HQSC, Te Pou and Equally Well to collaborate on ‘Maximising physical health’

Te Pou and the Equally Well collaborative will be working with the Health Quality and Safety Commission's Mental health and addiction quality improvement programme priority area of 'Maximising physical health'.

The Health Quality and Safety Commission (HQSC) is coordinating a national Mental health and addiction quality improvement programme, with a focus on the provision of high-quality care and support for people who experience mental health and addiction issues. One of the five priority areas identified by the mental health and addiction sector that is included in the quality improvement programme is ‘Maximising physical health’. Work on this priority area was due to begin in early 2021, however, because of the impact of the COVID-19 response and feedback from the mental health and addiction sector about current workload, they will be taking a different approach to the end of June 2022.

HQSC will now work with Te Pou on the ‘Maximising physical health’ priority to define a specific project or projects that are informed by the evidence generated in the existing Equally Well collaborative, and which would benefit from a quality improvement approach. A group will be convened to scope the best topic to choose, using criteria such as impact on equity, ability to measure change and outcomes (data availability), potential to show change in a short timeframe, and transferable learnings. That group will include consumer and Māori representation, representatives from the HQSC mental health and addiction leadership group, primary care and non-governmental organisations, Equally Well collaborative, Te Pou and HQSC.

At the start of 2022, we will begin to scope a more comprehensive approach to ‘Maximising physical health’ for the next three years (providing further mental health and addiction quality improvement programme funding is secured). This is likely to comprise of a series of projects.

You can learn more about the new phase the Equally Well collaborative is entering, focusing on reflection, regrowing and reconnecting, here.