This deliverable falls under Work Package 9 (WP9), Task 9.3 of the EQUICARES project and constitutes the initial Ethics Handbook (Regulatory, Societal, Ethical, and Gender Issues Plan). It provides guidance for the ethical conduct of research and participatory activities involving people in vulnerable situations, as well as for the ethical design and deployment of the project’s AI-based Assistant. The handbook outlines key ethical, regulatory, societal, and gender-related principles, ensuring compliance with relevant EU, international, and national frameworks.

This deliverable falls under the EQUICARES project and constitutes the initial version of the Exploitation and Sustainability Plan, outlining the project’s innovation and Intellectual Property Rights (IPR) management strategy and its application in the early stages of implementation. It presents key concepts and objectives of IP management, identifies Key Exploitable Results (KERs), and sets out partner-specific exploitation plans, including target groups, exploitation routes, protection measures, and actions to enhance exploitation readiness and long-term sustainability beyond the project’s end.

This deliverable falls under the EQUICARES project and constitutes the second version of the Dissemination and Communication Plan (DCP), outlining progress in dissemination, stakeholder engagement, visibility, and external outreach since the initial plan. It updates the implementation status of communication activities, introduces new actions to strengthen impact, and clarifies partner roles and responsibilities in supporting the project’s long-term uptake and sustainability.

This deliverable falls under Work Package 3 (WP3) and Task 3.1 of the EQUICARES project and presents mental health ecosystem profiles of the eight pilot sites alongside local engagement strategies for establishing and operationalising the Smart Health Labs. It analyses local conditions shaping access to mental health and care services for people in vulnerable situations, with particular attention to inequalities, exclusion trends, stakeholder ecosystems, and opportunities for community-based innovation.

This deliverable falls under Work Package 2 (WP2) and Task 2.5 of the EQUICARES project and presents the Atlas on Mental Health and Care Innovative Solutions, an interactive tool mapping innovative mental health services across Europe and selected low- and middle-income countries. Primarily designed for policymakers, it supports the identification of best practices and promotes cross-border knowledge exchange to improve access to mental healthcare for vulnerable populations.

This deliverable falls under Work Package 2 (WP2) and Task 2.4 of the EQUICARES project and evaluates selected mental health services in terms of their contribution to equitable access for vulnerable populations. Building on the service mapping conducted in Tasks 2.2 and 2.3, it assesses services across Ireland, Spain, Turkey, and France using a Levesque-based framework covering approachability, acceptability, availability and accommodation, affordability, and appropriateness, drawing on mixed-methods data from stakeholder assessments and focus group discussions.

This deliverable falls under Work Package 2 (WP2) and Task 2.3 of the EQUICARES project and examines innovative mental health solutions developed in low- and middle-income countries (LMICs). Drawing on the concept of reciprocal innovation, it identifies community-based and scalable approaches with the potential to inform more equitable and accessible mental healthcare across the EQUICARES European pilot contexts.

This deliverable falls under Work Package 2 (WP2) and Task 2.2 of the EQUICARES project and maps innovative solutions for improving equitable access to mental healthcare across the European pilot regions. Using digital ethnography, spatial microsimulation, and agent-based modelling, it identifies and analyses bottom-up approaches that can improve the accessibility of mental health services for people in vulnerable situations.

This deliverable falls under Work Package 1 (WP1) and Task 1.5 of the EQUICARES project and examines micro-level barriers to accessing mental healthcare among people in vulnerable situations across the eight pilot sites. Using a mixed-methods design, it applies the Levesque framework to explore user-side dimensions of access and draws on the Patient Health Engagement Model to examine experiences of engaging with mental healthcare, providing evidence on help-seeking and service access across diverse vulnerable population groups.

This deliverable falls under Task 1.4 of the EQUICARES project and examines meso-level barriers and enabling factors affecting access to mental healthcare for people in vulnerable situations across the eight pilot sites. Building on the adapted Levesque framework, it identifies key barriers and facilitators while operationalising the framework at the meso level to ensure consistency across Work Package 1.

This deliverable falls under Work Package 1 (WP1) and Task 1.2 of the EQUICARES project, which developed an adapted version of the patient-centred conceptual framework of Levesque, Harris and Russell (2013) to assess inequitable access to mental health and care services for people in vulnerable situations across Europe. The resulting framework provides a consolidated analytical tool for assessing accessibility.

Current deliverable presents findings from a literature review and a Pan-European Delphi expert survey, drawing on scientific evidence and a two-round Delphi process with EU-level experts to examine macro-level megatrends undermining equitable access to mental healthcare for people in vulnerable situations across the EU.

The deliverable falls under Work Package 6 Dissemination and Communication and Task 6.2 developed by the European Association of Service Providers for Persons with Disabilities (EASPD). The EQUICARES Network of Interest (NoI) was created as part of the project’s sustainability and exploitation activities.

This deliverable (D2.1) responds to Task 2.1 under Work Package 2 (Innovative Solutions), which requires desk research-based mapping of existing services, policies, programmes, and initiatives that address mental health access barriers for people in vulnerable situations across the WHO European Region.

This deliverable brought two scoping umbrella reviews on mental health in people in vulnerable situations across the WHO European Region together: one on the prevalence of common mental health conditions, and one on barriers and facilitators to accessing care. Together, these reviews provide a consolidated overview of the current state of evidence and identify priority areas for policy and research.

The present report introduces the EQUICARES project website and briefly presents the associated social media channels, as they were created and developed within the first months of the project.

The document describes the overall communication activities and awareness-raising, dissemination of project results, management of all relevant activities, and partners’ responsibilities in this respect.

This version of the Data Management Plan describes the data management processes to be followed during the lifecycle of the project, along with the methodology employed in order to ensure the FAIR (Findable, Accessible, Interoperable and Reusable) provisions for data management in line with the EC Guidelines on FAIR Data Management.

The Management and Quality Plan provides an overview of the management structure, as well as the roles and responsibilities of the partners, and defines the procedures for progress monitoring, quality assurance and project management.