Pia Eriksson has been appointed Associate Professor of Practice Research in Social Work. In her new role, Eriksson will serve as the co-director of the Helsinki Practice Research Centre. Pia has extensive and diverse experience in research and development work in the field of social work.
“Conducting practice-relevant research in close collaboration with various actors in the field has always felt important to me. Therefore, I am particularly pleased to have the opportunity to promote and strengthen that research tradition in my new role”, Eriksson describes.
Prior to her appointment, she worked at the Finnish Institute for Health and Welfare (THL) in research, expert, and development roles. Eriksson also has experience as a university lecturer in social work at the University of Helsinki and as a research social worker at the Matilda Wrede Institute.
Her research focuses particularly on out-of-home care within child protection. Eriksson has led several projects that have addressed the well-being and experiences of children in care, the organization and supervision of out-of-home care, as well as restrictive measures in residential care. She is currently studying the effectiveness and quality of residential care for teenagers as a child welfare intervention within the ACElife project, funded by the Strategic Research Council.
“HPRC feels familiar to me in many ways because I have closely followed its founding and participated in the long-standing activities on which it is based”, Eriksson remarks.
We warmly welcome Pia to the HPRC team!