Equally Well in action

Hundreds of activities are underway across New Zealand that show Equally Well in action. Browse our selection of stories below or read more Equally Well stories in the news and stories feed.

Learning how Equally Well can strengthen collaborative action for greater impact

In 2020, Te Pou funded an evaluation of the Equally Well collaborative so that we could learn what helps to bring changes and what is getting in the way.

This evaluation of the collaborative focuses on ‘the how’ of collaboration, that is the mechanisms by which Equally Well operates as a collective. This is the first evaluation of how Equally Well works since its beginnings in 2014. Previous evidence reviews have focused on ‘what’ we need to change in health systems, services, and practices.

Alicia Crockett brought a team of evaluators together and spent over a year reviewing documentation and talking to different stakeholders to better understand how the collaborative is working together, and what has been most effective to bring about changes.

The evaluation spans the period of Equally Well’s operation from 2014 to 2020.

In summary the evaluation found that:

• People involved in Equally Well come from a range of organisations and sectors including the mental health, addiction and wider health sectors particularly primary care. Endorsing organisations include government and non-government.
• Equally Well champions come from a range of backgrounds including lived experience, whānau, academia, policy, general practice, support work, nursing, psychiatry, public health, pharmacy, cancer and cardiology.
• The voice of lived experience are central to the Equally Well collaborative to share the impact of physical health equity, to support decision-making about direction, and bring the statistics and research to life.
• Champions are able to find solutions through sharing information with other collaborative members.
• High value is placed on the resources, research and easily communicated messages made available to Champions through the Backbone Team.
• Communication tools such as Loomio and e-newsletters, as well as resources shared through the Equally Well website are important ways for champions to share their work.
• Intentional connections brokered between like-minded people is a central mechanism which enables cross-sector and cross-organisational action.
• Continued scanning for opportunities to influence policy by the BBT leads to policy changes. These include the prioritisation of physical health equity for people with mental health and addiction issues in the Ministry of Health’s cardiovascular disease risk assessment guidelines, the cancer national action plan and the COVID-19 vaccination sequencing framework.
• The backbone team, with a range of skills, expertise and knowledge is a crucial vehicle for bringing about change.

A summary of the report is available here, and the full Equally Well evaluation report can be viewed here.

You can also watch the webinar presentation of the evaluation findings by Alicia Crockett.

When organisations join the Equally Well collaborative they are encouraged to develop an action plan.

Action plans describe how an organisation will actively contribute to physical health equity for people with mental health and addiction issues.

To help share ideas about actions and to see what each organisation is doing, we will make them available on this page.

If your organisation would like your action plan added, please email a copy to Olivia Risi.

If your organisation does not yet have an action plan, you can use this template to get started (check your downloaded items).

Equally Well action plans:

• Acupuncture for mental health
• Te Pou
• Nelson Marlborough DHB
• Canterbury Primary Care Equally Well Working Group
• Canterbury DHB
• The Mental Health Foundation
• Canterbury Regional Equally Well Group
• Mahi Yoga