Annual Report 2012: Spain’s National Preventive Mechanism the only changes every six months are the dates, which was also brought to the attention of the Office of the Attorney General. In order to ensure full respect of the safeguards of the persons committed to a center, the medical reports submit­ ted by the latter must be thorough and updated. The effects of judicial incapacitation should be limited to the exact terms and conditions required by the residential care measure A thorough neuropsychological examination and psychological assessment should be performed Having the center and relatives make decisions without consulting residents who are not incapacitated should be avoided The admissions process must respond to patients’ functionality and possibilities of rehabilitation 136 175. About 60% of the residents in the center at the time of the inspection visit were totally judicially incapacitated. For another 10% the incapacitation proceedings were underway, and only 6 persons were only partially incapacita­ ted. In the NPM’s opinion, both the centers and the Public Prosecutor’s Office should devote great efforts to promoting a balanced use of the legal figure of in­ capacitation, carrying out a thorough assessment of the affected party’s capacities and his/her real level of functionality and capacity of judgment, volition and free choice, respecting as much as possible his/her capacities and autonomy. Likewise, in cases in which it is deemed appropriate to seek judicial incapacitation and given the possibility of establishing levels of incapacity, it would be advisable to limit its effects to the exact terms and conditions required by the residential care measure, duly justifying the reasons for and objective of requesting a ruling of incapacity; in other words, what benefits is the person with disabilities going to obtain once the judgment of incapacity is issued. 176. On the other hand, it was noted that when the center applies for incapacita­ tion, it prepares a social and medical report, but does not perform a neuropsy­ chological examination or psychopathological assessment as thorough as if they were performed by an external neurology or mental health service. This is some­ thing which should be corrected. 177. The common practice observed during the inspection visit, whereby resi­ dents who are not incapacitated are nonetheless subject, in respect to some deci­ sions, to the agreement reached between their relatives and the center, should be avoided. These agreements contain covenants regarding matters such as manage­ ment of a resident’s pocket money, outings and the activities he/she can perform, which could violate the personal freedom of citizens whose lives are already lim­ ited and for whom these aspects are very important. 178. The procedure of admissions to a residential center of this sort normally consists of keeping the person in observation for a certain period of time, during which neuropsychological tests are carried out and his/her level of autonomy and relationships established with other residents is assessed in order to determine the most suitable module for his/her rehabilitation and stay. However, at «San José» Residence, classification of the residents in the different buildings is done prior to admissions, on the basis of the reports issued by the general practitioners (whose assessments on occasions are too high in respect to disabilities, as noted), so that they arrive in preassigned buildings which may not correspond to their real needs. In order to avoid these situations, the procedure described at the be­ ginning of this paragraph should be generally adopted. In consequence, assign­ ment to buildings should be decided on the basis of functionality and the possiTHE OMBUDSMAN OF SPAIN