Anna Mäki-Petäjä-Leinonen, Professor of Law and Ageing, works at Faculty of Social Sciences and Business Studies at the Law School, University of Eastern Finland. Her research has focused on Elder Law combining jurisprudence (Civil Law and Social- and Medical Law) with social and medical sciences.
Anna leads the Center of Law and Welfare and the Neuro-Ethics and Law Research Team, which is part of the multidisciplinary Neuroscience Research Community (NEURO RC). She also serves as a co-consortium leader in an international project investigating the specific issues of people with dementia at work age (MCI @work) and national the Safeguarding welfare in times of pandemics: towards collaborative governance of syndemics (WELGO) project.
The Neuro-Ethics and Law research team focuses on the research related to patients’ rights in brain diseases and other disabilities. In line with a holistic approach, their aim is to ensure that patients and their families, despite the illness, have the opportunity to live a good life with dignity and to be recognized as full members of society. The group is developing co-research together with the Neuro-Impact and Innovation Research Team led by Professor Päivi Eriksson. Older people, people with dementia, and their family members will have the opportunity to contribute to research at all its stages. “We follow a research philosophy which accepts that many people with dementia and others with reduced functional capacity are able to represent themselves or to speak for those who are no longer able to. Older people, people with dementia, their family members, and interest organizations are involved in planning and conducting research, and in promoting their rights,” Anna emphasizes.
The focus of the Center of Law and Welfare research activities is on the rights that have a connection to the well-being of an individual at all stages of the life cycle. The interest is in the different legal aspects of welfare services; how they are defined, organized, produced, and supervised. In addition, the Center of Law and Welfare brings together welfare-related legal research, expertise, and education from the University of Eastern Finland. The Center, consisting of almost 30 researchers, is the field’s major research and educational center point in Finland.
“Multidisciplinary collaboration is very important. For example, the Neuroscience Research Community clearly shares an ambition to examine the issues affecting people with dementia and epilepsy more comprehensively than before”, describes Anna Mäki-Petäjä-Leinonen, an active member of the regional steering group of the Neuroscience Finland Kuopio Brain & Mind Network.
Center of Law and Welfare: https://uefconnect.uef.fi/en/group/welfare-law/ and https://sites.uef.fi/hyvinvointioikeus/?lang=en
Neuro-Ethics and Law Research Team: https://uefconnect.uef.fi/en/group/neuro-ethics-and-law-research-team/
Dementia or MCI @ work in progress project: https://uefconnect.uef.fi/en/group/dementia-or-mci-work-in-progress/
Safeguarding welfare in times of pandemics: towards collaborative governance of syndemics (WELGO): https://www.aka.fi/en/strategic-research/strategic-research/strategic-research-in-a-nutshell/programmes-and-projects/pandemics/welgo/
Neuro-impact and innovation research team: https://uefconnect.uef.fi/en/group/neuro-impact-and-innovation-research-team/