This study is about how social workers use knowledge in their investigation work. The study includes 16 social workers documentation of their knowledge use in 21 investigations in three personal social services in Västerbotten, Sweden. The three research-questions that the study aims to answer are: what knowledge do they use, how do they use their knowledge and on what grounds do they choose these knowledge’s? The studies empirical findings are a result of a systematic documentation instrument SPP (Systematic Planned Practice). The instrument consists of seven different forms that together correspond to the whole investigation process, from the first meeting with the client to a complete investigation. The SPP-instrument was designed by Professor Aaron Rosen from Washington University in St. Louis, USA. The SPP-instrument was used in this study as tool to gather information on what knowledge social workers use in the investigation work. The seven forms that the instrument consists of were sent to the social workers electronically. In each step of the investigation work the social workers filled out each form and send them back to the researcher for analyse. The results from the study shows that social workers use a variety of different types of knowledge as a base for their decisions in the investigation work. In the majority of these knowledge’s the social workers relates them to actual client situations. When the social workers describe how they use their knowledge the result shows that they use different strategies to express their use of knowledge in relation to specific decisions in the investigation work. How they use these knowledge’s seams not to correspond with what kind of knowledge they have used. The social workers claims that their choice of knowledge as roughly has to do with two different set of circumstances: 1) circumstances that limits their choice of knowledge and 2) circumstances that they intellectual know that they can influence ones they reflect upon their choices, but not during the actual choice of knowledge. All together the study shows that the social workers use of knowledge is partly a hidden process that they have trouble to express in writing. However this do not mean that they are short of relevant knowledge for their profession. Instead it shows that social workers use of knowledge is highly situational and that their use of knowledge is a cognitive process that is difficult to describe or conceptualise.

The purpose of this essay was to study which arguments social workers used in the basis of their estimation concerning young people of the age 13-18 given an aid, a contact person (swe. kontaktperson). The purpose was also to describe how the legal paragraph, regarding contact person, is regulated and then compare the arguments made by the social worker with the intentions expressed by the legislator. To answer our purposes we studied the law and the intentions expressed by the legislator, which is the foundation for the legal paragraph that regulates contact person, 3 chap. 6 §. Through studies of social journals at five local authorities we collected material to make a comparison between the arguments found in the journals with the intentions expressed by the legislator. We used legal method and the perspective of sociology of law. The Swedish law, Socialtjänstlagen (2001:453) is a basic law which means that our legal paragraph, 3 chap 6 §, is open for interpretation. It is every local authority's own option how to apply the paragraph. The results showed that the social workers do use the same terms as the legislator. Our results also showed that the social workers to a great extent used arguments that could not be traced to the intentions expressed by the legislator. The essay is a quantitative study. Our data has been processed through a program for statistical analysis, SPSS, version 14.0 (Statistical Package for Social Sciences).

The purpose of this study was investigating the means which rule the social worker’s choice of institution placing youths and how they match the youth’s individual need compared with the type of home. The questions were: Which significance has the characteristics of the youth and their family for the placing? Which significance has the characteristics of the institution? Which significance has the social workers’ way of working, investigation, theories, economy etc.? A qualitative way of interviewing has been used. Eight interviews were done; six with social welfare secretaries who place youths and two social workers who work with coun­selling and placement. The choice of respondents was made from a systematic selection be­cause they were considered having knowledge of the subject. The interviews were taped, which enabled several revisions. Then concentrations and structural analysis were made in order to look for both common and deviant patterns in the material. The analysis and inter­pretation is based upon the theory of risk, behaviour, response and systems alongside with earlier studies in the subject. The conclusions were that there was a combination of factors which ruled the choice: the need of the youth, earlier experience of institutions, and pro­fes­sional network connections. The social welfare secretary realized the importance of matching but saw difficulties in acute placing and shortage of places. In order to facilitate for the social welfare secretary there is a need for a system where they can get objective informa­tion about the institutions for example from a co-ordinating authority. / Syftet med studien var att undersöka vad som styr socialarbetarens val av institution vid pla­cering av ungdomar och hur de matchar behandlingshem utifrån ungdomens individuella be­hov. Frågeställningarna var: Vilken betydelse för placeringen har egenskaper hos ungdomarna och deras familjer? Vilken betydelse för placeringen har egenskaper hos institutionen? Vilken betydelse för placeringen har socialtjänstens arbetssätt, utredningar, teorier, ekonomi mm? En kvalitativ intervjumetod har använts. Åtta stycken intervjuer gjordes varav sex med pla­ce­rande socialsekreterare och två socialarbetare med rådgivnings- och placeringsfunktion. Ur­valet av respondenterna gjordes utifrån ett systemiskt urval då respondenterna antogs be­sitta relevant kunskap i ämnet. Till grund för analys och tolkning ligger risk-, behovs- och respon­sivitetsteorin, systemteorin samt tidigare forskning i och omkring ämnet. Slutsatsen blev att det som styr valen av institution var en kombination av barnets behov, tidigare erfaren­het av institutioner och professionellt kontaktnät. Socialarbetaren insåg vikten av matchning men såg svårigheter vid akuta placeringar och platsbrist. För att underlätta för social­arbetaren behövs ett fungerande system där de kan få objektiv information om institu­tionerna som exempelvis en samordnande instans.

