Inequalities are complex and leave people wondering what to do about them, even when you understand them. We can help your organisation take action to tackle the inequalities being experienced by people using your service - & doing so as a systems response to a systemic challenge. We developed the Equality Modelling Approach to do just that.
The foundational insight underpinning the Equality Modelling Approach is that the best approach to generating outcome is designing outcome-producing work that is embedded in the every-day practice of healthcare professionals delivering care.
The best example of an embedded action that addresses a physical health inequality is that of the weekly clinics that happen on wards where service users are invited to have their weight, blood pressure, and body temperature taken as part of a proactive effort to address the fact that people with severe mental illness have a 20 year shorter than average life expectancy. The things to highlight about this embedded action are:
Awareness: it creates an awareness that is a positive response to the identified health inequality.
Active participation in care: it is an action performed by both service users and professionals.
Therapeutic relationship: it provides the opportunity for a meaningful experience of care that will strength therapeutic relationships.
Intervention: the action it is an intervention, and gateway to further intervention.
Part of the practice of care: it is fully embedded in the practice of care delivery and thus expands the scope of the practice of care delivery.
Part of a system: the action is also embedded in the wider system of care, for example, can influence the development of the food menus & a referral point to other professionals/services.
Outcomes: the action generates outcomes, both tangible that are seen directly and emergent outcomes that impact positively over time.
Importantly: provides a fathomable and fruitful way of addressing an inequality - nobody is having to think about about it, professionals just get on doing it.
This simple embedded activity creates a system of outcomes that makes meaningful inroads tackling this inequality.
One could ask then, what is the weighing scale equivalent to the inequalities that a Muslim Black woman who is not an English first language speaker in might experience in services, for example. Stated more correctly, what is the embedded activity that tackles inequalities across all protected characteristics, and beyond. That embedded activity is the Equality Modelling Approach.
The Equality Modelling Approach will drive the work of transforming inequalities in your services - & will do so in a way that works naturally in mental health services.