Five new projects granted funds by the research council Forte

This year, the research council Forte's annual call for proposals within health, working life and welfare received 1,247 applications. A total of 89 project applications have been granted funds, of which four come from Linnaeus University.

Verner Denvall, professor of social work, has been granted SEK 4,130,000 for the project Take away – disinvestment of established methods when implementing new psychosocial interventions for homeless people and people with mental illness. The project is based on the hypothesis that an organisation's ability to get rid of less well-functioning methods is central when new methods are to be established.

"We will introduce two new strongly evidence-based methods: Housing First and Individual Placement and Support. These methods are recommended in national guidelines and we will make a survey of the 39 municipalities that have tried implementing any of them with varying results.

Relief or encumbrance

Relief or encumbrance? About teachers, teacher assistants and negotiations about professional boundaries [Av- eller belastning? Om lärare, lärarassistenter och förhandlingar om professionella gränser] has been granted SEK 3,764,000 by Forte. The project will carry out research on the initiatives that are taken at Swedish schools to provide relief for teachers by introducing so-called teacher assistants.

"What is interesting to study from a research perspective is how teaching work is divided, how professional boundaries are negotiated and shifted, and whether the intended relief effects are achieved", explains Per Lindqvist, professor at the department of education and project manager.

How are childcare investigations affected when they are carried out by publicly employed social workers and private consultants respectively? To analyse and deepen the knowledge within this field is the aim of the project Child protection assessments as a private market – changes in organization and professional practice, which has been granted SEK 3,430,000 by Forte. Project manager is Ulrika Järkestig-Berggren, associate professor at the department of social work.

The fourth project that has been granted funds in the call for proposals within health, working life and welfare has the title The ties that bind fragmented care – best practices definitions and measures of continuity of care. Project manager is Mirjam Ekstedt, professor of health sciences, and the grant is SEK 4,530,000. The aim is to map out what are best practices in the chain of care for people who live with lingering, complex illnesses and to develop objective measures for continuity in the care.

"Continuity in the care is considered to contribute to secure and efficient care. The problem is that what is actually viewed as continuity differs depending on whether you are a patient, nursing staff or care provider. This makes it difficult to measure and evaluate. This is something we want to change", says Mirjam Ekstedt.

New project on doping use

Forte's call for proposals within the research fields of alcohol, narcotics, doping, tobacco and gambling received 75 applications. One of the ten projects that were granted funds was Pumping up the ego: Biographical studies on young people's doping trajectories. This project is led by Jesper Andersson, associate professor at the department of sport science, and aims to investigate and identify different ways of approaching and negotiating the meanings of illicit doping use and health in contemporary Swedish society. Pumping up the ego has been granted SEK 3,346,000.

Forte is a research council and a government agency under the Swedish Ministry of Health and Social Affairs that distributes around SEK 550 million every year to research.

Contact

Verner Denvall, professor of social work, phone +46470-76 75 23
Per Lindqvist, professor at the department of education, phone +46480-44 67 57
Ulrika Järkestig-Berggren, associate professor at the department of social work, phone +46480-44 63 83
Mirjam Ekstedt, professor of health sciences, phone +46480-44 63 99
Jesper Andreasson, associate professor at the department of sport science, phone +46480-44 60 91
Annika Sand, senior press officer, phone +4676-830 01 05