Equally Well webinar - Evaluation findings

Webinar three, Evaluation findings highlighted how are we doing as a collaborative, as a backbone team and in our mission to build a movement. Our independent evaluator, Dr Alicia Crockett and her team co-presented this webinar on their findings.

An evaluation to understand more about the work of the Equally Well collaborative was carried out between October 2020- May 2021. It provides insight into how Equally Well Champions have taken action to shift practice and policy and what may help continue to do so. Data collection methods included workshops/interviews, document review and case study interviews.

Key findings:

• People with lived experience are central to the collaborative and its effectiveness
• People involved come from a range of organisations and sectors
• Diversity of champions provides credibility and legitimacy to the work in the community
• Equally Well is well-established and operates under the five conditions of Collective Impact
• The backbone team is crucial to support national connection, coordination, and motivation
• Equally Well champions take responsibility and advocate for change where and how they can

Quotes from our Equally Well champions:

“For the first time, I heard people, I met people with research and evidence and data confirming what we had always known to be true.”

“The strong message [in early scanning work] from people using … services was that actually “we want to be self-empowered, we want to be able to use this information. We do things every day to look after our wellbeing and health and we want to be supported in that.”

Sustaining impact:

Continue
• People with lived experience leading and driving change
• Ngā Waka o Matariki (Māori Equally Well strategy)
• Cross-sector engagement
• Investment in a diverse backbone team

Strengthen
• Strategic leadership
• Te Ao Māori and Pasifika world views across collaborative actions
• Intentional workforce development
• Forums and opportunities to collaborate
• Evaluating the impact we are having

It is now time to reflect on how we strengthen these connections to achieve physical health equity for people with lived experience of addiction and mental health issues.