Box 3.

Recommended interventions and policy measures

Interventions and policies targeting socioeconomic disadvantage

• Continuation of policies that promote educational achievement of children from lower socioeconomic families
• Prevention of an increase in income inequalities through adequate tax and social security policies
• Intensification of antipoverty policies, particularly those that relieve long term poverty through special benefit schemes and help with finding paid employment
• Further development and implementation of special benefit schemes for families whose financial situation threatens the health of their children

Interventions and policies to reduce effects of health on socioeconomic disadvantage

• Maintaining benefit levels for long term inability to work, particularly for those who are totally or partially disabled due to occupational health problems
• Adaptation of working conditions for chronically ill and disabled people to increase work participation
• Health interventions among long term recipients of social benefits to remove barriers to finding paid employment
• Further development and implementation of counselling schemes for school pupils with regular or long term health related absenteeism

Interventions and policies targeting factors mediating the effect of socioeconomic disadvantage on health

• Adapting health promotion programmes to the needs of lower socioeconomic groups, particularly by focusing on environmental measures, including introducing free fruit at primary schools and increasing the excise tax on tobacco
• Implementing school health promotion programmes that target health related behaviour (particularly smoking) among children from lower socioeconomic families
• Introducing health promotion into urban regeneration programmes
• Implementation of technical and organisational measures to reduce physical workload in manual occupations.

Interventions and policies to improve accessibility and quality of health care services

• Maintaining good financial accessibility of health care for people from lower socioeconomic groups
• Relieving the shortage of general practitioners in disadvantaged areas
• Reinforcing primary health care in disadvantaged areas by employing more practice assistants, nurse practitioners, and peer educators—for example, for implementing cardiovascular disease prevention programmes and better care for people who are chronically ill
• Implementation of local care networks aiming for the prevention of homelessness and other social problems among chronic psychiatric patients.