Mothers with intellectual disabilities (ID) have been for a long time a marginalised population, both from a research perspective, as well as from the everyday practice of social workers and medical personnel. The first aim of the research presented in this thesis was to analyse how women with intellectual disabilities expereinece their motherhood and what are their experiences with formal and informal support. The second aim of this thesis was to explore how professionals (i.e., social workers and medical personnel), accept women with intellectual disabilities and how they perceive support they provide to these women. The author used mixed method approach, specifically interview and survey approaches. There were 19 women with intellectual disabilities and 504 professionals (175 medical workers and 329 social workers) who took part in this study. The author also developed four case studies which illustrate the development of mother's identity across divere contexts. This research concluded that women with intellectual disabilities experience their mother's role in the same way as their peers without disabilities, however they need adequate support for performing their role of a mother and for daily tasks. This research also found that professionalism and support offered by social workers and...

In this study, the topic of men’s violence against women has been highlighted. Men’s violence against women is a societal problem that occurs in various social groups, ages and cultures. The study conducts semi-structured interviews with six social workers to examine their experiences working with abused women with foreign backgrounds. The collected data were analyzed through thematic analysis method based on: the normalization process, empowerment and break-up process. The study showed that some of the main factors that made it difficult for women were children, emotional ties, financial and housing dependencies. This study also confirmed previous studies which showed that women with a foreign background are particularly vulnerable and thus find it more difficult to break up a relationship due to societal norms, language difficulties, social networks and because of their ignorance of society. This study also shows that the interviewed social workers found that motivation and support given to violated women in various processes made the break-up process easier for these women. However, the social workers encountered some difficulties working with women with a foreign background, such as communication difficulties.

Previous research show that there is a knowledge cap in investigations on how social workers are supposed to interpret the nursing needs for children, in which the parent who has custody of the child is responsible for. The same knowledge cap is shown in how ”child's best” is supposed to be interpreted by social workers and be a red thread in the investigations. Which also leads to help interventions being given to children when the parent does not fulfill the nursing needs of the child, which is always not clear. Therefore the purpose of the study was to understand how social services interpret the nursing needs and shed light on how social workers interpret the ”child’s best” and how they work with children when the parents do not fulfill the nursing needs. Therefore in this study 8 interviews have been executed with social workers from different county’s around Sweden. The result shows that the interpretation of nursing needs for children is interpreted by the working model BBIC and that children should feel safe and not be at risk of getting hurt. The ”child’s best” means from the perspective of social workers shows that what is best for the child is to stay with the biological parents and that they are stable and emotionally available. The social workers work with children through family therapy, since focus is on helping the whole family. Help interventions are rarely only given to children alone, unless the child is over 15 years of age.

Background: Previous research shows that openness in the Swedish public sector is limited and the social workers as a professional group rarely speaks out about their work situation. Aim: The aim of this study is to clarify which elements social workers experience enables and limits them to speak out concerning their work situation.  Methods: The study is based on seven individual qualitative interviews with social workers from different municipalities in Sweden. For analysis system theory and coping strategies are used. Results: Different factors are distinguished that both enables and limits social workers to use the coping strategie voice. The management style has been crucial and a democratic management style are preferred since they are more open to dialogue and were more encouraging to criticism. The openness between the levels at the workplaces turned out to be limited. The higher levels of management rarely included the social workers in dialogue and there were clear signs of a hierarchical view of communication.Conclusion: The social workers apply voice as a strategy to a greater extent than previous research shows. Despite the fact that the social workers are good at speaking out, the openness in the workplace turned out to be limited and this is something that needs to be developed and strengthened.

This study has the aim to understand how social workers experience the documentation in relation to their freedom of action in childcare investigations. We also used a moral and work ethic perspective in our analysis. Former research show that social workers feel a lack of time for client relation, heavy workload and different ideas about how to customize their documentation, so it suits with the client and the individual social worker. The study is based on six individual interviews with social workers working in children social services. The main results show that the social workers are driven by their sense of wanting to do the right thing for the children, but a lot of time are spent on documentation. The freedom of action among the social workers in our study is depending on how they use their professional license to balance documentation and client work.

The aim of this study has been to explore how social workers in a Swedish context, who have been on sick leave due to burnout or other stress-related disorders, perceive their occupational role compared to the time before the disorder. The primary focus has been how the social workers view their occupational role after the experience of being on sick leave due to the disorder and if the experience have taught the social workers things they find valuable in their occupational role. This study is based on six interviews with social workers who have the requested experience and have been back to work for at least six months. The theoretical framework used to analyse the results consists of Sense of Coherence (Antonovsky, 2005) and concepts of coping (Lazarus and Folkman, 1984). This study concludes that the social workers differentiates the view and approach towards the occupational role. The social workers do not perceive that they have a changed view of the occupational role, but their approach to the occupational role seems to be different. The experience have also taught them useful things that they practice in their occupational role and advise other social workers to also practice these wisdoms.

