Brunssum in Action Bears Fruit

Published Dec 04, 2018

Several years ago, it emerged that, proportionally, more children in the municipality of Brunssum in South Limburg were overweight and had motor development delays. The municipality of Brunssum and RiskCare Preventie therefore decided to intensify their cooperation in 2014 and launch Brunssum in Action, which focuses on primary schools. After three years, the results of this campaign have been so positive and enthusiasm among the participating primary schools has been so great that it was decided to continue for another three years. Toddler care is now also involved.

Jeroen Matthes is a remedial motor skills teacher and project manager at RiskCare Preventie, a subsidiary of the Limburg physiotherapy practice FysioStofberg. RiskCare Preventie focuses on preventing motor development delays and overweight among children aged
2 to 19. To this end, RiskCare Preventie has developed two interventions of its own: KidsXtra and Skills4life. KidsXtra is for children aged 2 to 7 with a motor development delay. Skills4life is for children aged 7 to 19 who are overweight.

In addition, there are many partnerships with existing intervention providers, such as Lekker Fit!, a teaching package for a healthy lifestyle for primary school pupils. “We believe that we do not always have to reinvent the wheel ourselves in order to implement effective interventions.” RiskCare Preventie’s two interventions are also listed on the Menukaart Sportimpuls, an overview of successful sports and physical activity programmes developed by various parties over the past few years.

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