Poverty and health of children – Netherlands

This publication is a practical manual for tackling health inequalities with respect to children by influencing the state of poverty.

Research from the municipal health service of West-Brabant and the University of Tilburg shows that a lack of money threatens the health of 7 of the pupils from primary schools in the region. The main aim of this intervention is to tackle health inequalities with respect to children by influencing the state of poverty. Parents and children (5 and 11 years old) are asked during a preventive medical research of the youth health service about the relation between the lack of money (poverty) and items which influence their health/well-being. E.g. because of the lack of money a child doesn’t have the possibility to participate in any sportclub. Parents of these children are invited to discuss the problem and a special team from the municipal health service tries to help these families out in several ways. In some cases with small amounts of money in order to give the children the opportunity to take part in a swimming course. Also, opportunities with respect to special social security will be looked at. The department of health is working together e.g. with the Social Service Department.

Original title: Armoede en gezondheid van kinderen

More information is available here.