Background: The number of people seeking asylum in Sweden reached a record level by 2015. Inequalities in the healthcare of migrants can lead to poor health outcomes and an unsatisfactory health meeting. Language translation is considered the minimum that should be offered to ensure the care recipients access to a good, safe and satisfactory care. Culture also has an impact on the recipient's experience of healthcare and consists of much that is unconscious and constantly changing in interaction with the individual's lived experience. Efforts to bridge the gap between migrant healthcare recipients and healthcare providers whom usually belong to a majority population, include the application of culturally competent care and strategies for "culture brokering". These methods do not however consider the lack of insight into the care recipient's cultural frame of reference. An Intercultural Mediator (IM) is themselves a migrant who, based on common denominators such as language, gender and shared experience of being immigrant can act as an intermediary or bridge builder during the healthcare meeting. Mediation can be used to highlight the care recipient's lifeworld story and promote a person-centered care that is not precluded by pre-defined opinions and stereotypes concerning the impact of culture, but instead addresses the person's vulnerability, resources and personal abilities. Aim: The aim of this study is to investigate IM's specific role and how the IM can contribute to a more person-centered care in the context of the healthcare meeting of short duration within in-patient settings. Method: The study is based on ethnography conducted through participatory observation, informal dialogue at a healthcare clinic and hospital in Malta. Results: The results are based on four categories describing IM's role in the creation of person-centered care for migrant care recipients; Being a fellow human, creating a bridge between care recipients and care providers, being a part of the team and balancing power situations and creating cultural awareness. Conclusions: An IM is an important addition to healthcare agencies. IM utilizes the dyadic conversation preceding the healthcare meeting to establish trust and prepare the care recipient for the encounter. During the triadic meeting with the care recipient and caregiver, the IM interprets and ensures that the participants understand each other. The IM's presence creates space for the migrant care recipient to express his needs based on his everyday reality and cultural reference frame. In highlighting the care recipient's story, the IM is able to contribute to a more person-centered healthcare meeting, which may result in a better outcome. However, the lack of organisation of mediation services, lack of cultural awareness amongst care providers as well as exclusion from the healthcare practitioners' community of practice may hinder the effectiveness and stability of mediation services.

Syftet med denna studie är att undersöka hur brobyggare beskriver sitt arbete med att bygga tillit till socialtjänstens barn- och ungdomsvård (BoU). Brobyggare är personer som har god förankring i det svenska samhället, samtidigt som de delar språk och kulturell bakgrund med en specifik minoritet och som därför kan fungera som en bro mellan minoritetsgruppen och samhällets institutioner. Studiens empiri består av kvalitativa semistrukturerade intervjuer med tolv brobyggare. Materialet har bearbetats med Braun och Clarkes (2006) metod för tematisk analys. Resultatet visar att de föräldrar brobyggarna möter känner sig utpekade av socialtjänsten på grund av sin invandrarbakgrund vilket även förstärker den osäkerhet som många upplever i sitt föräldraskap. Detta, tillsammans med den informationsbrist som råder kring socialtjänstens arbetssätt bidrar till en djupgående rädsla för BoU i brobyggarnas målgrupper. Vidare visar studien att brobyggarnas tillitsskapande arbete möjliggörs av den relation de bygger med sin målgrupp. Relationen byggs delvis med hjälp av en delad kulturell identitet med målgruppen men även genom brobyggarnas flexibilitet att vara där det behövs när det behövs. Med relationen till målgruppen som bas kan brobyggaren bidra till att minska avståndet till socialtjänsten. Ett viktigt verktyg är kulturtolkandet som möjliggör ömsesidig förståelse mellan socialtjänstens personal och målgrupp. / The purpose of this study is to examine how link workers describe their work with building trust in child protective services (CPS). Link workers are persons who are well established within Swedish society while sharing language and cultural background with a specific minority. This enables them to act as a bridge between the minority group and the institutions of society. The study's empirical data consists of qualitative semi-structured interviews with twelve link workers. The data has then been processed using Braun and Clarke's (2006) method for thematic analysis. Our results show that the link workers’ target groups feel particularly singled out by CPS due to their immigrant background, which also reinforces the uncertainty that many experience in their role as parents. Additionally, the lack of information about the working methods of CPS exacerbates the situation further and results in a deep-seated fear of CPS. The study also finds that the link workers' trust-building is made possible by the relationships they build with their target groups. This is facilitated partly through a shared cultural identity but also through the link workers' ability to be flexible with where and when they meet parents. With these relationships as a starting point, the link workers aid in bridging the gap between their target groups and CPS. An important part of this work is intercultural mediation, which enables mutual understanding between social service employees and the target groups.