Rheumatic diseases have a major impact on everyday life and often leads to participation restrictions in activities. Significant others also have a big impact on everyday life, in both positive and negative ways. Significant others are often emphasized as the biggest and most important support for functioning well in everyday life, but can also be experienced as showing lack of understanding.
How can we ensure that significant others act as the best possible support for persons with rheumatic diseases, and thereby enable the patient’s participation in everyday life? What do the patients wish? What kind of needs are the significant others requesting? These are questions that I explored in my dissertation "Participation and support in everyday life over a decade - perspectives of persons with rheumatoid arthritis and their significant others. I would further like to explore how significant others can be a resource in enabling participation in the everyday lives of persons with rheumatoid arthritis (RA).
Another field of research is work life and, in particular, the opportunity for these persons to have a sustainable and meaningful work life. I am therefore involved in a project where a digital application aiming to support a sustainable work life, is adapted to diagnoses such as RA. This application goes by the name SWEPPE (Sustainable WorkEr, digital support for Persons with chronic Pain and their Employers).
The Occupational Therapy Programme
I am also a lecturer at the Occupational Therapy Programme at Campus Norrköping. Primarily I work with students during their first and fourth semester.
