Ausra Saxvik
About Ausra Saxvik
PhD student at School of Public Health and Community Medicine
General practitioner
Resident physician in Clinical Pharmacology at Sahlgrenska University hospital, Gothenburg, Sweden.
I am a General Practitioner (GP) and have worked in primary care since 2000, after completing my studies at Vilnius University in Lithuania. In 2008, I was recruited to Sweden, where I completed my GP specialization. During this time, I gained experience from various hospital departments and took several mandatory courses, including Introduction to Research and Leadership.
My main area of interest is collaborative care and workplace collaboration, particularly in relation to the management of depression, anxiety, and stress-related mental disorders in the primary care context. In my PhD project, I work with both qualitative and quantitative research methods.
In 2025, I was awarded an ALF-funded position, which allows me to dedicate 50% of my working time to research within the framework of my employment at the university hospital of Gothenburg over a two - year period.
Introduction
The dissertation will study the importance of collaboration between patient - primary care centre - workplace for the care of patients with common mental disorders at the primary care level. The emphasis will be on the importance of a supportive organization at the primary care center for making implementation of person-centered care during different phases of the illness possible, and at the same time support the individual's early return to work without negative impact on the rehabilitation process. Both the patients’ and the physicians' perceptions and experiences of care as well as the course of symptoms during sick leave, the extent of sick leave, and the rehabilitation processes will be studied using quantitative and qualitative methodology. Purpose The purpose of the present thesis is to evaluate whether an organization at the PCC with close cooperation between the care manager, the general practitioner, and the rehabilitation coordinator, together with a structured workplace intervention, entails earlier return to work for patients on sick- leave because of CMD compared with patients who only have received the usual care manager support and no structured person-centred workplace dialogue.
The research questions are:
1. What are the patients’ perceptions and experiences of structured teambased cooperation between Care Manager, Rehab Coordinator and General Practitioner together with workplace person-centred dialogue?
2. What are the General Practitioners’ perceptions and experiences of structured teambased cooperation between Care Manager, Rehabilitation Coordinator and General Practitioner together with workplace person-centred dialogue?
3. Does a combination of Care Manager function and Rehabilitation Coordinator workplace intervention (CO-WORK-CARE) for patients on sick leave for depression, anxiety and stress related mental disorder imply an earlier reduction of depressive, anxiety and/or stress symptoms compared with individuals who have only received the structured Care Manager contact?
4. Does a combination of Care Manager function and Rehabilitation Coordinator workplace intervention (CO-WORK-CARE) give earlier return to work for patients on sick leave for depression, anxiety and stress related mental disorder and less number of one year net sick-leave days compared with patients who have only received the structured Care Manager contact?
Doctoral thesis
1. Saxvik A, Törnbom K, Petersson E-L, Hange D, Nejati S, Björkelund C, Svenningsson I. Experiences of Patients with Common Mental Disorders concerning Team-based Primary Care and a Person-Centered Dialogue Meeting: an Intervention to promote return to work. Submitted PLOS One June 2021 , published July 2022. Aim: To investigate patients’ experiences of being part of a collaborative care model including a person-centered dialogue meeting with the employer and with a rehabilitation coordinator as the moderator. Method: A qualitative design based on individual interviews with persons diagnosed with common mental disorders who participated in the Co-Work-Care model. Persons were recruited as a heterogeneous sample with respect to age, gender, work background, and time since the intervention. Analyze method: Systematic Text Condensation.
2. Saxvik A, Svenningsson I, Törnbom K,, Petersson E-L, Björkelund C, Gabartaite G, Hange D. "Gaining control through close collaboration" - GPs’ experiences of a Collaborative Care Model for patients with Common Mental Disorders who need sick leave certification. Submitted BJGP Open Mars 2022. Aim: To explore General Practitioners’ experiences of the Co-Work-Care model - a collaborative care organisation at the Primary Care Centre (PCC) including a person-centred dialogue meeting in the care of patients with Common Mental Disorders who need sick leave certification. Method: GPs were sampled purposefully from different Co-Work-Care intervention PCCs in Sweden. Focus group and individual in-depth semi-structured interviews were conducted. All interviews were analysed by Systematic Text Condensation according to Malterud.
3. Björkelund C, Saxvik, A, Svenningsson I, Petersson E-L, Jonsdottir I, Hensing G, Hagberg M, Wikberg C, Ariai N, Nejati S, Larsson M, Hange D. Cooperation for patients with common mental disorders: care manager function at the primary care centre and person centred workplace dialogue –12 months follow up of symptoms of CMD and Return to work - CO-WORK-CARE; a pragmatic randomised controlled trial. Aim: To evaluate if a combination of Care Manager function and Rehab Coordinator workplace intervention (CO-WORK-CARE) for patients on sick leave for depression, anxiety and stress related mental disorder implies an earlier reduction of depressive, anxiety and/or stress symptoms compared with individuals who have only received the structured Care Manager contact. Method: Trial Design: A cluster randomized controlled trial of two groups (intervention and control). Randomization at the level of the primary care centers (PCCs). Intervention; early care manager-rehabilitation coordinator cooperation at the primary care centre and person centred workplace dialogue. Follow up 12 months.
4. Saxvik A, Björkelund C, Petersson E-L, Svenningsson I, Hensing G, Jonsdottir I, Hagberg M, Wikberg C, Ariai N, Nejati S, Larsson M, Hange D. Effects of a structured primary care intervention on course of sick listing, work ability, and function in a person centred collaboration with the workplace for newly sicklisted patients - a pragmatic randomised controlled trial. Method: See under Doctoral thesis 3! In this manuscript, we will cooperate with Swedish Social Insurance Agency (Försäkringskassan’s) MiDAS register on sicklisting>14 days. We will cooperate especially with prof Hensing on data management of sick listing data.