Ett folkhälsoarbete inriktas på hälsofrämjande- eller förebyggande insatser vilket kan ske på lokal nivå mot den enskilde individen. Missbruks- och beroendevården ansvarar för att ge stöd och behandling till personer som har ett missbruk eller beroende av ohälsosamma levnadsvanor. De ansvarar även för att förbättra och utveckla sina metoder och verktyg. Med utvecklingen av välfärdsteknik, har behandlare inom missbruks- och beroendevården börjat använda e-hälsoverktyg i allt större utsträckning i behandlingsarbete. Det anknyter till vision e-hälsa 2015 som bland annat fokuserar på ett arbete inom vård-och omsorgssektorn på individnivå. Digitala arbetsmiljön ämnar underlätta det vardagliga arbetet som stödjer de processer personalen medverkar i, som i slutänden kan bidra till att individen erbjuds digitala stödverktyg för att förbättra sin hälsa samt öka sin delaktighet. Syftet med studien var att undersöka behandlares erfarenheter av att använda välfärdsteknik i form av e-hälsoverktyg i deras behandlingsarbete. Metoden var kvalitativ med induktiv ansats där det målstyrda urvalet kompletterats med snöbollsurval. Intervjuerna genomfördes i semistrukturerad form och analyserades utifrån en manifest kvalitativ innehållsanalys. Studiens teoretiska perspektiv utgörs av Antonovskys teori KASAM, känslan av sammanhang.  Resultatet utgörs av två kategorier med fyra underkategorier och visar behandlares erfarenheter av att e-hälsoverktyg i behandlingsarbete bidrar till ökade möjligheter som underlättat för motivationsarbetet samt till utökad samverkan med enheten barn-och familj, behandlingshem och företagshälsovården. Resultatet visar även behandlares erfarenheter av att e-hälsoverktyg i behandlingsarbete skapar tillkommande utmaningar i form av ytterligare arbetsuppgifter samt en ökad situationsanpassad användning utefter exempelvis klientens psykiska ohälsa. / A public health work is focused on health promotion or prevention efforts, which can be done at the local level towards the individual. Addiction units is responsible for providing support and treatment to people who have an addiction or dependence on unhealthy lifestyles. They are also responsible for improving and developing their methods and tools. However, With the development of welfare technology, Social workers in addiction units, have increasingly begun to use e-health tools in treatment work. It is related to vision-health 2015, which among other things, focuses on work in the health and care sector at the individual level. The digital work environment aims to facilitate everyday work that supports the processes in which social workers participate, which can ultimately contribute to the individual being offered digital support tools to improve their health and increase their participation. The aim of this study was to investigate social workers’ experiences using welfare technology in the form of “e-health tools” in their work. The method was qualitative with an inductive approach where the purposeful sampling was supplemented with snowball sampling. The interviews were conducted in semi-structured form and analyzed based on a manifest qualitative content analysis. The theoretical perspective of the study consists of Antonovsky’s theory SOC, sense of coherence. The analysis resulted in two categories with four subcategories and shows social worker’s experiences that e-health tools in treatment work contribute to increased opportunities that have facilitated motivational work and such as increased collaboration with the unit for children and families, treatment homes and occupational health care. The results also show social worker’s experiences that e-health tools in treatment work create additional challenges in the form of additional tasks and an increased situation-adapted use according to, for example, the client's mental illness.

Thesis (M. Dev. (Development in Planning and Management)) -- University of Limpopo, 2021 / Since transition from the system of apartheid to democratic rule, South Africa became the destination for many migrants and refugees from across the African continent. Many children are travelling alone or become separated from their care givers or parents once they reach the country. The migration of residents of other African countries, particularly Zimbabwe, into the Limpopo province has resulted in the increase in the number of unaccompanied minors within the province, in Polokwane and the child protection system, and it requires collaborative intervention. The child protection system, particularly in the Child and Youth Care Centres, has unaccompanied minors who remain in the system for more than the stipulated time in relation to the Children’s Act 38 of 2005. The aim of the study was to explore the challenges faced by social workers in managing the cases of unaccompanied minors in Child and Youth Care Centers in Polokwane. This study employed a qualitative case study research design and one-on-one interview as a primary data collection method. The qualitative data was analysed using a thematic approach. The findings of this study indicate that most of unaccompanied minors were in dire situation and lack proper documentation. The findings also revealed that there were a number of critical child protection challenges that existed in the management of the cases of unaccompanied minors by government officials. The study further highlighted that social workers were not adequately capacitated and there was lack of intersectoral collaboration and insufficient resources to deal with the multiple issues that affect unaccompanied minors in Polokwane. It is therefore recommended that the social worker should also be capacitated regarding different items of legislation that deal with unaccompanied and foreign children in order to ensure proper implementation of the Acts. Department of Social Development must also popularise and provide training to social workers and all relevant stakeholders on the guidelines on separated and unaccompanied minors living outside their country of origin. DSD should make an amendment of the Children’s Act to include unaccompanied minors and also ensure that all stakeholders are trained. The researcher also recommends coordination of service among government departments in order to ensure an effective and integrated child protection system

