The health insurance company de Friesland considers dancing medicine

Dancing can be medicine, including for people with Parkinson’s disease. Health insurance company De Friesland will compensate dance lessons for that group of patients starting next year.

Since 2017, the Dance on Recipe Foundation has been offering dance lessons to people with Parkinson’s disease, including those using a wheelchair, in association with Rehelve Friesland. This takes place in nine different locations in Friesland.

Scientific research now shows that the lessons pay off mentally and physically, giving patients self-confidence, and 55 percent of dancers have reduced or even stopped using physical therapy at all.

oil slick

De Friesland responds to this. The health insurance company will lower the financial threshold for participating in these dance lessons by partially reimbursing the lessons. The amount of reimbursement depends on the use and the way people are insured, explains De Friesland spokesperson Rob Propsma. “In any case, we hope this spreads like an oil slick over Holland and that others will follow now that the usefulness of dancing has been proven.”

Propsma does not exclude the possibility that in the future, if there is a similar scientific basis for efficacy, the regulation may also apply to people with chronic pain or acquired brain injury.

Artistic Director Marilyn Sinstra of Dans op Recept is pleased to acknowledge. “People move more easily, and the joy of dancing and connecting with others makes them feel better about themselves.”