Det finns faktorer på arbetet som påverkar yrkesverksamma till att bli mer eller mindre stressade. Socialt arbete inom socialtjänsten präglas ofta av en hög arbetsbelastning, höga krav, orealistiska förväntningar och i allmänhet ett komplext arbete. Det är något som påverkar hur den enskilda socialarbetaren upplever stress. Studiens syfte är att undersöka risk- och skyddsfaktorer för yrkesrelaterad stress hos socialarbetare samt deras copingstrategier vid stress. Den valda metoden för studien är kvalitativa semistrukturerade intervjuer med fyra socialarbetare inom socialtjänsten. Intervjuerna analyserades tematiskt med studiens tre centrala teman som huvudfokus: riskfaktorer, skyddsfaktorer och copingstrategier för stress. De teoretiska utgångspunkterna för studien är fenomenologi, Karasek och Theorells (1990) krav, kontroll och stöd modell samt teoretiska begrepp såsom yrkesrelaterad stress, risk- och skyddsfaktorer samt copingstrategier. Studiens resultat pekar på att socialarbetarna inte upplevde stress i stor omfattning, men kopplade stress främst till hög arbetsbelastning. Vi diskuterar om tillgången till socialt stöd och upplevelsen av kontroll kan ha agerat som en "buffert" mot yrkesrelaterad stress. Studien påvisar även att socialarbetarna växelvist använde olika copingstrategier för att hantera stress på arbetsplatsen. / There are factors at work that affect professionals to be more or less stressed. Social work in social services is often characterized by a high workload, demands, unrealistic expectations and in general a complex work. Which affects how the individual social worker experience stress. The study aims to examine the risk and protective factors for occupational stress among social workers and their coping strategies for stress. The method chosen for the study is qualitative semi-structured interviews with four social workers in social services. The interviews were analyzed thematically with the study's three central themes as the main focus: risk factors, protective factors and coping strategies for stress. The theoretical starting points for the study is phenomenology, Karasek and Theorell (1990) demand, control and support model and theoretical concepts such as occupational stress, risk and protective factors and coping strategies. The study results indicate that the social workers did not experience stress in large quantities, but related stress mainly to high workload. We discuss that the availability of social support and the experience of control may have acted as a "buffer" against occupational stress. The study also shows that social workers alternately used different coping strategies for managing stress in the workplace.

Studiens syfte har varit att undersöka vilka motiv som ligger bakom besökarnas val av gatuterapi och vilka erfarenheter de har av kontakt med offentliga myndigheter. Syftet var också att undersöka vilka upplevelser besökarna hade av gatuterapin samt studera vad som sker i mötet mellan gatuterapeuten och besökarna. Studien har genomförts utifrån en kvalitativ metodansats och bygger på intervjuer och observationer med 15 personer som besökt gatuterapin. För analysen har teorin om interaktionsritualer, teorin om transaktionella behov, stämplingsteorin, stigmatisering samt skam använts.   Resultatet visar att motiven bakom valet av gatuterapi är att gatuterapeuten har erfarenhet av missbruksproblem samt att han har tystnadsplikt och heller ingen anmälningsskyldighet. Erfarenheterna av offentliga myndigheter är både positiva och negativa. De har haft en god relation med några socialtjänsthandläggare, vilka de haft förtroende för, och de har gjorts delaktiga i beslutsfattandet. De negativa erfarenheterna handlar om att bli dömd, att känna skam, att inte bli lyssnad på eller att inte känna sig förstådd. Upplevelserna av gatuterapin är däremot enbart positiva: upplevelser av en god relation och tillit till gatuterapeuten, ett ökat självförtroende samt upplevelser av att inte bli dömd. I mötet mellan gatuterapeuten och besökarna tycktes besökarna bli lugnare samt erhålla en ökad nivå av emotionell energi. / The purpose of this study was to examine the reasons behind the visitor’s choice of street therapy and their experiences of contact with public authorities. The aim was also to examine the experiences visitors had of street therapy and to study what happens in the meeting between the street therapist and the visitors. The study was conducted based on a qualitative research approach and is based on interviews and observations of 15 people who visited the street therapy. For the analysis, the theory of interaction rituals, the theory of transactional needs, labeling theory, stigmatization and shame where used.   The result shows that the reasons behind the choice of street therapy is that the street therapist has his own experience of substance abuse problems, and that he has professional secrecy towards the visitors and towards the public authorities. The visitor’s experience of public authorities is both positive and negative. They have had a good relationship with some of the social workers, who they trusted, and they have been involved in the decision making. The negative experiences is about being judged, feelings of shame and not being listened to or felt understood. Experiences of street therapy is however only positive: experiences of a good relationship and trust with the street therapist, increased self-confidence and experiences of not being judged. In the meeting between the street therapist and the visitors it seemed liked the visitors became calmer and received an increased level of emotional energy.

