Pertvarkant vaikų globos įstaigų tinklą, siekiama gerinti vaiko gyvenimo kokybę. Aktualu periodiškai tirti globos įstaigos vaikų ir globėjų santykių ypatumus. Darbo tikslas: ištirti globojamų vaikų santykius su personalu ir įvertinti vaikų dalyvavimo priimant sprendimus galimybes. Tyrimo metodika. 2008.09.09 - 2008.09.12 laikotarpiu Valkininkų vaikų globos namuose „Spengla“ buvo atliekama anketinė globotinių apklausa. Statistinė duomenų analizė atlikta SPSS 11 versijos programiniu paketu. Išvados atskleidžia, kad dauguma įstaigos vaikų palankiai vertina personalo veiklą, tačiau jų nuomonė į sėkmigo pasirengimo savarankiškam gyvenimui galimybes yra neigiama: tik kas dešimtas vaikas (9,4 proc.) žino, ką veiks pabaigęs mokyklą ; nei vienas vaikas nepaminėjo šeimos kaip gyvenimo vertybės; mokslas ir profesija svarbi tik kas trisdešimtam apklaustajam (2,8 proc.). Toks požiūris sumažina globotinių sėkmingos socializacijos galimybes. Daugiau savarankiškumo turi vaikai, kurie aktyviai dalyvauja visuomeniniame gyvenime. Kas trečias vaikas, dalyvaujantis priimant sprendimus dėl savo gyvenimo sąlygų, turi galimybę savarankiškai vertinti savo darbą. Tai didina sėkmingos socializacijos galimybes. / Restructuring of the children’s foster home network aims at improving the children’s quality of life. Periodic studies of the peculiarities of the relationships between children’s foster home inmates and caregivers are relevant. The aim of this study was to analyze the relationships between children in foster homes and the personnel, and to investigate the possibilities for children’s participation in decision-making. The methods of the study. Between September 09, 2008 and September 12, 2008 we performed a questionnaire-based inquiry of children in Valkininkai children’s foster home “Spengla”. Sta¬tis¬ti¬cal data analysis was performed using the SPSS 11 statistical software package. The analysis of the findings showed that the majority of the studied children positively evaluated the personnel’s activity, but their opinion about possibilities for successful preparation for independent was negative – only every-tenth child (9.4%) knew what they would do after finishing school, none of the children mentioned family as a value in life, and only every thirtieth child (2.8%) was interested in studies and profession. Such attitudes reduce the children’s possibilities for successful socialization. A greater level of independence was observed in children who actively participate in social life. Two-thirds (61.5%) of children who had not made up their mind concerning their future life did not participate in making decisions about the living conditions in the foster home. Meanwhile... [to full text]

Šio magistrantūros studijų baigiamojo darbo tyrimo tikslas yra išanalizuoti socialinio darbuotojo pagalbą rizikos grupės šeimoms. Tyrimo objektas – tai rizikos grupės šeimų problemos ir socialinio darbuotojo pagalba joms. Tyrimui atlikti buvo panaudotos anketos, kurios buvo skirtos dviem tiriamom grupėm, t. y. socialinės rizikos šeimoms bei socialiniams darbuotojams. Tyrimo metu buvo apklaustos 63 rizikos grupės šeimos, gyvenančios Lazdijų rajono savivaldybėje ir 31 socialinis darbuotojas, dirbantis su tomis šeimomis. Gauti rezultatai buvo apdoroti SPSS 15.0 programa. Tyrimo metu paaiškėjo, kad socialinės rizikos grupės šeimos dažniausiai susiduria su tokiomis problemomis, kaip alkoholizmas, bedarbystė, vaikų elgesio problemomis. Tai patvirtina ir atlikta socialinių darbuotojų apklausa. Be to, didžioji dalis rizikos grupės šeimų, kreipiasi pagalbos į socialinius darbuotojus ir priima jų teikiamą pagalbą, tikėdamiesi surasti savo problemų sprendimą. Socialinių darbuotojų pagalba yra svarbi šioms šeimoms. Pasak jų, dirbdami su rizikos grupės šeimomis, dažniausiai naudoja individualų darbo metodą bei teikia kompleksinę pagalbą ir įgyvendina specialias programas, skirtas šioms šeimoms. Be to, tyrimo metu paaiškėjo, kad minėtieji specialistai turi laikytis konfidencialumo principo, taip pat dalyvauja seminaruose, kurių temos yra siejamos su socialinės rizikos grupės šeimomis ir jų problemomis. Tačiau kaip paaiškėjo, kad ne visi gautas žinias pritaiko praktinėje veikloje. ... [toliau žr. visą tekstą] / The aim of this master's thesis is to analyse the help of social worker to risk group families. The subject of research – problems of risk group families and help of social worker to them. The were used questionnaires to fulfill this research, which were appointed to two researched groups, i.e. social risk families and socoal workers. During the research there were surveyed 63 risk group families, living in Lazdijai region municipality and 31 social worker, who work with these families. Final results were worked up by program SPSS 15.0. During the research there was foud out that the families of social risk group most often cope with these problems: alcoholism, unemployment, children behaviour problems. It is also approved by the fulfilled survey of social workers. Moreover, the biggest part of risk group families resort to the help od social workers and receive aid in hope to find the solution to their problems. The help of social workers is important to these families. According them, during working with these families they often use individual working method and provide complex help and implement special programs which are appointed to these families. Besides, during the research it turned out that these specialists have to follow the confidentiality principle; they also participate in seminars which themes are related with social risk group families. But as it turned out, not all of them adapt acquired knowledge. Key words: social worker, family of social risk... [to full text]

