Jag är docent i arbetsterapi vid Institutionen för Hälsovetenskap vid Lunds Universitet. Jag är legitimerad arbetsterapeut sedan 2001 och har en medicine doktorsexamen i ämnet arbetsterapi från Karolinska Insitutet år 2009. Min forskning syftar till att utveckla kunskap kring vardagens görande och utveckla och utvärdera olika interventioners effekt på aktivitet, delaktighet, hälsa och livskvalitet.

Pågående forskning
Jag är speciellt intresserad av att studera hur personer hanterar förändringar som uppstår i vardagen, i hemmet och samhället i samband med åldrande och/eller funktionshinder.

Samverkan för ökad kompetens I äldreomsorgen (SÖK-äldre) is a long-term collaboration project focusing on collaboration with the health care professionals in a municipal context and academia to increase the competence within Swedish elderly care. The initiative focuses on the licensed health care staff in elderly care and their need for competence development. The project aims to create a long-term sustainable platform with a focus on integrating academic education and research in aging and health with municipal activities and community planning. The goal is to develop and implement evidence-based health-promoting and preventive community initiatives to support active and healthy aging for the elderly who have initiatives from municipal health and care.

Dementia-friendly city. Since 2020, the City of Helsingborg, in collaboration with me and another researcher (Yvonne Johansson) at Lund University, has developed a research-based approach in the form of a hypothesis lab. The lab is part of the project the researching city, (Den (ut)forskande staden DUS), which is run by the Research and Development Unit for Social Sustainability in the city of Helsingborg and consists of five hypothesis labs where the research is funded through the city's innovation initiative H22. The need for a dementia - friendly society is well known and is part of the national strategic plan for care for people with dementia. Based on the World Health Organization's factors for what creates age-friendly societies, we are working with two tracks that are further explored in the hypothesis lab; dementia-friendly outdoor environments and dissemination of knowledge about dementia diseases.

Simul-Age-project where the overarching objectives are to: 1) Assessing and evaluating societal gains of a more accessible ordinary housing stock; 2) Comparing potential housing adaptations policies against other possible aging in place policies (e.g. additional home care, meals-on-wheels etc.) and 3; Providing policy makers with powerful tools for preparing and making the most informed housing policy decisions.

Natural Establishment; Nature-Based Vocational Rehabilitation for Migrants Participating in the National Scheme of Integration. This is an evaluation project at Alnarps rehabilitation garden lead by Anna Maria Palsdottir, researcher at the Swedish University of Agricultural Sciences (SLU Alnarp). The project is focusing on evaluating a nature-based vocational rehabilitation programme for newly arrived migrants.  My contribution within this project is my occupational perspective and my methodological knowledge and skills in using both quantitative and qualitative methods including mixed methods. We are currently finalizing the findings of this project.

Earlier research

The Research Strategy for Housing Adaptation
(ResHA) project is evaluating standardized intervention towards housing adaptation. The project also includes a process evaluation and a health economic evaluation. Housing adaptations and mobility devices – Evaluation of a new practice strategy 

“Doing age” at senior camps is an interdisciplinary project Pensioner camps as a phenomena where the phenomena “senior camps” are being studies from three perspectives:

•  History of ideas: How age is put into context in the organization of the senior camps.
• An ethnographic perspective: How age is constructed at the camps.
• An occupational perspective: Implications of the visit to a senior camp for older people's everyday life and health.

Doktorsavhandling: Ekstam, Lisa (2009): Förändringar i vardagslivet efter stroke: Äldre personers och pars dagliga aktiviteter under det första året hemma efter stroke, Karolinska Institutet

Jag har varit verksam som postdoktor i forskargruppen HELD på sektionen för arbetsterapi, Karolinska Institutet mellan 2010-2015. Som postdoktor i denna grupp har jag arbetat med två projekt. En prospektiv observationsstudie av rehabiliteringsprocessen efter stroke och en klusterrandomiserad kontrollerad multicenterstudie som utvärderar effekten av en klientcentrerad ADL-intervention.

Jag är programdirektör och undervisar på arbetsterapeutprogrammet på Lunds Universitet. Jag har tidigare undervisningserfarenhet från arbetsterapeutprogrammet på KI (2003-2012). Jag har varit bihandledare åt Björg Thordardottir som disputerade 2016.