EQUICARES supports access to innovative and sustainable mental health and care services by people in vulnerable situations through a blend of research, co-creation and policy solutions. The project uses innovative methodologies, such as an advanced application of Levesque framework for evaluation of mental health services; the deployment of Computational Social Sciences to increase access for hard-to-reach populations in vulnerable situations and collect accurate quantitative and qualitative data on inequalities in mental healthcare services; and the combination of complementary cost-analysis techniques. To unlock the design of innovative solutions, the project maps, through digital ethnography, existing innovative solutions, analyses for accessible mental health services and links them with different parts of the mental health system.
Such informative insights are visualised and offered to policy makers through a dedicated Atlas. EQUICARES pilots innovative solutions in 8 areas from 7 countries, which represent diverse socioeconomic settings and cover all major categories of vulnerable groups, while informing various strategic frameworks of EU. Through “Smart Health Labs”, the project engages vulnerable groups at the community level to co-design, implement and assess innovative solutions based on the principles of social economy and user innovation. At the individual level, the project provides awareness raising and capacity building and pilots a novel AI-based Assistant, making advancements in the landscape of AI-generated mental health ecosystem, and fostering mental health and digital literacy of users. EQUICARES tests the value of its innovative solutions and applies novel cost analysis techniques to provide solid evidence on the negative impact on not taking measures. Finally,the project replicates its outcomes in 4 additional cases and develops the Inclusive Mental Health and Care Policy Dashboard towards the sustainability and policy uptake of its results.
