Skip to main page content
U.S. flag

An official website of the United States government

Dot gov

The .gov means it’s official.
Federal government websites often end in .gov or .mil. Before sharing sensitive information, make sure you’re on a federal government site.

Https

The site is secure.
The https:// ensures that you are connecting to the official website and that any information you provide is encrypted and transmitted securely.

Access keys NCBI Homepage MyNCBI Homepage Main Content Main Navigation
. 2025 Jan;12(1):67-80.
doi: 10.1016/S2215-0366(24)00183-4. Epub 2024 Sep 6.

Competency-based training and supervision: development of the WHO-UNICEF Ensuring Quality in Psychosocial and Mental Health Care (EQUIP) initiative

Brandon A Kohrt  1 , Gloria A Pedersen  2 , Alison Schafer  3 , Kenneth Carswell  3 , Fiamma Rupp  4 , Mark J D Jordans  5 , Elise West  6 , Josephine Akellot  7 , Pamela Y Collins  8 , Carmen Contreras  9 , Jerome T Galea  10 , Frezgi Gebrekristos  11 , Muthoni Mathai  12 , Kristina Metz  8 , Naser Morina  13 , Mwamba Mwila Mwenge  14 , Frederik Steen  15 , Ann Willhoite  4 , Mark van Ommeren  3 , James Underhill  3 ; EQUIP Consortium
Collaborators, Affiliations

Competency-based training and supervision: development of the WHO-UNICEF Ensuring Quality in Psychosocial and Mental Health Care (EQUIP) initiative

Brandon A Kohrt et al. Lancet Psychiatry. 2025 Jan.

Abstract

Globally, there has not been a standardised approach to ensure that the growing number of people who are not licensed clinicians but are delivering psychological interventions and mental health services have the competencies to deliver those interventions and services safely. Therefore, WHO and UNICEF developed Ensuring Quality in Psychosocial and Mental Health Care (EQUIP). EQUIP is a free resource with a digital platform that can be used to guide competency assessment. We describe EQUIP's 5-year development (2018-23) and the rationale supporting its contents and use. Development phases included establishing consensus for competency-based strategies; selecting foundational competencies; evaluating feasibility of assessments, role plays, and technology; piloting EQUIP when training non-specialists; and public dissemination and ongoing adaptations to increase scalability. From the public launch in March, 2022, through to March, 2024, EQUIP's digital platform has been used in 794 training programmes in 36 countries with 3760 trainees resulting in 10 001 competency assessments.

PubMed Disclaimer

Conflict of interest statement

Declaration of interests AW was employed by US Agency for International Development (USAID) from 2017 to 2019, and JTG began employment at USAID in 2024. All other authors declare no competing interests.

Figures

Figure 1.
Figure 1.. EQUIP theory of change developed through WHO consultations
EQUIP=Ensuring Quality in Psychosocial and Mental Health Care. MHPSS=mental health and psychosocial support.
See this image and copyright information in PMC

References

    1. Patel V ∙ Saxena, S ∙ Lund C ∙ et al. The Lancet Commission on global mental health and sustainable development Lancet. 2018; 392:1553–1598 - PubMed
    1. WHO Mental health atlas 2020 World Health Organization, Geneva, 2021
    1. WHO World mental health report: transforming mental health for all World Health Organization, Geneva, 2022
    1. Primary Health Care Revitalization Division Department of Health Services Community mental health care package Ministry of Health, Government of Nepal, Kathmandu, 2017
    1. Ministry of Health, Republic of Liberia Mental health policy and strategic plan for Liberia (2016–21) World Health Organization, Monrovia, 2017

Publication types

MeSH terms

LinkOut - more resources