During the 2024–2025 biennium, PAHO played a key role in strengthening the normative and institutional environment for mental health in Ecuador, promoting a community based model grounded in primary health care (PHC), a human rights approach, and the life course perspective.

Technical cooperation supported the Ministry of Public Health in the design and enactment of a mental health law and accompanying regulations, establishing a foundational legal framework for comprehensive care (2024) and the protection of rights. PAHO also promoted intersectoral articulation that led to a national pact for mental health (2025), positioning mental health as a public policy priority and fostering commitments related to governance, protective environments, stigma reduction, and knowledge generation.

In the same vein, technical support was provided for the development of the newly published National Mental Health Policy, throughout its formulation and the design of its implementation plan, to ensure alignment with the international agreements on mental health and human rights to which Ecuador is a signatory. A central contribution was the intercultural adaptation and validation of the Mental Health Gap Action PRogramme (mhGAP) for the peoples and nationalities of Ecuador, integrating ancestral knowledge and strengthening the resolutive capacity of the first level of care. Complementarily, capacities were enhanced through training processes and community based awareness raising actions were promoted.

These advances strengthen the institutional and community foundations needed to expand access to quality mental health services, improve continuity of care, and move toward better outcomes in well being and social cohesion. 

Photo caption: “Where Is My Head?” festival, the first mental health festival in Ecuador, held in the city of Ibarra
Credit: PAHO - Roberto Peñafiel