The work is divided into three parts. In the first part the historical situation of services in Italy is analysed, describing the creation and development of the services and examining the founding cultural models and how these have changed with time. In the second part we record the 5-year experience of a laboratory on groupality set up in the Florentine area, in which numerous variously-qualified workers from numerous adult and infancy/adolescence mental health services have participated. The third part reports some moments in a group therapy session which not only describes the themes of the group but also comments on the important institutional changes in progress, the transfer of the CSM.
Keywords: Mental health service, groupality, work group, therapy group.