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Traumatized refugees can be treated at ARQ Centrum’45. Because refugees are variable in background and type of trauma, the following research questions will be addressed: how can the date of one person be used to determine the effectiveness of a treatment; can these data also be used to determine effectiveness while the treatment is being executed, and, which trauma treatments are effective for refugees. Besides scientific publications this project will all render: a statistical toolbox; and, a training for therapists in providing treatments in combination with continuous monitoring of treatment effectiveness.

The aim of the overarching project is to create cohesion between the three Living Labs. This way, insight is obtained in what barriers are most important to remove and which boosts would be most useful in increasing women’s economic resilience. Taking a ‘fix the system’-approach, the Motivation, Opportunity and Ability of all relevant actors in the eco-system of women (partners, employers, midwives, and the women themselves) are investigated. This is done using surveys, and (group) interviews in all Living Labs. Only when all relevant actors have the motivation, opportunity and ability, the economic resilience of women will actually be increased.

Socioeconomic inequalities in health represent a major scientific and societal challenge. In the Netherlands, low socioeconomic groups die on average five years earlier, and live fourteen more years with diseases and disabilities, than high socioeconomic groups. Also, unhealthy behaviours (like smoking) are more prevalent among low socioeconomic groups. Social causation frameworks explain these inequalities by a higher exposure of low socioeconomic groups to various challenging environmental conditions (e.g. financial problems, stress). Due to a lack of data, most studies took a linear instead of dynamic approach to explain health inequalities, i.e. neglecting interlinkages between multiple environmental conditions, changes in these conditions over time, and interactions with individual factors. This may have led to an underestimation of the importance of certain factors for health inequalities (e.g. environmental conditions) and, in turn, to ineffective interventions (e.g. targeting health-behaviours of low socioeconomic groups without improving related environmental conditions). My overall aim is to understand how multiple, time-varying, interlinked environmental conditions, in interaction with individual factors, contribute to socioeconomic inequalities in health and health-behaviours, by applying an interdisciplinary systems approach, including: 1) Delphi study to advance the operationalisation of SEP; and qualitative interviews to understand socioeconomic differences in the conceptualisation and prioritization of health, and how this relates to challenging environmental conditions; 2) Longitudinal analyses to investigate relations between (changes in) SEP, environmental conditions, individual factors, health-behaviours and health over time; 3) Experiment to explore socioeconomic differences in (ir)rational behavioural responses; 4) Agent-based modelling, as this innovative technique is able to capture the dynamics underlying health inequalities in a simulation model. Steps 1-3 deliver crucial information to develop an advanced model to calculate the potential impact of policies on health inequalities. My research program advances scientific knowledge and delivers decisive information to policymakers to maximise the health potential of low socioeconomic groups

About 25% of Dutch citizens find themselves in vulnerable positions, including people with problematic debts and people receiving social assistance. People in those groups often lack sufficient conditions, such as financial resources and a supportive informal network, for healthy lifestyles and mental health. Social policies can improve the conditions for those groups, but can also cause additional burden. In this project we investigate, in eight municipalities, how social policies can contribute to health while limiting adverse effects. Through developing implementation strategies, we aim for a break-through in conditions for healthy lifestyles and mental health for citizens in vulnerable positions.