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
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.
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).
Overall, 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.”
EHTEL’s role
EHTEL is leading the Equicares large-scale “replication campaign”.
- EHTEL is developing 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 is launching a “replication campaign” supported by pilot partners who provide language assistance.
- EHTEL, and other network partners, are targeting various communities. Communities/networks involved include e-health service providers and consortium partners from other projects.
Most of the scaling-up work will be done in the final years of Equicares. With this aim in mind, EHTEL is 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 is monitoring 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 have several opportunities that emerge from EHTEL's involvement in Equicares.One of the most evident opportunities is everything that is coming up in 2026 on Equicares’ Digital Health Literacy MOOC training module and what can be learned from it.
All these opportunities will help EHTEL members to share 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 is helping 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 are to 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.
For more information
Check out Equicares LinkedIn account for frequent updates and the official project website.
Read all about Equicares’ latest in the news at the bottom of this page.
For more EHTEL's work under Change Management, including capacity-building pillar see here.
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).