Maria Papadakaki
Dr Maria Papadakaki is a assistant Professor at the Department of Social Work at the Technological Educational Institute of Crete. She has served as a member of the Ministerial Scientific Committee for the Greek Primary Care Reform organised by the Ministry of Health and Social Solidarity (Ministerial Decree 1δ/71967/31-07-2013). She obtained a first degree in Social Work, holds an MPH (2006, Faculty of Medicine, University of Crete), and a PhD from the Faculty of Medicine of the University of Crete. She has been teaching in two Master Degree Courses (MSc) in “Public Health and Health Care Management” and “General Practice and Primary Health Care” since 2005. She has additional teaching experience in continuing educational programmes targeting health care professionals in Greece and is currently the vice president of the Regional Council of Social Workers (SKLE) in Greece.
She has collaborated and communicates frequently with colleagues in other countries. She is accustomed to working at an international level, both through her involvement in research and through her affiliations with European organisations. (1) Involved in an FP6 project named “HAPPY AUDIT” (SP5A-CT-2007-044154) since 2008 with thirteen collaborating organisations – the project explored prescribing patterns on respiratory tract infections in primary health care, (2) involved in a FP7 project involving six countries focusing on cultural and language barriers confronted in cross-cultural consultations and aiming at the optimisation of the medical and psychosocial primary care for migrants in Europe (FP7-RESTORE-257258), (3) involved in an FP7 project about Over-the-Counter medication use, in eight EU countries (FP7-OTC SOCIOMED-223654), (4) involved in an EU funded project on Youth Sexual Victimisation (DG SANCO – Youth Sexual Violence – 2009 12 22) funded by the Executive Agency for Health and Consumers (EAHC), (5) involved in LDV projects (LLP-LdV-TOI-2007-TR-008) in collaboration with Departments of Psychology in Turkey and Finland, (6) nominated as the national representative in a COST action funded by the European commission (COST ACTION TU1101), (7) obtained extensive experience in quantitative research methodology and has been actively involved as a research team member in various pioneering academic research projects, under national and European funding, investigating the impact of lifestyle and risky driving behaviours on driving performance (e.g. Operational Programme for Education and Initial Vocational Training – EPEAEK).
Lastly, she has co-authored a number of research papers in well-established peer-reviewed journals in Greece and abroad (ISI and PubMed) on the correlates of risky driving behaviour as well as on other health and safety-related issues. Some of the most recent papers she has co-authored are “Freight transport and non-driving work duties as predictors of falling asleep at the wheel in urban areas of Greece”, published in the Journal of Safety Research and “An investigation of the effects of sleepiness, drowsy driving and lifestyle on vehicle crashes” published in the Journal of Transportation Research, Part F. She has presented and published her work in national and international conference proceedings (e.g. 3rd & 4th International Conference on Traffic & Transport Psychology, International Congress of Applied Psychology). She has a special interest in high-risk behaviours.