November 2025

EQUIP Digital Platform: Transforming data into action for quality mental health care

In Peru, see how SystemSeed's innovative tool is strengthening training, supervision, and patient safety for frontline health workers using immediate data visuals and multi-assessments.

By Gloria Pedersen

I will never forget the look on her face.

We were stuck in Lima traffic. I was in a taxi with my colleague, let’s call her Mia, a dedicated supervisor for community health workers (agentes) delivering post-partum psychological support to mothers in Carabayllo. As we recapped the day in the car, we began strategizing ways to improve delivery of care. Mia shared her challenges with supervision, and I pulled out my phone to show her how www.equipcompetency.org has a digital competency tool tailored to her intervention.

An aerial view of Lima, Peru, featuring dense brick housing sprawling across arid, terraced hillsides under a hazy sky. A large white water tank marked "sedapal" sits prominently in the foreground. — The dramatic, terraced hillsides that define Lima's unique coastal desert landscape.

We walked through how she could use her phone or laptop when observing agentes and easily check off behaviors, and when she hits “Submit”, she’ll get immediate data visuals and feedback on their performance.

Her reaction was sheer joy mixed with relief. Her work just got a lot easier and a lot more exciting: Objective data visuals and downloads could be directly in her hands, the agentes could get immediate, tailored feedback, and the mothers, ultimately, could be assured with safe and effective care.

...the agentes could get immediate, tailored feedback, and the mothers, ultimately, could be assured with safe and effective care.

A close-up photograph shows a woman wearing a light blue face mask and black top, holding up a black mobile phone and smiling at the screen, which displays the EQUIP competency tool interface. She is in a building with an exposed brick wall in Peru. — EQUIP has been designed to work on any device, in any context.

Nia’s story is one of the more recent of thousands globally since we launched the platform in 2022.

This is why we’re grateful to have partnered with SystemSeed. EQUIP needed to be more than just a digital form—it needed to close the gap between data collection and action. Imagine a trainer or supervisor finishing an assessment. They check the dashboard that instantly visualizes the health workers’ performance, and a “red flag” indicator on “assessment of suicidal harm” sparks an immediate conversation: “What did we miss in the training? Let’s role-play and re-assess that interaction now.”

Two women wearing face masks and plastic face shields stand on a dirt road outdoors during the daytime. The woman on the left, wearing a grey vest with a blue bag, holds a wooden clipboard and looks towards the woman on the right. The second woman, who appears pregnant, wears a black t-shirt and holds a clear plastic folder with papers, her hand resting on her stomach. They are in front of a light blue building with a dark metal gate, and in the background are hillside houses. — Health professionals, utilising EQUIP in Peru.

What did we miss in the training? Let’s role-play and re-assess that interaction now.

Moreover, the built in multi-assessment feature lets you rate and track multiple competency assessments over time, igniting ownership of results and inspiring iterative, proactive, and data-informed training and supervision plans.

It has been more than 3 years since the launch of the global EQUIP platform, and over 1000 monthly users are active today. The UI and UX design ensures the tools and dashboard make sense to both frontline workers and researchers, from Peru to Kazakhstan or Nepal to Uganda.

Its success continues to stir innovation in terms of how we elevate and optimize the feedback loop that’s so necessary for ensuring quality mental health services globally.

A close-up, over-the-shoulder shot showing a person's hand resting on the keyboard of a Dell laptop. The screen displays a web-based assessment interface titled "ENACT: Foundational Helping Skills-Adult." The content is in Spanish, featuring a form with radio buttons and checkboxes for evaluating specific skills — A competency review session screen, used to evaluate a practitioner, whilst one of EQUIPs scripted role plays are taking place.

This is a guest post by Gloria Pedersen.

Dr. Gloria Pedersen, DrPH, MSc, is a global mental health practitioner and Director of Mental Health and Psychosocial Support (MHPSS) Implementation Strategy, Research, and Partnerships at Partners In Health. She is also a Research Collaborator in Global Health and Social Medicine at Harvard Medical School. She began her career in developmental psychobiology before transitioning into global mental health, grounding her work in a rigorous, evidence-based approach to designing care systems for diverse populations—from children and adolescents to adults in crisis.

She serves as a technical consultant and advisor on MHPSS implementation in conflict settings and on global mental health systems research. Her expertise was central to the development of the WHO/UNICEF EQUIP platform, where she was a key academic partner at George Washington University throughout its five-year development and global dissemination. She continues to advance EQUIP’s mission through international trainings, supervision, and curriculum integration, championing a “Do No Harm” standard and strengthening the quality and safety of mental health care delivery worldwide.