This study aims to further Work-family conflict research for Social Workers by providing insight into what kind of impact the job role of social workers in Sweden has on their private lives and how they deal with it. The study operates from a qualitative approach and is based on three focus group-interviews and three semi-structured interviews with people working in different fields of social work. The empirical material has been analyzed through the Dramaturgical Perspective and Frame concept of Erving Goffman. The results of this study show that the job role impacts the psychological well-being of social workers, their family life and their social life to varying degrees, mainly due to organizational and client-based aspects, often resulting in role-conflicts and a lack of energy in their private lives. The primary strategies were found to be conversing with colleagues, spending time alone, embracing hobbies and having a clear understanding of individual responsibility.

The purpose of this study was to examine social workers working process in social assistance with focus on the child´s perspective. We were interested in learning about the existence of variations in approach and attitude between two municipalities. Question to be answered about what methods and approaches used by social workers to include the child´s perspective in the process of social assistance. Another question to be answered about what the manner in which social workers took into account the child´s perspective when the families apply for social assistance in relation to the operations and requirement. To fulfill the purpose, qualitative methods were used. Interviews were conducted with six social workers, three social workers in each municipality. The results of the interviews were analyses based on research and knowledge reviews and based on theory of street level bureaucracy. The study´s results show variations between the two municipalities in the social workers account of the child´s perspective in social assistance. The results also show that there was no established method or model in municipalities that made it clear to examiners how the child´s perspective should be taken into account in work with families. Instead the social workers of laws, policies, local conditions and the officers´ own discretion assumed how to best take in to account the child´s perspective in the work. When families applied for social assistance, social workers always tried to consider the child´s perspective. Families with children had the opportunity to be granted extra efforts that benefited children and the requirements were not as strict for families with children, as for other individuals without children who applied for social assistance.

The purpose of this essay has been to study the different discourses that are expressed in social welfare secretaries’ assertions when they assess cases with elements of honour-related violence, intimidation and oppression. To do so I have used a discourse analysis theory and technique, based on three qualitative interviews with social welfare secretaries. The interviews were focused on vignettes, which were all fictitious cases with various elements of honour-related violence. One of the interviews was a focus groupinterview with four participants, while the other two interviews were individual. I have also used the theoretical perspective ”ideological dilemmas” in my analysis. The main conclusion is that there seems to be several discourses competing for space when the social welfare secretaries assess cases of this sort. On the one hand there is a strong ”family support discourse”, but on the other hand there is also a strong ”protection discourse” that are competing for space. Another conclusion is that there is a main dilemma that characterizes these cases, which arises when the victim declines protection from the social welfare. Then the social welfare secretaries need to make a choice whether or not to intervene against the victims’ will.

Our main aim with this study is to shed a light over the social workers opinions about what they believe will be the consequences of introducing Housing First in the city of Stockholm. We wanted to examine the social workers perceptions about how Housing First could change their client’s autonomy and justice. Therefor we accomplished five qualitative interviews with social workers. We analyzed our empirical material with the theoretical terms; justice, autonomy and intern role-conflict. The results and analysis showed that the social workers considered that their client’s autonomy and justice increases by the Housing First model. We also found that Housing First seems to reduce the social workers intern role-conflict. We found that the reason might be that they do not have to choose between different expectations in the same extent as when they work with the continuum of care model. The result also showed that the social workers believed that the more independent the clients are towards the social services and the social workers demands, the more dependent the clients become towards the social workers, by the means of motivation work.