Perdegimo sindromas akivaizdžiausiai pastebimas socialinių darbuotojų tarpe ir yra viena aktualiausių problemų. Lietuvoje trūksta tyrimų, kurie nagrinėtų socialinio darbo kontekstus, kuriuose formuojasi socialinių darbuotojų profesinio perdegimo prielaidos ir tyrimų, kurie nustatytų socialinių darbuotojų naudojamas profesinio perdegimo įveikos strategijas, kurių pagalba darbuotojai sėkmingai įveikia profesinį perdegimą. / The burnout syndrome is most distinctly observed among social workers. This syndrome causes fatigue, lethargy, mental and emotional exhaustion, frustration, conflicts with clients and colleagues. There is lack of studies and research in Lithuania about social work burnout syndrome and the contexts in which we could find new coping strategies.

I denna uppsats har det undersökts varför socialsekreterare i en västsvensk kommun har valt att helt lämna sina yrken. Grundorsaken till undersökningen är att bristen på socialsekreterare idag är ett nationellt problem som Sveriges kommuner arbetar mycket med, speciellt i dagens samhälle när det strömmar in flyktingar som behöver tas omhand. Undersökningen gjordes med hjälp av kvalitativa intervjuer och en semistrukturerad intervjuguide. För att analysera resultaten av dessa intervjuer användes tematisk analys. Undersökningen visade att informanterna kände sig missnöjda med flera olika aspekter av sitt arbete. En av de faktorer som kom upp i alla intervjuer var att det krav de hade på sig på att vara tillgängliga hela tiden orsakade stress och avbrott i deras arbete. Ytterligare orsaker till varför de slutade var den höga arbetsbördan, brist på uppskattning och en missnöjdhet med ledarskapet. Informanterna hade gärna stannat kvar som socialsekreterare, eftersom de ansåg att arbetet var meningsfullt, men de andra faktorerna vägde tyngre än meningsfullheten, vilket gjorde att de slutade. Ett förslag som kom upp för att få individerna att stanna var att skapa ett så kallat kontaktcenter i receptionen, där mindre ärenden kunde hanteras direkt med klienterna. Detta hade då gett socialsekreterarna mer tid med sina egna klienter och mer energi till de tyngre fallen. / In this paper, it was investigated why social workers in a western Swedish municipality have chosen to leave their professions. The main reason behind this study is that the lack of social workers is a national problem that Sweden's municipalities struggle with, especially in today's society when refugees are pouring in and need to be attended to. The research was conducted using qualitative interviews. To analyse the results of the interviews several theories where used, such as motivation, salutogenic leadership, strategies of coping and role theory. For the interviews, thematic analysis was used. The study showed that the informers felt dissatisfied with several aspects of their work. One of the aspects that resulted from the interviews was that the demand to be available at all times, was too much for them. Some additional aspects to why they quit was the high workload, the lack of appreciation and dissatisfaction with the leadership. The informers would gladly have stayed as social workers since they considered it to be meaningful, but the other aspects weighed more heavily compared to meaningfulness which caused them to leave. One suggestion that was brought up to get the informers to stay was to create a so-called contact centre in the reception area where smaller errands could be handled directly with the client. This would have given more time for the social workers with their own clients and more energy for the more heavy cases.

