equicares
At a glance:
Why the project
What do refugees in Greece, the Roma community in Bulgaria, LGBTQI+ individuals in Ireland, elderly people in general and elderly migrants in Germany, people with disabilities in Normandy in France, as well as survivors of natural disasters, have in common? They are all vulnerable groups. Each of them is only a small fraction of the population in these countries. This makes the people involved less likely to have a say in health policymaking, with their concerns not necessarily being heard or addressed. They are also affected by discrimination, stigmatisation, and often a lack of literacy – factors that all contribute to aggravating mental health issues.
Project description
First, a number of comprehensive umbrella systematic reviews on mental health access for these vulnerable groups will take place. Second, pilots in Smart Health Labs (“Labs”) will be carried out in the project ‘s communities. The pilots will explore how to overcome access barriers to mental health services, enhance health literacy, and improve mental health self-management capabilities through the use of digital tools.
Equicares findings will be used to raise awareness of policymakers, and other actors, on the specific needs of these vulnerable groups. Over the four-year project duration, Equicares will come up with a co-created actionable roadmap on how to improve access to mental health care using innovative assistive technologies, while strengthening the voice and advocacy of vulnerable groups.
Indeed, people are stronger together. As Konstantina Mataftsi, project manager at White Research srl, a Brussels-based boutique research and consulting company, says:
“Equicares isn’t just a project—it’s a shared mission, where every single one of us has a vital role to play. […] Our success will depend on how well we collaborate, and I want us to approach this project with three core principles: trust, positivity, and partnership.”
Specifically, Equicares is pursuing six main objectives. They are to:
- Identify and analyse health inequalities and access barriers to mental health services for people in vulnerable situations across the healthcare system through research and data analysis at several levels.
- Identify and evaluate innovative solutions that promote access to mental health services, by highlighting their ability to address factors related to inequality and lack of service access.
- Put people in vulnerable situations at the centre of innovation activities by engaging them in their local Smart Health Labs (“Labs”).
- Empowering demand-side actors through use of a health promotion programme and an AI Assistant, and engaging supply side actors
- Co-design and pilot innovative solutions in eight pilot sites to improve accessibility to mental health services by boosting the abilities of people in vulnerable situations.
- Make solutions available to policymakers and care workers through two routes: an Atlas on Mental Health and Care Innovative Solutions, and a “Replication Handbook” (a how to do it playbook for repeating and/or scaling-up Equicares approaches).
Equicares recognises that, while people in vulnerable situations have much in common, they are also different. The initiative will therefore come up with solutions that are both generalisable and tailored.
EHTEL’s role
EHTEL will be leading the Equicares large-scale “replication campaign”.
- EHTEL will develop a document to guide the understanding of local mental health ecosystems, set up Labs, and co-create innovative solutions. It is to be called the “Equicares Replication Handbook”.
- EHTEL will launch a “replication campaign” supported by pilot partners who provide language assistance.
- EHTEL, and other network partners, will target various communities. Examples of network partners include EASPD, an association of service providers to people with disabilities, and DIESIS, a social economy network. Other communities/networks to be involved will include e-health service providers and consortium partners from other projects.
Teamwork
Most of the scaling-up work will be done in the final years of Equicares. EHTEL is, nevertheless, involved in all stages of the Equicares project.
Leading a large-scale replication campaign requires involvement from day one of the initiative. As a result, EHTEL will be watching the work of the project up close, contributing to and learning from participating in these work packages:
- Scouting good practices (WP1, WP2).
- Engagement and capacity building (WP3).
- Communication, dissemination and exploitation (WP6).
- Coordination and societal issues (WP9-11).
What’s in Equicares for EHTEL members
EHTEL members can expect at least several opportunities to emerge from their involvement in Equicares. All will help you share your insights and expertise more broadly. They involve the options to:
- Expect synergies and cross-fertilisation with other current projects where EHTEL is involved, such as Laurel and COMFORTage.
- Support EHTEL by acting as a “door opener”: EHTEL will help Equicares partners with a host of new connections to widen their networks and explore potential business opportunities.
- Gain opportunities to engage with others e.g., health, care, and social policymakers, as well as digital start-ups.
- Offer your technical expertise and present your innovative solutions that support AI-assisted improvement of access to mental health services to people in vulnerable communities.
- Contribute to the repeating (“replication”) and scaling-up of actionable policies (that will be mapped out in the “Equicares Replication Handbook” from 2027 onwards).
- Organise co-host, and support customised workshops, webinars, trainings/massive online open courses (MOOCs), and focus groups.
Perspective and next steps
The Equicares project will run for four years until the end of 2028.
At the Equicares kickoff meeting, held on 27-28 January 2025 in Brussels, 18 partners from nine countries (Belgium, Bulgaria, France, Germany, Greece, Ireland, Netherlands, Spain and Turkey), engaged in dynamic discussions to outline key objectives, methodologies, and actionable next steps.
Photo credit: White Research
At the kickoff, participants explored innovative solutions to tackle healthcare inequalities. The solutions will leverage advanced tools like the Levesque framework for in-depth access analysis, digital ethnography, and AI to enhance mental health support across vulnerable communities.
For more information
Check out Equicares LinkedIn account for frequent updates and a soon-to-be published newsletter.
EQUICARES is funded by the European Health and Digital Executive Agency (HaDEA) under the European Union’s Framework Programme for Research and Innovation, Horizon Europe (Grant Agreement No. 101156500).