Severe Health Conditions and Household Deprivation

A person with severe health conditions faces capability deprivations that can affect both the well- being of the person him\herself and that of the household, in both material and non-material do- mains. From a capability-approach perspective, we analyse the material and non-material depri- vation of households when one member is affected by a severe health condition with relevant dis- abling consequences. Furthermore, we investigate the main determinants of such deprivation, en- abling the identification of tailored policies. The empirical analysis is conducted on a dataset of families with a member with acquired brain injury (ABI). ABIs may cause cognitive, physical and/or behavioural impairments. Our results show that the presence of a family member with an ABI is correlated with higher economic vulnerability and a lower quality of social relations within the family. From a policy perspective, our findings imply that economic support is not sufficient to foster the well-being of persons and families ABI members.