A scalable model for mental healthcare in Santiago
On a weekday morning in Renca, a working-class municipality in northern Santiago, Chile, high school students arrive at school carrying more than a backpack. They carry anxiety. Sleepless nights. The quiet weight of a pandemic that reshaped adolescence across the globe.
These mental health challenges do not discriminate by age. Across Santiago, people are struggling. In the neighboring municipality of Providencia, older adults are carrying something just as heavy: loneliness, depression, and the lasting effects of prolonged isolation.
In both municipalities, mental health needs have been rising. Until recently, there were few places for people to turn for timely mental health support. Long waiting lists and limited specialist capacity has meant help often comes too late—if it comes at all.
Healthy Santiago, a city-level mental health initiative that brings together cross-sector leaders, is changing that, beginning with a focus on two particularly vulnerable populations: youth and older adults. The governments of Renca and Providencia, private sector leader ACHS (a Chilean workplace insurance and health provider), CETA Global (an implementor of evidence-based mental health interventions), and the McKinsey Health Institute (MHI) are working together to advance mental health through a sustainably financed model.
Discover how a new approach, task sharing, is expanding access to evidence-based mental healthcare.
Scaling mental health where life happens: Helping Santiago thrive across the lifespan
Across the Chilean capital, a quiet mental health crisis is unfolding—from anxious teens to isolated seniors. Healthy Santiago is reshaping care by bringing it into everyday spaces through trusted community members—restoring connection, dignity, and hope while proving that compassionate, scalable solutions can transform lives and strengthen communities.
