NEST-Care · NEST–care: meNtal hEalthcare Service neTworking solutions

People with mental illness may suffer a deterioration of their condition and develop a severe mental disorder, alongside other collateral factors such as eating disorders, sleep disturbance, risky sexual behaviours, but also lack of care and support from family and friends, disability employment and financial deficiency. When it comes to creating positive change, relevant health care services should call for better coordinated action. Collaborative care settings imply the coordination of health service providers in creating a holistic plan of care that promotes healthy choices and develop a well-connected support system that incorporate patients social and environmental contexts. However, creating synergies towards healthcare integrated solutions among different set of players in healthcare is complex. Community health centres, pro bono clinics, private foundations, not-for-profit organisations, etc., have different needs, capabilities, and priorities that non necessarily converge. Is it possible to predict and facilitate the emergence of partnerships among different mental health services? Which factors nurture trustworthy relationships and sustain collaboration? How their networking performance and collective action can be evaluated? These questions have been insufficiently examined because, the analysis of multilevel collaborative processes (i.e., referrals, resource sharing, joint interventions and campaigns, as well as trust relationships and affiliations between public and private service providers and key personnel) has yet to be undertaken. Using the Catalonias example as case study of co-governance approach for mental health, and rooted in network science and multilevel network analysis, this project seeks to understand and map health providers partnerships and networking initiatives for integrated mental healthcare, as a way to better tackle health inequalities by promoting mental wellbeing and community-based solutions.