What is EQUIP Health Care?
EQUIP Health Care is a research and implementation program that involves health equity interventions implemented in a range of health care settings. The interventions are designed to enhance organizational capacity to provide equity-oriented health care, particularly for those who experience significant health and social inequities.
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What is Equity-Oriented Health Care?
Equity-oriented health care (EOHC) is about directing adequate resources to those with the greatest needs. It doesn’t mean treating everyone equally, because everyone doesn’t need the same thing. The aim of the EQUIP intervention is to enhance EOHC by recognizing and seeking to reduce:
- The effects of structural inequities (e.g., poverty, sexism, racism) on people’s access to and receipt of health care and access to the social determinants of health
- The impacts of multiple, intersecting forms of racism, discrimination and stigma
- The frequent mismatches between usual approaches to care and the needs of people most affected by health and social inequities
EQUIP’s take on Equity-Oriented Health Care incorporates the three key dimensions of:
- trauma- and violence-informed care;
- cultural safety/anti-racism; and
- harm reduction/substance use health.
These 3 Key Dimensions are interconnected, responsive to inequities, and tailored to each particular context. Ten Strategies flow from these key dimensions to guide organizations in how-to enhance their capacity for providing equity-oriented services.
Embedding equity into the Quadruple Aim of health system improvement, and ‘learning’ health and social care systems means embedding data collection and use strategies, incentives, cultures and best practices in an equity-oriented way. Read our “Equity-Oriented Health Systems Improvement Policy Brief” for more information.
Land Acknowledgment
We gratefully acknowledge that our work in the province of British Columbia is primarily carried out on the unceded, ancestral, and continually occupied territories of the xʷməθkʷəy̓əm (Musqueam) Nation. The work at Western University was conducted on the traditional territory of the Anishinaabek, Haudenosaunee, Lūnaapéewak and Chonnonton Nations. We extend our respect and gratitude to the Indigenous Peoples on whose land this work takes place and our collaborations extend.
We recognize the intergenerational harms of colonization and their profound impact on persistent health inequities in Canada. We work in solidarity with Indigenous Peoples to support an anti-racist approach to healthcare and social services towards education and action to actively address the intergenerational harms of colonization and promote greater health equity.
