I have studied elder care and related issues from everyday life, gender, and social policy perspectives. Key themes include welfare professionals’ encounters with clients, categorization and gatekeeping in needs assessments, as well as questions related to gender equality, gender, and ethnicity.
Empirically, my studies involve both professionals in social services and healthcare, as well as various client groups. Analyses also draw on case file materials from needs assessment processes. Methodologically, I primarily use qualitative methods, though in recent projects I have also employed quantitative approaches.
DEM(H)CARE 2024–2031
Currently I am PI for the six-year interdisciplinary research programme DEM(H)CARE – Coordinated interventions between elder care, home healthcare and primary care, aiming to develop “best practice” for older people living at home with cognitive impairment.
Funded by Forte, the programme examines how care and support for older people with dementia living at home are currently organized in Sweden. A central aim is to identify and develop good examples of coordinated collaboration between home care, home healthcare, and primary care, in order to strengthen the quality and equity of support for older people and their families.
Documentation Practices in Elder Care
I also participate in the project Does IBIC contribute to improved practice? A study of caseworkers’ files and perspectives on documentation in elder care, funded by the Kamprad Family Foundation. The project is led by Professor Sandra Torres at Uppsala University and explores how care managers within eldercare reason about documentation practices and what they choose to document in their case files.
Research Group
I am research leader of the group Gerontological Social Work (GEROSOC), together with Senior Associate Professor Annika Taghizadeh Larsson. The group includes around fifteen members and brings together researchers studying what it means to grow old in contemporary society and the role of social work in ageing.
Research Interests
- Gerontological social work and elder care
- Older people with dementia
- Professional practices and documentation processes in social services and healthcare
- Interaction between professionals and clients
- Categorization, equality, and access to welfare
- Social policy reforms directed at older people
- Social problems in later life
- Gender equality, gender, and ethnicity in care practices
Teaching
I primarily teach at the advanced level, serving as the course coordinator for Perspectives on Aging and Later Life in Social Work.
Supervision of doctoral students is also a key aspect of my work.