Socialsekreterare är en yrkesgrupp med stora påfrestningar emotionellt och ärendemässigt. Enligt tidigare studier har belastningen på socialsekreterare de senaste tio åren ökat. Syftet med denna studie är att få en ökad förståelse för hur socialsekreterare upplever sin arbetssituation. Utifrån ett hermeneutiskt perspektiv belyses vilka emotioner som uppkommer i arbetet och hur socialsekreterare hanterar dessa samt vilken betydelse socialt stöd har för hur de uppfattar sin arbetssituation. Studien bygger på en sammansatt metod bestående av kvalitativa intervjuer och textanalys. De fem socialsekreterare som intervjuats arbetar inom socialtjänstens barn- och ungdomsavdelning. Analysen är utförd utifrån fyra teman: emotioner och emotionellt arbete, yrkesroll och yrkesidentitet, sociala relationer, socialt stöd och responsivitet samt byråkrati. Förutom analys av materialet från intervjuundersökningen analyseras en debattartikel av Pia Tham från DN debatt och tre repliker på denna. I resultatet framkommer att stöd från chefer och kollegor är avgörande för att uppleva sin arbetssituation som hanterbar och arbetet som positivt. Socialsekreterare som känner ett gott socialt stöd på arbetsplatsen mår bra i sitt arbete och känner yrkesstolthet medan de som inte upplever tillräckligt socialt stöd upplever mer negativ stress, uttrycker hälsoproblem och vill lämna sitt arbete. / Social workers are a professional group of workers that deal with emotional strains on a daily basis. According to previous studies the workload of social workers has increased within the last ten years. The aim of this study is to increase the understanding of how social workers perceive their work situation. Based from a hermeneutic perspective, the emotions that appear in the workfield and how social workers handle those emotions are highlighted, as well as the importance social support has on how they perceive their work situation. A mixed method consisting qualitative interviewes  and text analysis is used. The five social workers that are interwiewed are working within the children social services and youth department. The analysis is based on four themes; emotions and emotional work, professional role and professional identity, social relations, social support and responsivity, and finaly bureaucracy. In addition to analysing the material from the interwiews a debate article of Pia Tham from DN debatt has been analysed as well as three replications of this article. The result reveals that support of managers and colleagues  is essential for social workers to percieve their work situation as manageable and work as positive. Social workers who experience strong social support in their workfield feel good and useful about their job, and they look up to their profession with pride, while on the other hand, those that do not experience a proper social support feel more of the negative stress, express more health problems and wants to leave their work.

Detta examensarbete syftar till att genom kvalitativa intervjuer undersöka skolkuratorers uppfattningar om och erfarenheter av skolsocialt arbete med suicidalitet hos elever. Två frågor har ställts. Den första frågan handlar om skolkuratorers uppfattningar och erfarenheter av suicidalitet hos elever. Resultatet visar att suicidalitet uppfattas vara ovanligt förekommande bland de elever skolkuratorerna har kontakt med, trots att erfarenheter av självmordstankar, självmordsförsök och självmord finns. Stress, psykisk ohälsa och svåra livssituationer ses vara bidragande orsaker till suicidalitet hos elever. Den andra frågan handlar om hur skolkuratorer beskriver det praktiska arbetet med suicidalitet hos elever. Resultatet visar att även om det i arbetet finns möjligheter att upptäcka och arbeta med suicidala elever är dessa möjligheter begränsade. Skolkuratorerna saknar i hög utsträckning suicidpreventiva instrument för att upptäcka och arbeta med suicidalitet i skolan. Istället beskrivs relationer med elever, samt internt samarbete med andra personalgrupper i skolan, utgöra grunden för arbetet med suicidalitet. / This study aims to examine school social workers perceptions and experiences of school social work with suicidality among students. To fulfill this purpose, six qualitative interviews have been made and two questions have been asked. The first question we asked was what kind of perceptions and experiences school social workers have when it comes to suicidality among adolescents in school. The second question we asked was how school social workers describe their practical work with students who are suicidal. The result shows that even though there are experiences of students who have suicidal thoughts, students who have made suicide attempts and students who have committed suicide, suicidality among students is something that is perceived as rare among the school social workers. Stress, mental health problems and difficult life situations is seen to be contributing causes of this phenomena. The result also shows, that school social workers in some ways have the ability to discover and work with students who are suffering from suicidality. However, these possibilities are also limited. School social workers experience a lack of instruments to detect suicide and to be able to work with suicidality in school. Instead, school social workers describes relationships and collaboration with both students and with other groups of staff in school as the primary basis for their work with suicidality among students.

Magistro darbe siekiama atskleisti socialinio darbo ir socialinės pedagogikos studijų programų studentų profesinės karjeros skatinimo galimybes studijų procese. Siekiama išsiaiškinti, kokie asmeniniai veiksniai skatina studentų profesinę motyvaciją ir tolesnę profesinę karjerą, kokios nuostatos būsimos profesijos atžvilgiu formuojamos paskaitų ir profesinės praktikos metu bei kokie metodai pasitelkiami skatinant studentų profesinės karjeros pasirinkimą aukštosiose mokyklose. / The paper deals with the theoretical analysis of the stimulation possibilities of professional career motivation of students of social work and social pedagogy. Personal motives of professional motivation and subsequent professional career, attitudes towards future profession formed by lectures and professional practice and also methods of professional career stimulation in the high schools was considered in the empirical part.