The diploma is dedicated to the activation of seniors with dementia. The aim of the work is to outline the issue of progress and benefit of activation in seniors with dementia. The theoretical part deals with the theme of aging and aging with respect to various theoretical definitions. I have guided the dementia chapter, which is one of the most common problems of the aging population. I also deal with the overview of the social services that focus to seniors. At the end of the theoretical part I outline the benefits of activation of seniors with dementia and provide an overview of commonly used therapies in social care facilities. In the practical part I focused on the activities carried out in two residential establishments with seniors with dementia. For my research, I have chosen a qualitative approach and a semi- structured interview technique with residential workers. The output from the research is a discussion in which I describe the comparison of theoretical and factual information and propose other possibilities for research in this field.

Abstract The purpose of this study was to describe concerns of well-being in adults of different ages. The factors that have an impact on the sense of reduced well-being of adults in various age groups were analysed, and the population groups in the most compromising position in terms of well-being identified. The objective of this study was to produce information for well-being promoting decision making in the planning of social, health and welfare services. Both qualitative and quantitative research methods were used in the study. The material was collected for the Pohjoisen hyvinvoinnin tietopaikka project (ESR) by using a questionnaire at the end of year 2012. The data consisted of answers from 1458 questionnaires. The answer percentage was 49. The qualitative data, based on the open-ended questions, was analysed by deductive content analysis. For the analysis of the quantitative data the SPSS 23 program was used. Frequencies and percentages were calculated, and the Chi-squared test was used to examine association between the variables. According to the results of this research, the concerns of the youngest adults were more diverse and focused on more areas of well-being than those of the older adults. In all age groups, economic situation and physical health were factors that had a welfare reducing impact. Similarly, the economic situation, which was perceived as having welfare reducing impacts, was generally perceived as having a connection with the other welfare reducing areas in all age groups. The perception of the welfare reducing impact of the different areas of well-being was especially common among females, informants with low educational background, informants living alone, informants with low income and the working age informants who were unemployed. The scientific relevance of the results of this study can be justified with the novelty value of the information. Well-being has not been studied in the context of health sciences from this particular research angle before. / Tiivistelmä Tutkimuksen tarkoituksena oli kuvailla eri-ikäisten aikuisten hyvinvointiin liittyviä huolia ja kartoittaa ikäryhmittäin hyvinvointia heikentäviä tekijöitä sekä hyvinvoinniltaan heikoimmassa asemassa olevia väestöryhmiä. Tutkimuksen tavoitteena oli tuottaa tietoa eri-ikäisen aikuisväestön hyvinvoinnin edistämiseen tähtäävään päätöksentekoon sekä sosiaali-, terveys- ja hyvinvointipalveluiden suunnitteluun. Tutkimuksessa käytettiin kvalitatiivista ja kvantitatiivista tutkimusmenetelmää. Aineisto kerättiin kyselylomakkeella vuoden 2012 lopulla Pohjoisen hyvinvoinnin tietopaikka-hankkeelle (ESR). Aineisto koostui 1458 kyselylomakkeen vastauksista. Kyselyn vastausprosentti oli 49. Avoimiin kysymyksiin perustuva laadullinen aineisto analysoitiin deduktiivisella sisällönanalyysillä. Määrällinen aineisto analysoitiin SPSS 23-ohjelmalla laskemalla frekvenssejä ja prosenttiosuuksia sekä tutkimalla muuttujien välisiä yhteyksiä khiin neliötestillä. Tulosten mukaan nuorimpien aikuisten huolet olivat moninaisempia ja useampiin hyvinvoinnin osa-alueisiin kohdistuvia kuin vanhempien aikuisten. Taloudellinen tilanne ja fyysinen terveys olivat yleisiä hyvinvointia heikentäviä tekijöitä kaikissa ikäryhmissä. Lisäksi taloudelliseen tilanteeseen liitetyillä hyvinvoinnin heikkenemiskokemuksilla oli kaikissa ikäryhmissä yleinen yhteys muihin hyvinvoinnin osa-alueisiin kohdistettaviin vastaaviin kokemuksiin. Hyvinvoinnin heikkenemiskokemukset liittyivät erityisesti naissukupuoleen, matalaan koulutustasoon, ilman parisuhdetta asumiseen, alhaiseen tulotasoon sekä työikäisillä työelämän ulkopuolella olemiseen. Tutkimuksen tieteellinen merkitys perustuu sen tuottaman tiedon uutuusarvoon, sillä hyvinvointia koskevaa tutkimusta ei ole hoitotieteessä aiemmin tehty vastaavasta näkökulmasta.

