33 diseases. If a male member of the family is lost, there is anguish regarding subsistence and the surviving member is overburdened with responsibility as head of the family. The young or adolescent son will have to undertake adult responsibilities for which he is not yet prepared. It the survivor is a woman, the situation is even more difficult because she also has to become a father. The surviving siblings must tolerate the ambivalence caused by the grief or guilt together with anger due to truncation of their projects regarding studies, couple relationships, etc. There may be patterns of psychological alteration, although the individual characteristics of each family must be taken into account. Death of a child is the worst loss that people may suffer. Psychological problems tend to become chronic. Often the lack of tolerance of this fact generates suicidal behavior of one of the parents. For the mother, the situation is more difficult because of the symbiotic bond she had with the child during his or her early years. Without psychological assistance, it is impossible to repair the psychological damage, because only psychotherapy allows those affected to remember and integrate the traumatic events in their life, enabling them to develop a new life project. Very often it is necessary for there to be a psychiatric complement, such as anti-depressant medication. Individual treatment alternating with family sessions is the recommended treatment; the number of sessions required will vary depending on the circumstances of each family. Approximate cost of treatment is US$ 50.00 (fifty United States dollars) per individual session, and US$ 65 to US$ 70 (sixty-five to seventy United States dollars) per family therapy session. Thus, the cost of treatment for an individual (reinforced by family sessions) is US$ 3,200.00 (three thousand two hundred United States dollars) per year. The proceedings before the Inter-American Court play a key role in reparation, as this is the only way to obtain justice. By attaining an indispensable social reparation, the individuals affected can also attain psychological reparation and regain trust in human and social values. The symbolic value of having rendered testimony in the proceedings before the Inter-American Court is crucial for restoration of psyche having suffered so much damage as those of the individuals affected, especially because they have made their statement in the public sphere, as this allows channeling and socialized processing of the existing hostility. It allows them to make publicly evident the arbitrarity, the horror and the suffering, and to express what they have kept private for so many years. 3. Jesús María Casal, attorney at law.11 Violation of Article 8 of the American Convention by the State originated in the enormous difficulty the victims faced for their complaints and legitimate petitions regarding abridgements of human rights to be addressed by the courts. Access to justice was limited, first, by suspension of guarantees in connection with the events of February 27 and 28, 1989, as it was erroneously interpreted by police and military officials as a temporary 11 A Venezuelan attorney and professor of Law, specializing in human rights.