Barbacena Hospital, symbol of the "Brazilian Holocaust", is closed

The Hospital Colônia de Barbacena, symbol of the "Brazilian Holocaust", had its activities closed. The deinstitutionalization of the last patients was made official in a ceremony this Monday (25).

The unit was the first public psychiatric hospital in Minas Gerais. According to Barbacena City Hall, the closure represents the end of "a painful chapter in mental health in Brazil and opening the way for a new era based on human dignity, freedom and humanized care".

Opened in 1903 as the Barbacena Sanatorium, the place was initially aimed at treating tuberculosis. In 1911 it began to function as a psychiatric hospital and became a symbol of an asylum model marked by overcrowding, abandonment and rights violations.

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With the transfer of the last 14 patients remaining in the hospital to a therapeutic home in the municipality of Barbacena, the Psychiatric Hospital Center will continue to be a reference for acute crises and outpatient care, within the criteria of the Psychosocial Care Network (RAPS), recommended by the Unified Health System (SUS).

The closing was attended by the Secretary of State for Health Fábio Baccheretti, the mayor of Barbacena, Carlos Augusto Soares do Nascimento, the president of the Hospital Foundation of the State of Mias Gerais (Fhemig), Renata Dias, former patients, and several authorities from the region and the State, as well as guests.

During the event, the door to the Antônio Carlos Pavilion was symbolically closed with a padlock.

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"This is the final point of a story built by several characters. It's been 25 years since the Psychiatric Reform Law and, until we got here, it was a lot of struggle. Many people present here were with us on this path. The story of thousands of people who were thrown and died in the wards ends today, with the departure of the last 14 patients. It is perhaps the most emotional moment in the years that I have been in charge of the Secretariat, a legacy that I am proud of with you", recalled the Secretary of State for Health, Fábio Baccheretti.

The ceremony also brought together managers, health professionals, those receiving care, family members and community members, many of whom actively participated in the process of transforming and rebuilding mental health policy in the municipality.

Currently, Barbacena has Therapeutic Residence Services (SRT), which welcome more than 160 residents. Inserted in the community, these residences are spaces for rebuilding bonds, autonomy and citizenship for people who have lived long periods of hospitalization and lost family life.

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Hospitalizations
According to the Government of Minas Gerais, residents lived, on average, 49 years hospitalized. The current average age is 73 years old, and three of them arrived at the institution before turning 15.

Many were interned at a time when situations of family abandonment, prejudice, mild psychological distress or behaviors considered inappropriate by society could lead a person to confinement.

Some of these stories remain without complete recording, but the known numbers reveal the scale of the tragedy. Between 1942 and 2020, 40 thousand people passed through the institution, around 24 thousand died and, at one point, the place had 3,500 patients simultaneously.

"When I was a student, I visited here and it defined my career, with the mission of defending the anti-asylum struggle. For these people to have a dignified end to their lives, it is our duty to defend them, to repair this past", stated the president of the State Health Council, Lourdes Machado.

Brazilian Holocaust
The acts carried out for decades at Hospital Colônia have already been portrayed in several works, mainly in the book-report "Brazilian Holocaust", by author Daniela Arbex.

In the book, she uncovers the horrors and human rights violations committed in the Barbacena Colony.

The pages recall the practices in the former asylum that victimized more than 60 thousand people, forcibly hospitalized, often without a diagnosis of mental illness.

Interviews with former employees and survivors reveal the history of the place, which tortured thousands of people with the consent of the State, between 1960 and 1980. The work is considered a landmark in investigative journalism and exposes in an overwhelming way the reality of mental health treatment in Brazil before the psychiatric reform and the predominant asylum mentality of the time.

The 2016 HBO documentary "Brazilian Holocaust" also reports on the inhumane conditions to which patients at the largest hospice in Brazil were subjected. The production is an adaptation of the book of the same name by journalist Daniela Arbex, released by publisher Intrínseca in 2013.

Source: CNN