v anglickém jazyce My thesis deals with the problematics of intercultural work with migrants, i. e. with foreigners who live here legally, and with its role in the system of social services in the Czech Republic. Because the position of an intercultural worker is comparatively new in our milieu, I concentrated first on the description of the work and the definition of the kinds of problems that the worker may face, and only then on the specification of the goals of intercultural work as such. Drawing on my personal experience with the work, I then tried to describe competences and role of an intercultural worker with respect to his or her involvement in the system of social services. I also conducted an opinion poll among the intercultural workers and their institution. This topic is now quite current and I hope that my work will help improve the situation in this field.

The aim of this thesis is to deepen the understanding about the function of control in the inspection process and to increase the knowledge about the legitimacy and impact from inspection on different types of social and welfare services. In the thesis the form and legitimacy of the inspection process are studied in two types of social services in Sweden: a less complex service where the task to investigate and make decisions about social care dominates (IAD), and a more complex service where the task to provide treatment interventions dominates (TI). The data consists of policy documents, inspection reports, casefile documentation, and interviews with inspectors, politicians, managers and social workers. The inspection process is discussed in relation to theories about control systems and legitimacy processes. Inspection is a policy instrument whose standards are derived from legislations and where those subject to the inspection are obliged to meet the demands made by the inspectorates. This form of disciplinary control has been questioned given that its complexity makes it hard to regulate the practice of social work through detailed rules. By including a less disciplinary form of control the instrument’s ability to impact on more complex aspects of social services are expected to increase. The results show a difference in how the inspection process is set up in the two types of services. In the IAD services the process takes the form of a disciplinary control system, whereas the process in TI services initially takes the form of a non-disciplinary system. In spite of the differences observed in the initial stages of the process, the results show that the judgments of inspectors in both types of services are almost exclusively based on information about concrete and detailed aspects. This entails that the judgements of inspectors in both types of services mostly take the form of statements on simple observable and concrete conditions, whereas judgments about more complex aspects are rarely made. The study also shows that although the propriety and relevance of the inspectors’ judgements are questioned more in TI organisations inspections seem to have greater validity and impact on TI than on IAD organisations. The results of the thesis point to two explanations. One explanation is that the costs of dealing with the problems underlying the identified deficiencies are lower for TI than IAD organisations. This in turn leads to greater acceptance of carrying out the proposed measures in TI than in IAD organisations. Another possible explanation is that the potential sanctions are greater for TI than IAD organisations.

Socialtjänsten är idag drabbad av en hög arbetsbelastning, något som lett till hög personal omsättning och en hög andel arbetsrelaterade besvär. Flera statliga utredningar av situationen likväl inlägg från intresseorganisationer som SKL och fackförbund föreslår att ett led i att hantera situationen är genom specialisering. Specialiseringen ska bestå i inrättandet av specialistutbildningar och specialisttjänstemän. Studien ger med hjälp av en kartläggning en nulägesbild av specialisttjänsternas förekomst, hur de benämns och inom vilka verksamhetsområden de verkar. Med hjälp av en abduktiv ansats används nyinstitutionell organisationsteori i ett försök att förstå specialisttjänsterna utifrån socialchefers uppfattningar av dessa. / Today the Swedish social services are suffering from high workloads. Consequently this has led to poor retention and high turnover rates. Several Official Reports of the Swedish Governemnt as well as input from unions and Swedish Association of Local Authorities and Regions suggests that one way to handle the situation is through a more specialized social service. The suggested specialization includes masterprograms in socialwork (MSW, 60 ECT) for social workers and specialized civil servants. The present study will examine the prevalence of this kind of specialists, what they are called, their function and in what parts of the social services they serve. In the present studie I will atempt to understand specialized civil servants from interviews with social service managers perceptions using abduction and neoinstutitional organizational theory.