Coping – a qualitative study of experiences of stress and burn-out in the work with children and youth within the social services. The aim of this study was to examine experiences and coping of work related stress and burn-out among social workers within the child and youth department of the social services in a larger municipality of Sweden. It is a qualitative study built on interviews with social workers about their experiences of stressful situations in their demanding working environment, and how they manage to handle these. They find their work-load unrestricted and demanding. To guard their own limits to their work-load and engagement in the organization and cases they work with, and to prioritize the duties they find most important, are found to be the main coping strategies. Support from colleagues and family, as well as working part time when having children, are also expressed as important factors in managing the stressful working situation, and to hopefully avoid burn-out. / Syftet med denna studie var att undersöka erfarenheter, upplevelser och hantering av stress och utbrändhet i arbetet med barn och unga inom socialtjänsten i en större svensk kommun. Detta är en kvalitativ studie byggd på intervjuer med socialarbetare angående deras erfarenheter av stressade situationer och krävande arbetsklimat, samt hur de hanterar dessa sammanhang. De konstaterar att arbetsbördan är obegränsad och krävande. Att vakta sina egna gränser i förhållande till arbetsbörda och engagemang i organisationen och ärenden man hanterar, och att prioritera de arbetsuppgifter man tycker är viktigast, uppfattas var de främsta coping-strategierna. Stöd av kollegor och familj såväl som att arbeta deltid när man har barn, uttrycks som viktiga faktorer i hanteringen av den stressade arbetssituationen, och för att förhoppningsvis undvika att bli utbränd.

Syftet med denna studie är att undersöka vilka aspekter i socialsekreterarnas yrkesutövning iorganisationen som de upplever bidrar till hög arbetsbelastning, hur de beskriver att de hanterarden och eventuellt förbättrar sin egen arbetssituation och vilka arbetsfaktorer de upplever sommeningsfulla och som gör att de fortfarande arbetar kvar inom socialtjänsten. För att besvarastudiens syfte använde vi oss av en kvalitativ forskningsansats i form av semistruktureradeintervjuer. Dessa intervjuer har sedan tolkats för att hitta likheter och skillnader som sedananalyserats med hjälp av sociologiska teorier om organisationens roll, krav och kontroll ochkänsla av sammanhang. Studiens resultat visar att socialsekreterarna i perioder upplevde högarbetsbelastning. I resultatet redogörs det även för olika strategier som socialsekreterarnaanvände sig av för att kunna hantera detta. Resultatet visade också att socialsekreterarna upplevdeatt det finns en hel del belöningar och att de ändå ser sitt arbete som meningsfullt. Vår slutsatsblev att arbetsbelastningen inte behöver vara ett problem så länge som samarbetet mellan ledningoch anställda fungerade. / The purpose of this study is to investigate which aspects of social secretaries profession in theorganization that they feel contributes to high workloads, how they describe their handling of itand how they possibly improve their work situation and what work factors they perceive asmeaningful and that makes them still work in social services. To answer the purpose of the studywe used a qualitative approach in the form of semi-structured interviews. These interviews havesince been interpreted to find similarities and differences which then has been analyzed usingsociological theories about the organization's role, requirements and control and sense ofcoherence. The study results show that social workers in periods experienced heavy workload.The result also discusses the various strategies that the social workers made use of to be able tohandle this. The results also showed that social workers felt that there are a lot of rewards andthat they still see their work as meaningful. Our conclusion was that the workload does not needto be seen as a problem as long as the cooperation between management and employees worked.

This thesis deals with the functioning of the family in connection with the physiological and psychosocial development of children. It also describes the reasons why children are taken away from the family and the options of residential care. The first option is institutional care in orphanages and therefore we mention several organisations that offer projects to help these children in particular to have an easier entry to life after the completion of institutional care. The empirical part of this study analyses the background, the habits and also the preparation of young adults to leave the orphanage in two institutions: Primary school and Orphanage Přestavlky and Orphanage Klánovice. It includes personal life stories of several children not only from the two orphanages but also from children brought up in foster care. The main goal of this thesis was to find out whether the children brought up in orphanages have different vision of the future in comparison with children raised in foster care. The results of our open- ended interview survey are presented in the final part of this paper.

