[Struggling against poverty or its effects ? Early intervention programs.]

This article looks at poverty from the point of view that it does not necessarily correspond to the widespread image of chronic despair and resignation, acquired and transmitted from one generation to the next. The author argues such an image is produced by the fact that social and mental health services deal mainly with families at grips with multiple, long-standing problems. However, for most of these poor families, their condition is temporary. In fact, insufficient revenue is what distinguishes them from families that are not poor. While preventive programs show that early intervention is a proven approach towards considerably improving the psycho-social development of underpriveledged children and parents, little can be said about the effect of these programs on lowering, even less on eliminating, poverty itself. For the most part, these programs emerged from a clinical approach that encouraged poverty-stricken individuals to acquire new abilities and skills. The author concludes by promoting the need for more collaboration between those people offering the programs and those people who work towards changing the conditions at the root of poverty.