Utilizing a gender-based violence approach, this study investigated service delivery realities for a Moroccan women’s centre serving unwed mothers and their babies. Primary research methods included participant observation and semi-structured interviews (n=20) with unwed mothers and centre staff. This study aimed to determine what factors lead mothers to seek assistance, types of assistance offered, and challenges and future opportunities for services. Findings indicate a lack of social support to mothers, lack of social and economic support for the centre and reduced service capacity, and the use of deceit in interactions between mothers and staff rooted in cultural notions of shame. Future opportunities for program development and sustainability are discussed. This work hopes to contribute to a richer understanding of gender-based violence in local contexts through the investigation of unwed mother’s experiences of gender-based violence in Moroccan society and how these experiences impact the reality and capabilities of social service provision.

The study is made in an attempt to evaluate a Non-Profit Organisation established 30 years ago. The organisation is called The St. Mary’s Development and Care Centre. This centre, amongst others, was established in 1982 by a true humanitarian, Mrs Thelma Henderson, and has since had more than 2250 children and lots more families in its care. The research aims to explore and evaluate the impact that the centre has had on the families and communities in Grahamstown. The evaluation is done as part of the current manager’s strategy to assess the strengths of the organisation and to build on the efficacy of the organisation. The researcher understands impact as any change whether positive or negative. This, from a social science perspective, is experienced by the person on a personal level and the effects in different families cannot be measured with a universal measure. Theory proves that because people are at varying levels of development, they therefore experience change and thus impact, differently. With the use of the grounded theory method comprising of systematic, inductive and comparative approaches for conducting inquiry for the purpose of constructing theory (Bryant & Charmaz 2007: 1) the research found that people have experienced change at different levels. This information, triangulated against previous research, validated the claims that child sponsorship at an NGO level indeed has benefits for the children involved in their programs. Therefore this evaluation paper draws the conclusion through similarities found and qualitative personal views that the St. Mary’s Development and Care Centre has indeed had an impact on the Grahamstown community.

Aim of this master thesis is to map social housing services for elderly citizens in South Bohemian Region and assess its affordability availability. It focuses on senior houses offering complex social services for senior citizens. In theoretical part are defined essential concepts and bases of care for senior citizens in social security framework. It continues with characterisation of homes for elderly' funding and compared with system of social care funding in Switzerland, Germany and Austria. In practical part is analyzed affordability availability of homes for elderly in South Bohemian Region on level of districts or municipalities with extended authority. In case study there is a comparative analysis of costs, bed capacity and quality of care in newly constructed Home for elderly in Bechyně and former Home for elderly which was closed and replaced. Effects on clients transferred from former home for elderly in Tučapy to new home for elderly in Bechyně are evaluated with data from field research.

In my thesis I am focusing on the issue of marketing communication tools in the area of non-profit organizations dealing with social services. The thesis is divided into two parts; the first one is theoretical and there are explained basic terms, legal framework and contemporary situation in the non-profit sector in the Czech Republic. Last but not least, in this part I am trying to evaluate the most suitable marketing communication strategies for the development of social services and the improvement of their quality through non-profit organizations. The second part is focused on a practical analysis of marketing activities of the citizen-action public Camino. Its goal is to arrange information and create special cultural and educational programs for aurally handicapped. The aim of the case study is to apply theoretical preconditions on a particular citizen-action public. This enables me to connect theoretical and practical knowledge relating to this issue. I am trying to suggest possible improvements and create a new marketing conception for this association.

The work deals with the legislative background and the financial sustainability of voluntary projects in the social services. In the introductory part are defined by basic concepts that relate to volunteering and social services. Further funding options are described volunteer programs. In the practical part is outlined a budget for the volunteer project at a retirement home in Jindrichuv Hradec. They are designed specific funding opportunities for this project and model of working with volunteers. An integral part is a questionnaire survey, which took place between staff and clients retirement home.