At eye level with the most vulnerable

Safeguarding trust in the Swedish welfare system

Anna is passionate about finding ways to fine-tune our welfare systems so they provide better support for the children and parents with the greatest needs. One of her strengths is her ability to identify connections and see how improvements made in one area can be applied in another.

– My research doesn’t lead to major revolutionary changes, but it helps make society a little better, a little more equitable.

Anna Sarkadi grew up in Hungary under communism, the daughter of two physicians. Her father was a researcher, and her mother worked with children with severe disabilities in institutions and with adolescents in prostitution. As a young woman, Anna met a Swedish man, moved to Sweden, and completed her medical studies there.

– I find psychosocial issues incredibly interesting and became a specialist in social medicine to work at the intersection of medicine and society.

She considers the Swedish welfare system to be remarkable and is keen to protect public trust in it.

– Change is necessary because the system is facing new and more complex challenges than before. Many children are now living in child poverty – an early life stress that can alter gene expression and affect the brain for a lifetime.

Researching together with the target groups

In a research project funded by Forte, Anna and her team are studying the effects of providing financial counselling to families at risk of child poverty. Through child health services, families are offered meetings with a municipal advisor who helps, among other things, with budgeting. In another Forte-funded project, she is evaluating a model involving extended home visits by social services and child health care.

– It’s incredibly exciting. According to our preliminary results, extended home visits lead to families seeking care less often for accidents, infections, and dental problems. And when they do seek urgent care, it is more often in outpatient services than in hospitals.

She has realized how valuable it is to ask the target groups themselves how they want to be invited into various initiatives.

– For example, parents from Somali and Syrian associations have helped develop information materials about the role of social services in extended home-visit programs.

"You have to invest your own humanity to truly meet”

Anna loves exchanging ideas with her research group and watching junior researchers grow.

– The most fun is when we have a really sharp scientific discussion and I think, ‘Wow, what a great question!’ and ‘Wow, what a great answer!’—like a good tennis match.

In some projects, the people the research is about also become colleagues, when the team invites them into co-creative research. If the research concerns, for example, asylum seekers or people living in sexual vulnerability, she wants those with lived experience to influence the study design.

– They help decide which questions to ask, how to recruit participants, and how to interpret the results. They contribute their lived experience at every stage—it’s invaluable.

She acknowledges that there are easier ways to conduct research, but not better ones.

– We get absolutely fantastic results this way. But it’s also an active stance. I want all relevant knowledge, including people’s lived experiences, to be able to influence research.

When meeting those she studies, she is careful to engage at eye level, as equals.

– You have to invest your own humanity to truly meet. I’m drawn to lifting up those at the margins of society and showing that we researchers learn a tremendous amount from them.

Strong emotions in the conversations

Her research also incorporates the perspectives of children and young people. Sometimes a computer program with simple drawings of emotions is used to help young children talk about their feelings.

– Children say such insightful things if we just listen, and young people feel deeply – they remind us how intense life can be.

At times, Anna and her colleagues are confronted with heavy stories, including experiences of torture and rape. Some of those they meet are found to have suicidal thoughts.

Occasionally, the research group receives support from psychologists, both to guide how to act and to process their own emotions.

– Many of us come from clinical backgrounds and are used to distinguishing between empathy and sympathy. Of course, I’m sometimes affected—but I also get angry at injustice. I’m an incurable optimist and use that anger as energy.