On December 23 we celebrate the 50th anniversary of the presence of Hospitaller Sisters in Ecuador. The Sacred Heart Psychiatric Institute (IPSC) celebrates five decades of medical care in the Ecuadorian community.

To celebrate these 50 years of foundation, we must evoke the year 1967, when Las Hermanas Hospitalarias arrived in Ecuador. The Superior General of that time -Sor María Irene Sánchez- in one of her trips to Bolivia made a stopover in Quito. The Sisters of Pasto went to receive her and with them the situation of Psychiatry in Ecuador was analyzed.

Thanks to the efforts of the Sisters of Pasto and the advice of the Capuchin Fathers of Ibarra, the foundation of a rest sanatorium in the Ecuadorian capital for the mentally ill was facilitated. This is how the Nuestra Señora de Guadalupe Clinic emerged, inaugurated on June 24, 1967.

In 1970, after learning about the dire state of people with mental illness at the San Lázaro hospital, Cardinal Pablo Muñoz Vega thought of giving better use to the San Luis Seminary site located in the Parcayacu area, on the outskirts of Quito. back then.

After consulting with the Council of the Curia, they decided to donate that land and readjust it to house a noble psychiatric institution, under the condition that the Hospitaller Sisters administer it, due to the experience obtained in various health centers around the world.

On December 23, 1971, the first 50 patients arrived at the Sacred Heart Psychiatric Institute from the central San Lázaro hospital, following a decree signed by President José María Velasco Ibarra. The next day another 50 people were transferred. On March 1, 1972, 57 more arrived, the last by presidential decree.

The task was not easy, since the first patients arrived in subhuman conditions, because they had been completely abandoned for years. They were not used to using the toilets, they were unaware of the use of utensils to serve their food and they did not even know how to use a bed or take a shower.

María Luisa Marcillo Almeida, legal representative of the Hermanas Hospitalarias congregation in Ecuador for 42 years, recalls that those who arrived from San Lázaro used to eat on the ground in bowls and were characterized by being very aggressive. “The patience and charisma of the Sisters was fundamental, since those patients were used to being treated like animals, they did not know how to sit in a chair or lie on a bed,” she recalls.

As the years passed, the IPSC became a benchmark for Mental Health treatments in Ecuador. When the first 25 years of institutional work were completed, a total of 3,560 patients attended were counted, 1,508 men and 2,061 women.

In 2021, on the other hand, only in Outpatient Consultation 13,103 cases were attended, with Psychiatry, Psychology and Family Therapy being the specialties in greatest demand; while in hospitalization, the occupancy percentage index is around 90% and in times of pandemic.

It should be noted that in the last two decades, the Institute has implemented new areas of care such as CITABM in March 2005, Palliative Care in 2011, the Infant-Juvenile Unit in 2015, or the Clinical Laboratory in 2021. It is also projected , the increase in beds in the Infant-Juvenile Unit and diversify the care for Outpatient Consultation, Physical Therapy, Respiratory Therapy and Occupational Therapy.

Reference center in Ecuador

Currently, the Institute’s work benefits 174 families, by generating sources of employment for 127 people in direct care work, and 47 people who work in non-care work. Three Sisters Hospitallers stand out in the IPSC organization today: Sister Teresa, Sister Geovanna and Sister María Jesús.

The various agreements made with Universities and Institutes have contributed to the academic training of undergraduate and graduate students. The realization of different academic events such as congresses and scientific conferences, have further strengthened this claim to contribute to society with better trained professionals.

The Sacred Heart Psychiatric Institute has also become the contemporary support link between patients and their families, since the diagnoses and treatments issued have a direct relationship with the social environment and its complex reintegration.

Every action carried out by the IPSC to communicate its actions on social networks has an approach so that society does not marginalize those who suffer from a mental disorder, but rather understand and support them in their rehabilitation and social reintegration process.

Currently, mental health problems cause 40% of chronic pathologies and 30% of disability in many countries, data that undoubtedly show the great impact that these diseases have both from a care and human point of view.