan, lahko izgubi stik z realnostjo in občutek za razumevanje svojih dejanj. Zaradi vpliva duševne motnje pa lahko bolnik hkrati postane nasilen do ljudi okoli sebe kot tudi do samega sebe. Policisti se z duševnimi bolniki srečujejo tako v psihiatričnih bolnišnicah kot tudi izven nje. Lahko so v pomoč zdravstveni službi ali pa se z bolniki soočijo v okviru intervencije. Prepričanje, da so duševno motene osebe bolj nasilne, ne drži popolnoma. Povišana nasilnost, ki je največkrat usmerjena proti samemu sebi, se navadno pojavi le v obdobju poslabšanja določene bolezni. Večjo nevarnost za druge predstavljajo ljudje, ki imajo osebnostne motnje. V diplomski nalogi smo pregledali zakonodajo, ki ureja področje duševnega zdravja. Pregledali smo tudi literaturo, ki opisuje postopke načina reševanja, kadar se policist sooči z nasilnimi psihiatričnimi bolniki. Z anketnim vprašalnikom pa smo skušali ugotoviti, kako pogosto pride do soočanja policije z nasilnimi psihiatričnimi bolniki in njihovo usposobljenost za reševanje tega problema.Mental health in Republic of Slovenia is regulated by Act on mental health since 2008. Based on second paragraph of this act, the ministry issued rules on how to cooperate between medical staff, the rescue service and the police, which is valid since 2009. This field was in the past regulated by Health Care Act and Non-Complaint Law. Mental disorder is a disease that can affect every individual in various ways and in any lifetime. These are common disorders of biological and psychological functions that affect thinking, perception, emotions, behavior, memory and recognition. The patient can lose contact with reality and a sense of understanding his actions under the influence of illness. Due to the influence of the mental disorder, the patient can also become violent towards people around him as well to himself. Police officers are facing with mental patients in psychiatric hospitals as well as outside them. They can be helpful to the health service or they can confront with patients in interventions. Belief that mentally disturbed people are more violent is not completely true. Increased violence, which is usually directed against itself, usually appears only in period when the disease is more influential. People with personal disorders represent a greater danger for other people than mentally disordered patients. In this thesis we reviewed the legislation regulating the field of mental health. We also reviewed literature that describes procedures for solving the problem, when police officers face violent psychiatric patients. With the questionnaire, we tried to find out how often the police are confronted with violent psychiatric patients and the ability of the police to solve this problem