Equicares

Equicares

Many people face barriers in accessing mental health support when they need it most, and this is especially common groups in society who have been marginalised historically in healthcare. This includes young people, the LGBTQIA+ community, migrants, people with intellectual and physical disabilities, members of the Roma community, individuals from ethnoreligious minorities, older adults, and survivors of earthquakes.  

Jigsaw is a partner in the EQUICARES project, which aims to identify barriers and facilitators for these groups, to co-design digital solutions to improve access to mental healthcare in the future, and to influence policy to support access for these groups.  

In this research, we are using a framework known as the Levesque et al. (2013) framework, which looks at barriers and facilitators both from the perspective of people seeking support and from the perspective of services providing support. Jigsaw is leading a piece of research focusing on the perspectives of people from these groups seeking support. Specifically, we are looking at: 

1. Perceiving – being able to notice when a mental health difficulty requires support from a professional, and knowing the services to turn to for support 
2. Seeking – having the personal capacity to choose to access support, including influence from cultural and social values and norms 
3. Reaching – having the resources to be able to attend mental health support in person or online 
4. Paying – being able to afford mental health support from a professional  
5. Engaging – Feeling empowered and having enough information to get mental health support 

EQUICARES is funded by the European Union, and will involve data collection from eight pilot sites across Ireland, France, Germany, Spain, Greece, Türkiye, and Bulgaria.

For more information, visit https://equicares-project.eu/