The project ”Safeguarding welfare in times of pandemics: towards collaborative governance of syndemics” (WELGO) aims to develop sustainable solutions for safeguarding well-being in future health crises, building on the experience of managing the COVID-19 pandemic. In the project, pandemics are viewed as ‘syndemics’, which refer to the intertwining of different problems such as health, economic and social problems in times of crisis. WELGO aims to develop, disseminate and consolidate societal learning pathways that increase understanding of the nature of syndemics, the capacity to develop informed health crisis governance, and new collaborative skills and capacities for agile and adaptive crisis management.

The project was launched in autumn 2021 as a collaboration between the University of Helsinki, the University of Eastern Finland, the University of Tampere, the University of Vaasa, THL and Demos Helsinki. The project involves political scientists, social work researchers, social psychologists, legal scholars and other social scientists. The project is funded by the Strategic Research Council. The University of Eastern Finland is leading one of the project’s work packages, which focuses on trust, legitimacy and justice. In the work package, a team of researchers from the University of Eastern Finland will focus in particular on access to justice for older people, people living with dementia and people living with epilepsy during the pandemic. This issue will be explored through interviews and surveys, among other means. The project will also make use of the co-research method. Further information: kaijus.ervasti@uef.fi