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body of evidence in the instant case. In doing so, the Court will follow the rules of
reasonable credit and weight analysis, within the applicable legal framework.
A) DOCUMENTARY EVIDENCE
46.
The representatives submitted witness statements, the State submitted four
witness statements and the Commission filed an expert report, all through affidavits,
except for the expert witness proposed by the Commission whose report was
rendered before notary public as commanded by the President under Order of
September 22, 2005 (supra para. 24). Said statements and expert reports are
summarized as follows:
1.
Statement by witness proposed by the representatives:
a)
Milton Freire-Pereira, former psychiatric patient
During ten years Milton was a psychiatric inpatient; at present, he is the director of
the Instituto Franco Baságlia and a member of the “Movimento Antimanicomial” [AntiMental Hospitalization Movement]. He still has strong memories of the hospital
rooms were he was admitted for treatment and the electroshock he received while in
there. His rehabilitation took place outside hospitals.
Milton was really upset when he learned of the demeaning and humiliating death of
Mr. Damião Ximenes-Lopes. His death was surrounded by disgraceful rumors
regarding to people with mental illness. There is a general belief that no treatment to
cure mental disability exists. Such belief is rooted in segregation, closure, violence
and lack of social relationships to which such people are subject.
Mental health care in the State changed radically with the implementation of services
substituting for the psychiatric hospital model. In the current model, there is
multidisciplinary participation of professionals such as psychologists, social workers
and occupational therapists. Yet, the hospital-centered asylum model still prevails.
This model continues to kill, enslave and isolate forever those people who need
mental health care by denying the possibility of rehabilitating and participating in
their own treatment.
2.
Statements by witnesses proposed by the State:
a)
José Jackson Coelho-Sampaio, psychiatrist
From 1962 to 1991, psychiatric care in Brazil was provided through the admission of
patients in private hospitals, a method instated during the Brazilian military
dictatorship. There were six private hospitals in the state of Ceará, all of them
associated with the public administration, including Casa de Reposo Guararapes, in
Sobral. There was a psychiatric reform movement that resulted in the creation of the
Psychosocial Care Center (hereinafter, “Psychosocial Care Center”, or “CAPS”,
for its acronym in Spanish) in the city of Iguatu and the enactment of Law “Mario
Mamede.” Between 1991 and 1998, several Psychosocial Care Centers were created
and, between 1999 and 2000, this assistance model was enhanced. Between 2001