In the province of Santo Domingo de Los Tsáchilas, the first community mental health hub in Ecuador was established. It uses a territorial approach and is based on the Italian experience of  Professor Basaglia. With the signing of an agreement with the Caritas Antoniana “Alegría de Vivir” Centre, the Ministry of Economic and Social Inclusion (MIES) has institutionalised the project “Economic and social inclusion for the well-being of persons with mental disabilities, their families and the community of the Río Verde de Santo Domingo de los Colorados parish” as a territorial service in the pilot stage. The project had been created in 2014 with the support of EUROsociAL, a cooperation programme of the European Union, as part of social protection area, coordinated by IILA and technically managed by operative partner CISP. The activities are being handled by the Caritas Centre, which receives state resources and is subject to coordination and supervision by the MIES.

Implementation of the pre-pilot stage got underway in October 2014; in the current phase the centre is now also carrying out activities related to i) mapping and communication with public and private stakeholders in the territory; ii) identification of persons with mental disabilities; iii) home visits to include in the service people identified as having mental disabilities; iv) referral of specific cases to the local health system.

With the goal of sharing knowledge focused on enabling implementation of the service, the second cycle of video-conferences for accelerated distance training is being held from 10th June to 1st July and deals with specific issues and know-how related to the pilot stage.

The first session of the four planned was inaugurated by the Under-Secretariat for Disability of the MIES and had approximately 40 participants: eight specialists from the MIES office in Quito and the project coordinator; in Santo Domingo, the operators of the Centre, the MIES specialists at the provincial level, one specialist from the Popular and Solidarity Economy Institute at the provincial level; and from the Ministry of Public Health, the psychiatrist and clinical psychologist assigned to the province; in Italy, two experts from Professor Basaglia's “Trieste School” who have supported the activity from its start. The video-conferences are being held using an interactive method that also includes tasks for the participants.