Advancing Mental Health Equality Collaborative: wave 1

Wave 1 of the three-year Advancing Mental Health Equality (AMHE) Collaborative launched in July 2021 with an aim to support mental health care providers to advancing mental health equality in their local areas.

The collaborative, part of the RCPsych Equality Action Plan, has provided a fantastic opportunity to access expert support and guidance to tackle a difficult but extremely important area in the push for better mental health care for all.

Participating organisations are receiving support to implement the AMHE resource, using tried and tested quality improvement methodologies. The programme includes tailored support for each organisation to:

  • understand their local population and identify groups and inequalities to focus on (a maximum of three to start)
  • form a project team per population who are responsible for leading the work (project teams will include people who work in the organisation and people from the population of focus)
  • work with each population to adapt our programme level theory of change to create a co-produced driver diagram as to how the organisation can improve access, experience and outcomes for the population
  • co-produce a measurement strategy to demonstrate the impact of the changes that will be introduced
  • test ideas on how to improve access, experience and outcomes using a systematic approach and measure the impact of these changes
  • scale up the changes that have led to improvement
  • evaluate what has been implemented and celebrate successes
  • ensure the changes and approach to this work are sustained, as taking part in the AMHE collaborative marks the start of an organisation’s journey to improving mental health care, treatment and support for people at risk of experiencing inequalities.

In addition to dedicated support from a Quality Improvement Coach, participating organisations also have access to:

  • a community of people who have, and are developing, expertise in advancing equality and problem solving
  • a network of professionals who are working together to achieve greater mental health equality in their local areas
  • a number of experts with knowledge of areas of inequality
  • the team who developed the AMHE resource.

Our learning community will come together four times a year to share their learning. You can view the presentations from these events as well as other resources.

For more information about the programme, please see the AMHE Collaborative Support Offer.

If you have any questions, please contact the team at AMHE@rcpsych.ac.uk.

Q&A Session – 24 March 2021

Below you can watch a session we held for senior leaders of organisations providing mental health care across England and the Devolved Nations, to find out more about the Advancing Mental Health Equality Improvement Collaborative. Speakers include Adrian James, Shubulade Smith and Amar Shah.