The aim of the study was to analyz the importance of using local interpreters while interacting with clients from a social worker’s perspective. The study where conducted with five qualitative interviews with social workers working in different departments of social services. The result were analyzed based on the communication theory, social constructivism and intersectionality and analyzed with the hermeneutic analysis method. The result has shown that interpreter's presence can affect the conversation due to misunderstanding between client and social worker, it may be longer with interpreter than without. The interpreter and client background variables (ethnicity, class, sex and age) are affected by the fact that there may be contradictions between them. The client's story can be distorted, the client may not dare to talk about sensitive subjects or interpreters may refuse to interpret for the opposite sex. / Syftet med denna studie var att från socialarbetares perspektiv studera betydelsen av att använda platstolk i interaktion med klienter. I studien genomfördes det fem kvalitativa intervjuer med socialarbetare som arbetar inom olika avdelningar på socialtjänsten. Studiens resultat analyserades utifrån kommunikationsteori, socialkonstruktivism och intersektionalitet. Studiens resultat analyserades med hermeneutisk. Resultatet visar att tolks närvaro kan påverka samtalet genom att det blir missförstånd mellan klient och socialarbetare, samtalet kan även ta längre tid än samtal utan tolk. Tolken och klientens bakgrundsfaktorer (etnicitet, klass, kön och ålder) påverkar på grund av att det kan finnas motsättningar mellan dem. Klientens berättelse kan bli förvrängd, klienten vågar inte berätta om känsliga ämnen eller så kan tolk vägra tolka för det motsatta könet.

The aim of the study was to gain knowledge about what role the foster carers’ biological children play in foster family care and also gain a deeper understanding of the biological children´s significance in a foster family care arrangement. The aim of the study has been conducted through the perspective of the Social services. The data collection consists of eight individual qualitative and semi-structured interviews with social workers who are currently working with foster families there biological children are living at home. The new childhood sociology and the concept of participation serve as the base of the theoretical framework and have been applied to the analysis of this study. The study shows that the respondents have a positive attitude towards the biological children´s presence in the foster families. They value the biological children´s function in the families as important and should thus not be forgotten. At the same time, there are no clear guidelines for how the social worker should work with foster carers’ biological children. The contact between the social worker and the biological children mostly goes through the children’s parents. The role of the biological children is not always clearly defined in the foster family care arrangement and their involvement can be perceived as insignificant. Furthermore the respondents terminates that no special support designed for biological children in foster families exists. Several respondents also reflect upon that they want to avoid burdening the biological children with responsibility that is not theirs to bear. The role of the biological children in the foster family care and their significance in the foster family care arrangement concludes therefore acknowledged by the social worker but not always recognized.

Diploma thesis under the title "The Ethical dilemmas of social workers of department of social and legal protection of children in České Budějovice in making decision about remove child" deals with dilemmas of social workers of department of social and legal protection of children (OSPOD). It indicates the issues related with family, such as the faults of the family, the forms of the Czech family, etc. Then it focuses on the professional activity of social workers OSPOD in České Budějovice and the related legislation. The aim of the thesis is to submit a comprehensive overview of the ethical dilemmas of social workers OSPOD in České Budějovice, which they might encounter in the profession and to present the importance of ethics for social work. The thesis points to the potential risks associated with the Code of Ethics, disparate requirements and expectations of clients from the social worker, a complex of services required from the social worker and also introduces the importance of cooperation in a multidisciplinary team of the social worker.

This thesis deals with the form of relationship actors (client and social worker) in social work profession, through the optics of interactive model. Thesis also deals with the role, purpose, important aspects, principles and values of helping relationship with regard to working with postmodern (relational) loss. The critical discussion treats with the possible relationship difficulties and paradoxes, which are viewed by ethical perspective. In all of the formulated relational paradoxes is valid, that the social worker has to think, reflect and be able to have publicly defend his dealing with the client