Women's vulnerability to domestic violence is a widespread social problem that causes problematic consequences for society and to the individual. I wondered what significance the professionals' knowledge has to help abused women, how professionals and abused women describe abused womens needs, and how the professionals work with and consider important in meeting with and helping abused women. Six qualitative interviews with a social worker who were working as a therapist in the social services, as councilors and in women's shelter were performed. The results showed that the professionals regarded specific knowledge of domestic violence as a prerequisite for being able to help the woman adequately. Furthermore, it appeared that the woman's needs could be psychological need of support and processing, but also help with practical issues to sort out their situation. The social workers were mapping the violence and the situation of the abused women. The mapping could determine the woman's needs and potential contributions. / Kvinnors utsatthet för våld i nära relationer är ett omfattande samhällsproblem som får problematiska följder både för samhället och individen. Jag ställde mig frågan vilken betydelse de professionellas kunskap har för att hjälpa våldsutsatta kvinnor, hur de professionella och kvinnorna ser på kvinnans behov, samt hur de professionella arbetar med och anser är viktigt i mötet med våldsutsatta kvinnor. Sex intervjuer med socialarbetare som jobbade som behandlare inom socialtjänst, kuratorer och kvinnojour genomfördes. Resultatet visade att de professionella såg särskild kunskap om våld i nära relationer som en förutsättning för att kunna hjälpa kvinnan på ett adekvat sätt. Vidare framgick att kvinnans behov kunde utgöras av psykiskt behov av stöd och bearbetning, men också praktisk hjälp för att få ordning på sin situation. För att hjälpa kvinnan kartlade man våldet och kvinnans situation. Genom kartläggningen kunde man utröna kvinnans behov och bedöma insatser.

Svenska socialförvaltningar styrs kommunalt och innebär olika arbetsmetoder i olika kommuner för de anställda socialsekreterarna. Vidare tillåter det ett brett tolkningsutrymme i deras arbete med hemlösa klienter. För att uppnå ett tillfredsställande resultat i de hjälpinsatser som kan erbjudas krävs det en individanpassad bedömning utifrån de resurser som finns och ett bemötande som skiljer sig för varje enskild individ. Den höga arbetsbelastningen som är ett problem idag beror på olika saker men sju av tio socialsekreterare kan tänka sig lämna socialtjänsten. Syftet med denna undersökning var att utreda vilka förväntningar som finns på yrket samt om det finns rollkonflikter. För att undersöka detta genomfördes intervjuer med åtta socialsekreterare anställda på socialförvaltningen i Skåne län. Det insamlade materialet analyserades inom ramarna av begreppet gräsrotsbyråkrater som definierar statligt anställda myndighetsutövare och begreppet rollkonflikter som beskriver hur individer påverkas av att behöva inta olika roller. Resultatet visade att förväntningarna av det sociala arbetet inte uppfylldes men att det skiljer sig mellan att arbeta inom bostad-först metoder och traditionella handläggande socialsekreterare. / The Swedish social authorities are governed communally and means that social workers in different counties have different working methods. That also means that they have a wide interpretation in their work with homeless clients. In order to achieve a satisfying result in their assistance it requires an individualized evaluation based on the available resources and a treatment which is different for each individual. Today’s problem for socialworkers is a high workload depending on various things but seven out of ten social workers would consider leaving the social services. The purpose of this study was to investigate the expectations of the profession and whether there are role conflicts emerging. To investigate this, interviews were conducted with eight social workers employed in Skåne county, Sweden. The collected material was analyzed within the framework of the concept of street-level bureaucrats that defines state employees exercising authority and the concept of role conflicts which describes how individuals are affected by having to assume different roles. The results showed that the expectations of social work were not met but that it differs between working in the housingfirst method and traditional work of social secretary.

Magister Artium (Social Work) - MA(SW) / Heroin usage is on the increase in the Western Cape province of South Africa owing to globalization and to increased access to the drug in this province. The goal of this study is to explore the experiences of coloured heroin users in the Metro South area of , which stretches from Simons Town and Muizenberg to Retreat, Lavender Hill, Grassy Park, Parkwood and Wynberg. These individuals have been found to congregate in the Wynberg CBD. The overarching theoretical framework for the purpose of this research is social constructionism and symbolic interactionism, using a qualitative means of inquiry. Snowball sampling was used to recruit prospective participants and data was collected by means of in-depth interviews, with a semi structures interviewing schedule. The questions informed the subsequent themes and categories that arise from the data collection process. Snowball sampling was employed in this case, a non-probability sample, in which participants were recruited via key informants. The sample distribution included 13 participants, 10 of which were heroin users (5 female, 5 male) and the remaining 3 were key informants which contributed to triangulation of the data. In terms of the findings, participants spoke of mostly being involved in intimate relationships, which according to participants had dual benefits. For female participants intimate relationships offered a form of protection on the often dangerous streets of Wynberg and for certain males, intimate relationships offered an opportunity to fund their habit, by trading their female partners to perform sexual favors for money to acquire heroin. While the study found females were mainly involved in trading sexual favors for money, heterosexual males were also implicated in having sexual relations with homosexual men for money. Furthermore, the study found that heroin users in Wynberg represented a surrogate family, where, because of their lifestyle, they were disconnected from their own family. This family surrogate was found to be supportive, caring to a large extent, shared a living space, protective of each other and shared a common language and understanding.