Health Disparities

There are health inequalities in the Netherlands. Quality and accessibility of care and prevention differs significantly between groups.
Pharos is the national centre of expertise on health disparities. Our expertise focuses on:

• Sustainable improvement of the quality, effectiveness and accessibility of care and prevention for people with limited health literacy, non-western migrants and refugees.
• Reduce existing health disparities between different groups of people.

Our expertise focuses on the entire health care system and on all areas that are important for health.
We are also the national knowledge centre for the prevention of female genital mutilation.
The work of Pharos takes shape within a number of programmes and themes.

Pharos has been appointed by the Dutch government as the national knowledge centre for FGM and has taken up the fight against FGM since 1993. Combatting FGM is complex and requires a broad, targeted and intercultural approach. The programme against Female Genital Mutilation focuses on three priorities:

• Medical and psychosocial care for circumcised women
• Facts and figures on FGM
• Research into the applicability of international approaches in the Netherlands and Europe