The diploma thesis is focused on the issue of the dental care of the Roma patients. Major fields of interest were the awareness of Roma in different aspects of the dental care and the willingness of dentists to register Roma patients in their surgery. For this thesis was originally planned to use the qualitative research but the pilot study showed that quantitative research would be better option. Dentists were willing to fill in questionnaires but they had no time for interviews due to the big amount of their work duties. I chose questionnaires also for Roma respondents. Thanks to them I gathered more pieces of information from majority of Roma population than if I had used the qualitative research. For each group involved in the research were created different questionnaires. Questionnaires were created by me. The first aim of this thesis was to find out how informed and how willing are Roma population in case of preventive dental examinations. Results show that the willingness to undergo preventive examinations has more than half of respondents. Positively answered 61 percent of registered Roma and 57 percent of dentists answered that Roma undergo preventive examinations. When we compared the awareness of registered Roma respondents with unregistered Roma respondents, registered Roma respondents are more informed than unregistered Roma respondents. For example in the case of information about payments for medical acts which are paid by health insurance companies, 70 percent of registered Roma respondents and only 30 percent of unregistered Roma respondents have awareness about it. The second aim of this thesis was to find out the willingness of dentists to register Roma in their surgeries. It was obvious to me that most of the dentists don't accept new patients due to the capacity. For this reason I asked a question: "If you accept new patients, will you accept Roma?" 57 percent of dentists answered that they would register Roma. If there does exist cooperation between Roma and social worker, the willingness of dentists to register Roma increases and reaches 84 percent. This big difference corresponds to negative experience which dentists have with Roma. It means that assistance of the social worker can positively affect relationships and communication between dentists and Roma patients. Problem in communication is not only on the side of Roma population. All health workers should compulsorily study the issue of multicultural education. If they understand historical values and customs of different cultures, there is a possibility to eliminate culture barriers, intolerance, prejudice and discrimination. These facts perhaps in hidden form are mostly the main reason not to accept the patient. In case of effective communication and building mutual trust Roma patients can better understand rules which are required by dentist and gain information which are important to prevent problems with toothache, financial expenses, and ultimately, with esthetics. The research revealed that Roma, according to answers of dentists, neglect dental hygiene and dental care of their children. Dental hygiene of Roma patients was identified as inadequate by 54 percent of dentists. Only 14 percent of dentists are satisfied with the dental hygiene of children. It would be very suitable to use in preschool facilities services of dental hygienists that can help children learn appropriate hygienic habits and through "homeworks" pass gained information to other family members. A summary of possible solutions to problems of dental care of Roma is therefore effective communication between Roma patient and dentist which would be possible by implementation of multicultural education of all health workers and cooperation with the social worker as a mediator between them.

The Masters thesis deals with the psychosocial needs of seniors in residential care. The theoretical part characterizes the old age phenomenon as a natural part of human life. It describes the attitude of society to senior citizens and the status of the senior in the family system. The thesis focuses on the saturation of psychosocial needs of seniors within institutional care. Impact is placed on the role of a social worker in providing social help to these people. The research part detects through semi-structured interviews how the users of social services perceive the quality of their life in the retirement home. The results of the research are compared with the opinions of experts dealing with senior issues.

This master thesis researches a social identity of social workers. It deals specifically with a perception of this identity based on the age of the workers. The aim of the work is to compare the perception of social identity by social workers in two age categories and find out if there exist any signifiant differences between them. The theoretical part explains the key terms of identity and social identity, the definition of social work and the role of a social worker. The thesis refers to both Czech and international qualified literature, articles, fundamental documents and some experiments that have been done so far. The parctical part describes the research focused on the perception of social identity of two age groups of social workers. It analyses the collected data.

Social services form an integral part of the social protection in the society. It might be perceived as a form of help provided to people who find themselves in difficulties and they are not able to get over this situation without the help of society. Social services help to socially handicapped persons to improve their living standard, alternatively to integrate them largely with the society. Social services also protect the society from the risks following from the disadvantaged persons. The core document for the field of social services in the Czech Republic is the law in force No 108/2006 about the social services. The object of my work is to sum up the general knowledge about the social services problems, but chiefly to find out if the provided social services in administrative ward of Vodňany are sufficient and what future progress of these services is possible. Research results show the Vodňany region to provide the services for seniors and handicapped persons sufficiently but there is total absence of special social consultancy service, meaning the civil advisory centre or low-threshold institution for children and young people and asylum residential facilities. From the practical point of view the diploma work can be used as the information source for the inhabitants of the Vodňany region, either in the form of booklets or information leaflets. In my opinion it is also usable for secondary and further school students and university students as a study material within the tuition. It can be also used as a feedback for the providers and clients of social services in the Vodňany region.