Swedish Funding for Clinical Research in Behavior Analysis
By JoAnne Dahl Olerud, Ph.D.
Getting funded for doing clinical
research in Sweden is not complicated, especially if you choose an
application that is of national interest, which is most commonly
how to save the taxpayers money. I have been involved in designing
and implementing applications of behavioral analysis in a number of
medical areas that cost Swedish taxpayers, the government and
insurance companies significant portions of their budgets. Costs
for sick leave, work absenteeism, and health care consumption have
skyrocketed There is great interest in developing models for
getting people back to work. In Sweden, insurance companies are
presently making major funding available to researchers who are
willing to develop and evaluate programs to reduce these costs.
The Swedish government research
institute has deemed multidisciplinary rehabilitation programs
based on a behavioral analysis of pain behavior to be the most
effective means of helping persons get back to work. These programs
are, however, costly. Insurance companies, especially, are looking
for treatment models that can be used both preventively and as
interventions for helping persons who have gotten stuck in
different symptoms.
The last few years we have been
developing preventive and treatment models based on the "third
wave" behavioral programs, which offer a simpler, more cost
effective intervention. There has been great interest from
occupational health centers, insurance companies and rehabilitation
centers in implementing these cost effective models. Even though
Sweden may be extreme compared to other countries, with its
unlimited health care and sick leave, the models developed in
helping people get back to work would probably be applicable in
many places. We are also developing integrative health models as an
alternative to the medical models in countries like Africa, Serbia,
and India, which do not have access to the quick fix drugs of
western health care. Within the European community, we could
collaborate on these efforts and there is EU funding available.
There are also ethical reasons for cooperation with developing
countries to find alternatives to the commercialized medical model
of health care. We have much to learn from each other.