Mission · Vision · Values
Since 1881, the Hospitaller charism inspires our commitment to dignify, care for, and accompany people in vulnerability — with a special preference for those who suffer mental health conditions, poverty, disability, or social exclusion.
Our mission is to offer integral assistance —healthcare, social, educational, and vocational— to people in vulnerable situations, especially in the fields of mental health, acquired brain injury, intellectual disability, psychogeriatrics, palliative care, and general hospitalisation.
Through our mission we seek a more just and inclusive society, promoting practices that improve quality of life and foster social transformation.
Research and innovation applied to care guide our work: we integrate the latest advances to focus on what matters most — humane, excellent care.
Our History, Foundation of Our Values
We cannot speak about our identity without referring to our origins. The Congregation of Sisters Hospitallers of the Sacred Heart of Jesus was founded in 1881 by Saint Benedict Menni together with María Josefa Recio and María Angustias Giménez.
From the beginning, our purpose has been to care for those who were most excluded from assistance. Over time, our mission expanded to serve people with mental health conditions, children and adults with brain injury, people with intellectual disability, older adults, patients with neurological disorders, those in need of palliative care, and people with other illnesses.
After more than 140 years, we continue our work with dedication and pride, faithful to the values and culture that define us.
Our Mission and Vision
Mission
To embody Hospitality by providing person-centred, professional, and compassionate care to people with mental health conditions, disability, or other vulnerabilities — with a clear preference for the poorest and most excluded.
Vision
A world where people who are ill, elderly, or vulnerable are never marginalised, but recognised and served with respect, dignity, and love — inspired by the spirit of Hospitality.
Our Values
Sensitivity for the Excluded
Care and understanding for people facing disability, poverty, social exclusion, or mental health challenges.
Service to the Sick and Needy
The person is at the heart of every service and action we provide.
Professional Quality
Excellence through trained teams, scientific advances, and responsible management.
Humanity in Care
We place the person —not the pathology— at the centre, with respectful, compassionate relationships.
Liberating Welcome
Warm, empowering reception that helps people rebuild their life projects and integrate into society.
Holistic Health
We care for the whole person — body, mind, social bonds, and spirit — healing and caring together.
Ethical Intervention
We follow bioethical criteria and the principles of Hospitality in every decision and action.
Historical Awareness
We honour our Hospitaller heritage to serve the present and build the future.
Learn more about our values
1. Sensitivity for the Excluded
Hospitality awakens empathy toward those who suffer, especially people living in poverty, exclusion, or social vulnerability. We raise social awareness and call institutions to their responsibility in building a fairer society.
We defend the rights of the people we accompany and strive to offer excellent, needs-based care. We assess each person holistically — their sociocultural context, specific needs, and those of their families.
2. Service to the Sick and Needy
Our sensitivity becomes concrete through the services we provide in our centres and care devices. The person is the heart of everything we do: every action is designed to respond respectfully and appropriately to their needs.
This vocation of service is the origin and soul of our Hospitaller work — a living tradition that drives us into the future with the same commitment. We welcome each person as part of the human family and of our Hospitaller community, always recognising their dignity.
3. Professional Quality
Quality means adapting our centres to people’s needs, times, and contexts; incorporating scientific advances; and ensuring continuous theoretical and practical training for our teams.
We invest in our professionals to renew and strengthen our projects and mission. Service quality is guaranteed by responsible management, ongoing formation in all dimensions of Hospitality, personal accountability, and efficient use of resources.
4. Humanity in Care
Technical excellence is not enough; humaneness is essential. We work for the humanisation of all our services, placing the person —never a means, always an end— at the centre. Care is a genuine human encounter, not a mere function.
We deeply respect each person’s dignity, rights, culture, values, beliefs, and faith. With humane language and treatment, we offer personalised care and clear, close information. Non-verbal expression —face, gaze, gestures— often becomes the first and last language of Hospitality. We prioritise active listening.
5. Liberating Welcome
There is no Hospitality without welcome. It is the first gesture of care and springs from the will to receive another’s story. Our welcome aims to accompany each person in rehabilitation so that they can rebuild their life project and reintegrate into family, social, and work environments.
Welcome shapes all relationships: with those we serve, their families, and within the Hospitaller Community — where the Sisters aspire to be a living testimony of this attitude. Many people find in our centres a true home, so we commit to making each one a warm, profoundly human space.
6. Holistic Health
Health is inseparable from life’s value. We understand it as an inherent good to be enjoyed, preserved, and recovered when illness appears. Our model integrates WHO guidance and an existential, humanistic vision inspired by Christian values.
We aim to heal and to care, adopting scientific and technical advances without losing sight of human dignity and each person’s life context — defending life, overcoming pathology, relieving pain, avoiding disproportionate measures, and actively promoting health. We foster healthy environments for those we serve and for all who work with us.
7. Ethical Intervention
Hospitality is a fundamental ethical experience. Any lack of ethics breaks our identity. We commit to ethics in healthcare, education, social care, organisational and economic management, daily work, institutional planning, and operations — including legal compliance and responsible behaviour.
In line with our mission, we promote shared bioethical principles, explicitly acknowledging our Catholic inspiration. Ethics permeates ends and means alike.
8. Historical Awareness
Memory enables us to respond well to the present and to project the future. Knowing the lives of our Founders, the context of our origins, and the distinctive traits of our project is essential to our culture.
We cultivate an individual and collective awareness that makes us active protagonists today — attentive, creative, and determined in the face of challenges — always open to new needs and models of care.
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Your generosity helps us provide comprehensive, humane care to those who need it most.