Lena Östlund

Lena Östlund has a Master of  Gerontology, licentiat degree in Welfare and Social Science and work as a Lecturer at the Institute of Gerontology at the School of Health and Welfare.  Since graduating from social worker´s degree in 1986, Lena has worked in various areas of social work such as adict care, family care and  as a first line manager at a residential care for persons with dementia.  

In her master's thesis, she studied how staff perceive working with people with behavioral and psychological symptoms of dementia (BPSD).  In the licentiate thesis, the aim were to explore staff´s experiences of obtaining consent to avoid coercive and restrictive measures in the care of persons with dementia and to explore how staff reason and act when they suspect domestic abuse perpetrated by relatives of persons with dementia.

Lena is programme coordinator for courses at the Institute of Gerontology. 

RESEARCH

Lena participates in a project run from Linköping University (REAGERA) where she participates in data collection through interviews with social workers about how they ask older people and their relatives about the occurrence of violence.