Alumnus testimonial
Daan Sartorius - Youth Team Project Officer at Trimbos Institute
It was during the Health & Society study programme that I developed an interest in encouraging healthy behaviour and the effectiveness of prevention messages. Both the Bachelor’s and Master’s part of the study programme offer many opportunities for finding interdisciplinary solutions to practical problems. Working with students from different study programmes and backgrounds teaches you to look at the challenges in health promotion from a broader perspective and from different angles, which is pretty interesting! What I enjoy most is ‘translating’ scientific knowledge, which enables us to take everything that we already know about a healthier lifestyle and make sure that this information also reaches the right people in the right way.
One of my biggest projects is substance prevention during pregnancy.
After completing my studies, I ended up working in the heart of the prevention field when I started as a Project Officer at the Trimbos Institute, which is the research institute that focuses on smoking, alcohol, drugs and mental health. My ‘Youth’ programme focuses on these themes in relation to babies, children and adolescents in the Netherlands. The great thing about the Trimbos Institute is that it carries out a lot of different projects. Within the ‘Youth’ programme, the projects range from large monitoring studies that focus on substance use among adolescents or students to combatting smoking and drinking among pregnant women; and from national campaigns such as ‘NIX18’ to creating digital teaching packs on mental health that can be used by secondary schools. Taking part in different projects allows you to rapidly learn about many different things, and to quickly discover what you like and where your expertise lies. It also means that my work is quite varied!
One of my biggest projects is substance prevention during pregnancy. This early prevention programme will hopefully ensure that fewer and fewer children are born with health difficulties. I enjoy working with professionals who are in daily contact with couples who want to have children or who are expecting a baby. We work together to try to find ways in which we can educate these couples more effectively, to have the necessary conversations or be bold enough to start such conversations and to provide cessation support. The collaboration with these professionals makes my work very practical, and it’s this connection with the actual practice combined with important social issues that makes my job so enjoyable!