Endast 10% av föräldrar med en intellektuell funktionsnedsättning uppger att de får det stöd de är i behov av i sitt föräldraskap. Det har skett ett skifte i synen på individer med intellektuell funktionsnedsättning vilket inkluderar möjligheter till föräldraskap. Syftet med denna studie var att undersöka hur professionella inom socialt arbete upplever det givna stödet till föräldrar med intellektuell funktions-nedsättning. Studien har haft en kvalitativ ansats där sju semistrukturerade inter-vjuer har utförts med socionomer som kommer i kontakt med familjerna i sitt arbete. Resultatet visar på att det blir den professionellas egna förmåga och handlingsutrymme att forma och utföra arbetet, samt hur organisationen påverkar utformningen av arbetet. Även om det har skett en förändring kring synen på föräldrar med intellektuell funktionsnedsättning visar studien att arbetet behöver utvecklas för att möjliggöra ett tillräckligt stöd kring föräldraskapet. / Only 10% of parents with an intellectual disability state that they get the support they are in need of. There has been a shift in the view of people with intellectual disabilities, which includes the right of parenthood. The aim of this study is to investigate how social workers experience the given support to parents with an intellectual disability. The study has been conducted using a qualitative approach in which seven semi-structured interviews were held with social workers who come in contact with the families in their work. The results show that it is the professionals’ own ability and discretion to design the work and how the organ-ization affects the work. Even though there has been a shift in the view of parents with intellectual disabilities rights the study shows that there is more work to be done to give enough support to the parents.

Hot och våld mot socialarbetare har i Sverige mellan åren 2018 och 2020 ökat från en tredjedel utsatta till hälften. Under 2021 rapporterades nästan häften av yrkesverksamma inom socialt arbete under senaste året ha utsatts för någon form av hot eller våld. Tre av tio känner sig missnöjda med stödet från arbetsgivare efter en hot- eller våldsincident. Syftet för denna uppsats blev att undersöka upplevelser hos socialarbetare av hot och våld från klienter. Frågeställningarna var: Hur ser socialarbetares erfarenhet ut av hot och våld från klienter? och Hur upplever socialarbetare att deras arbetsplatser arbetar med frågan om hot och våld från klienter? En kvalitativ metod användes och fem semistrukturerade intervjuer genomfördes, vilka analyserades med hjälp av dataanalys. Tematiseringen blev våldets former och förekomst, orsaker, påverkan och hantering av våldet. Resultatet analyserades och diskuterades utifrån tidigare forskning samt sociala konstruktioner och organisationsteori. Resultatet visar en upplevelse av hotfulla incidenter på arbetsplatsen. Våldet upplevs orsakas av olika uppfattningar hos klienter och socialtjänst, brist på anmälande av incidenter, samt samhällsförändringar. Våldet påverkar det sociala arbetet i form av att det bidrar till stress och att arbetets kvalitet kan försämras. Ett missnöje finns gällande arbetsplatsernas förebyggande arbete mot hot och våld från klienter. / In Sweden threats and violence against social workers have increased between 2018 and 2020 from one third of social workers being exposed to the half. In 2021 almost half of the social workers were reported to have been exposed to threat or violence. Three of ten feel dissatisfied with the support from employers after an incident. The purpose of this thesis was to investigate experiences among social workers of being exposed to threats and violence from clients. The questions of the study were: What experience do social workers have of being exposed to threats and violence from clients? and How do social workers perceive their workplaces management with client violence? A qualitative method was used and five semi-structured interviews were conducted, which were analyzed by using data analysis. The result was divided in following themes: Type of violence and occurrence, causes, impact and handling. The results were analyzed and discussed based on previous research together with social constructions and organizational theory. The results show an experience of threatening incidents in the workplace. The violence can be caused by clients having another perception than the social services, lack of reporting incidents, and changes in society. Client violence causes stress among social workers and in their working environment, and can lead to poorer quality of the work done by the social worker. There is dissatisfaction with the workplace’s preventive work against threats and violence from clients.