This thesis deals with issues concerning adults and seniors with mental disability living in institutions providing social services. Special care is dedicated to those who relocated into the institutions in their adult life, often after their parents' death. Qualitative research was chosen to provide the obtained information with proper depth. The results of this research come from the analysis of interviews provided by users of social services and professionals working with people with mental disability. The aim of this thesis is to describe behavioural problems associated with users who came into the institutions later in their life, and offer them specific recommendations that would make their transition easier. Key words Mental disability, ageing, social services, deinstitutionalisation

Masters in Public Administration - MPA / Grassroots participation in the domain of public policy is assuming global significance particularly in the fields of welfare and development. Revived by the United Nations' resolution in the 1970s, many governments both in developed and underdeveloped countries have endorsed the grassroots participation ideals as contained in the United Nations' policy statements and resolutions. Accordingly, many governments have declared their support for grassroots participation and in number of cases, grassroots participation has featured conspicuously in their national development plans. A late arrival on the grassroots participation discourse, grassroots participation and civil society's involvement have also featured predominantly in the national development plans of the new South African government. The new democratically elected government pronounced in various policy documents and on public platforms, a commitment towards grassroots participation. Although many governments have employed the rhetoric of grassroots participation in their national·. development plans, there is however an accumulative literature which points to the fact that grassroots participation endeavors have· often been undertaken in a top-down fashion, with marginalized groups of communities often excluded. The central objective of this study has therefore been a critical evaluation of the manner in which the Western Cape Provincial Department of Social Services has implemented its grassroots approach in the context of policy . formulation and implementation and service delivery. An evaluation of the Department's grassroots approach has been attempted by assessing the grassroots structures, which the Department has established as vehicles for grassroots participation in its policy processes and service delivery. To this end, of Fourteen District Committees established by the Department throughout the Western Cape province,. four have been evaluated. Through reviewing literature Oh grassroots participation, the project's findings highlighted a discrepancy between the Department's prevailing rhetoric of grassroots participation and the reality of the grassroots participation as operationalized through these committees. The findings indicated that the grassroots participation through these committees is far from the ideal of authentic grassroots participation as discussed in Chapter Two, as it is replete with elements of unrepresentativeness of the marginalized groups, co-option, political manipulation, centralized and top-down decision-making styles. The study also attempted to provide recommendations tailored to bring the Department's grassroots participatory process closer to the ideals of authentic grassroots participation.

Studiens syfte var att undersöka hur socialsekreterare beskriver socialtjänstens arbete med situationen för hemmaboende söner i en familj där det finns misstanke om hedersrelaterat våld och förtryck. Kvalitativa intervjuer genomfördes med fem socialsekreterare som arbetade på utredningsenheter i tre olika kommuner. Studiens teoretiska utgångspunkter var intersektionella och systemteoretiska perspektiv med för studien relevanta begrepp. Resultaten visar att socialsekreterarna hade kunskap om sönernas situation i hedersrelaterade ärenden men att nivån på kunskapen varierade. Ingen av socialsekreterarna hade arbetat med “specifika pojkärenden” utan hade endast utrett sönerna i ärenden som rörde flickor. De svåraste utmaningarna rörde inte heller sönerna utan syftade till svårigheten att få flickorna att stanna i sina placeringar. Ingen av kommunerna hade specifika insatser riktade till sönerna utan det var allmänna insatser som erbjöds via kommunernas öppenvård. I alla kommuner var insatserna främst riktade mot flickornas skydd, alternativt att erbjuda föräldrar familjebehandling. / The purpose of this study was to investigate how the social services work with the situation of home-based sons in a family where there is suspicion of honor-related violence and oppression. Five social secretaries in three municipalities who worked on investigative units were interviewed. The theoretical points of the study were intersectionality and system theory. The results show that the social secretaries had varied levels of knowledge regarding the sons' situation in honor related cases. None of the social secretaries had worked on "specific boy cases" and boys were only investigated in cases concerning girls. Challenges for the social secretaries aimed at the difficulty of getting girls to stay in their placements. None of the municipalities had specific interventions directed at the sons. There were general interventions offered through the municipalities' outpatient care. In all municipalities, the interventions were mainly directed towards the protection of the girls or to offer parents family treatment.

Using the National Survey of Hispanic Elderly People, 1988, this study examines the support system of the Mexican American elderly and their utilization of formal social services. Two major research questions were addressed: 1) How does the Mexican American family provide assistance to their elderly family members? and 2) How does the bureaucratic structure affect the Mexican American elderly's access and utilization of formal social services?

The following study is about how non-profit organizations in Sweden with focus on social services utilize strategic planning in their organizations. Furthermore, the thesis addresses the existential challenges associated with the strategic planning process. In addition, the study also takes the possible benefits of strategic planning process into consideration. With help of interviews and previous research the thesis has managed to gain plentiful information regarding the strategic planning process, its possible challenges as well as the benefits associated with the process. After analyzing both the empirical and theoretical materials, the study has come to the conclusion that strategic planning is an integral factor for the non-profit organizations' success. This is because the strategic plan aids the non-profit organizations when it comes to defining its goals as well as achieving them. In addition, the strategic planning process creates a sense of community in the organizations. Conversations and discussions that arise during the process are valuable and create cohesion. However, there are some potential challenges as well pertaining to the strategic planning process, which are addressed in the study later. Despite all the possible challenges all non-profit organizations that have been interviewed state that the benefits of the strategic plan outweigh the costs generated by creating and implementing the strategic plan.

