11 health program. This assistance model was awarded several national prizes for its successful experience in mental health care. In 1998, the General Psychosocial Care Center started functioning with limited capacity until the closure of Casa de Reposo Guararapes, when the Center ’s responsibility and assistance duties increased. A psychiatry macro-regional ambulatory unit was also created in order to provide ambulatory care to individuals living in other municipalities and to avoid their having to be admitted. Furthermore, the first residential therapeutic public assistance center in northeastern Brazil, called “Residencia Terapéutica Lar Renacer,” was also created. Avoidance of psychiatric admission is not always possible. For high-risk cases, an infirmary was built; for the rest of the cases, beds were reserved in the infirmary of an ordinary clinic. The results obtained have been positive, especially those regarding the reduction of the number of days which the patient stays in hospital and the average cost of treatment. Patients’ next of kin are invited to accompany inpatients in order to preserve the relationship with them during treatment, which should be as brief as possible. Sobral network is in several aspects unique and exemplary, and offers a technical, high-quality service for its residents and neighboring towns. Ximenes-Lopes´ death led to the reformulation of the mental health care policy in Sobral and to an adequate response to the unsustainable operation conditions of Casa de Reposo Guararapes. d) Braz Geraldo Peixoto, next of kin of a mental health care system patient, chosen as representative before the Psychiatric Reform National Commission of the Health Ministry and the State Commission of the Department of Health of the State of São Paulo The facts of Damião Ximenes-Lopes’s case were the result of the former and obsolete psychiatric treatment model, which has shrunk significantly due to the new mental health care policy whose implementation began in the ’70s. However, it was not until the 2nd National Conference on Mental Health held in 1992, which had the massive participation of patients, patients’ next of kin and health professionals, that a reorientation was implemented in the assistance model as part of the State psychiatric reform. In this context, new concepts were developed using workforce trained in the assistance model reorientation approach and qualified to act in the field with that purpose. Likewise, mental health system patients and patients ’ next of kin are now playing a critical role in determining the mental health policy. Through the approval of Law N° 10,216 in 2001, great progress was achieved, even though such law has not reached all the objectives pursued by mental health system patients and patients’ next of kin. In the Brazilian Conference on Psychosocial Care Centers (CAPS), held in June 2004, with the participation of mental health system patients, patients’ next of kin and workers, several aspects of the applicable laws were thoroughly analyzed. The efforts made by the Ministry of Health regarding to the mental health care reform are praiseworthy.