Var tionde man i Sverige har någon gång köpt sex trots att detta är olagligt. Vill dessa män ha hjälp att sluta köpa sex, finns det begränsat med insatser som de kunde få. Syftet med denna studie var att få en överblick av vilken hjälp sexköpare i Dalarnas län, beläget i Sverige, kunde få på kommunal nivå vid studiens utförande. För att få en överblick intervjuades sex personer som var yrkesverksamma inom Socialtjänsten. Samtliga informanter ansåg att det fanns ett behov av att arbeta med sexköpare, men kommunerna hade olika uppfattningar om det är Socialtjänsten eller Regionen som hade det övergripande ansvaret över arbetet. / Every tenth Swedish man has at some point bought sex despite it being illegal. If these men wanted help to stop buying sex, there were few options. The purpose of this study was to get an overview of what kind of help sex buyers in the county of Dalarna, in Sweden, could get on a municipal level at the time of the study. To get the overview, interviews with six professionals in social services were conducted. All the informants agreed on that there was a need to work with and help sex buyers, but there were some different opinions on whether it was the social services or Region Dalarna (healthcare) who had the overall responsibility of the work.

This study aims to examine the Swedish Social Services work with women exposed to domestic violence by their male partner. The study investigates the opportunities versus the obstacles that social workers may encounter in their purpose to help and support these women. Methods used were qualitative, semi-structured interviews with four social workers.  The study found that problems that can occur in social services work with women exposed to domestic violence are insufficient routines in the organization, inadequate opportunities to help with housing and difficulties with the cooperation within Social Services between different sections. In terms of cooperation with external professionals, the social workers found the biggest struggle with the police. There are also difficulties when it comes to motivating women to receive help and a problem seems to be that there are limited possibilities to work with the abuser. The conclusion of this study is that changes need to be done on an organizational level. Currently it seems to be a lot of responsibility laid on the individual social worker regarding cases related to intimate partner violence. There needs to be more distinct routines, better conditions for cooperation and compulsory education for social workers about intimate partner violence.

Att bli utsatt av hedersrelaterat våld och förtryck kan påverka en individs hälsa både psykisktoch fysiskt. Det som utmärker hedersrelaterat våld är att det utövas av personer med starkkoppling till varandra i syfte att bevara familjens heder. Konsekvenser som hedersrelaterat våldför med sig är att den som utsätts riskerar att utsättas för våld, hot, kränkningar, bli bortfördmot sin vilja eller i värsta fall hedersmord. Socialtjänsten har en skyldighet att stötta och hjälpade individer som utsätts för hedersrelaterat våld och förtryck. Signs of safety är en metod somidag används inom barnskyddsutredningar i många av Sveriges socialtjänster. Det är därmedav relevans att veta hur metoden kan användas inom ett aktuellt ämne som hedersärenden. Syftet med denna studie är att undersöka hur socionomer implementerar metoden Signs ofsafety inom hedersärenden samt vilka utmaningar som finns med metoden. För att besvarafrågeställningarna utgick studien från tidigare befintlig forskning samt tre kvalitativa intervjuerav yrkesverksamma inom socialt arbete. I resultatet framkom det skilda åsikter om Signs ofsafety är en lämplig metod inom hedersärenden. Samtliga intervjupersoner var dock överensom vikten av att utforska nätverket noggrant och att som professionell vara öppen ochriskmedveten under hela utredningen. Slutsatsen från denna studie visar på att än fast det kan vara en utmaning att arbeta mednätverket som är en stor del av Signs of safety, kan metoden vara behjälplig under etthedersärende. Metoden medför ett helhetsperspektiv och en fördomsfri process, vilket är tillfördel för professionella som möter och hanterar olika människor. Kunskapen omhedersrelaterat våld är en viktig förutsättning för att kunna ge lämplig hjälp och stöd till utsatta.

The diploma thesis is focused on handling complaints in organizations providing social services. The process of handling complaints is conceived in the work as a process which, if properly set up and coordinated within the organization, can be useful in improving the services provided. The thesis summarizes professional theoretical knowledge in the field of complaint handling, describes the Czech legislative anchoring of work with complaints and offers an overview of possible processes procedures, rules and practices that can be used in practice. The practical part of the work is focused primarily on handling complaints in the field of providing interpretation of Czech sign language. Part of the diploma thesis is qualitative research, in which the process of handling complaints in the selected organization is diagnosed in detail. The results of the research include suggestions for possible procedures and recommendations that can help the organization streamline the complaint handling proces and can also be an inspiration for organizations that are open to a critical approach to their own complaint handling and possible implementation of changes.

This work maps the supply of social assistance to prostitutes in Dubí. Its aim is to determine which organizations are active in this direction and what is their job. For this detection was used a method called "snowball", followed by an analysis of written documents of these organizations and data collection through interviews with their staff. It was found that five oraganizations were here. Of these are currently only three aktive: Rozkoš bez rizika, Diecézní charita i Litoměřice and WHITE LIGHT I. I managed to create an overview of the activities of all the identified entities. Some information about conditions that they have in Dubí were found at the same time. The results of my work can be used by organisations themself for their better work coordination, as well as for city hall, which could be able to gain a better view of services, which have been afforded in its scope.