Studiens övergripande syfte har varit att belysa hur individens hela livssituation och möjligheter samt fysiska, medicinska, psykiska, sociala och existentiella behov beaktas i utredningar gällande rätt till bistånd enligt Socialtjänstlagen (2001:453), samt hur biståndshandläggare resonerar kring denna helhetssyn i hela handläggningsprocessen. Studien har genomförts på en myndighetsenhet för social och medicinsk omsorg i Malmö stad. Vår granskning av 16 utredningar inom äldreomsorgen syftade till att ta reda på hur helhetssynen beaktas i dessa utredningar. Våra resultat visar att uppgifter om till exempel fysisk hälsa, ADL-status, boendesituation och socialt nätverk förekom i samtliga utredningar, medan uppgifter om exempelvis intressen och närmiljö förekom mer sällan. Hur omfat-tande beskrivningarna av uppgifterna är varierar. Våra intervjuer med fyra hem-vårdsinspektörer syftade till att förstå hur de resonerar kring helhetssynen i hand-läggningsprocessen. Resultaten visar att helhetssynen är aktuell innan, under och efter mötet med vårdtagaren. Det finns faktorer i mötet, situationen och relationen mellan hemvårdsinspektör och vårdtagare som har betydelse för hur omfattande helhetssynen blir i en utredning. Organisationens styrning och hur denna styrning kan påverka beaktandet av en helhetssyn positivt och negativt framkom i resulta-tet. För- och nackdelar med en beställare-utförare organisation i relation till en helhetssyn framkom också. Samtliga resultat har analyserats med utgångspunkt i organisationsteorier av Johansson (2007) samt Lindelöf och Rönnbäck (2004).

The aim of the study is to investigate how social workers relate to the self-determination in cases that involve people who have dementia. To investigate this we have chosen to build a qualitative study. The study is based on four interviews with social workers in elderly care in Sweden. To analyze our material we chose the concept autonomy, and legal texts from the Social Services Act (SFS 2001: 453) and Parental code (SFS 1949: 381). Our results show that social workers are often forced to deviate from the law and guidelines to ensure the best for the person with dementia. Social workers justified their actions by arguing that what they did was in, or in line with the persons best interest. The person’s self-determination is left to stand back in some emergency cases where social workers cannot stand by and watch as the clients suffer. It was also shown that the administration process is often more extensive in cases involving people who have dementia than people who do not have dementia. The reason for this is that there are several elements that social workers must take into consideration, among other things, determining if there is a dementia diagnosis and if a legal guardian application should be made. It was also brought to light that social workers often have to spend more time on motivating the person with dementia to receive support. This motivation the interviewees called to coax, which can be seen as another word for persuasion. This is done although the law says that the client should have self-determination.

The purpose of our work is to investigate how public administrators relate to individuals' self- determination and, if so, how it manifests in the working process. We would also like to investigate the different factors that could influence the self- determination of the elderly. To get answers to our purpose we have come up with the following research questions: What knowledge do the public administrators have about the core values? How will the self- determination of the elderly express itself in the working process? How much space is assigned to the self- determination of the elderly in the working process? What are the guidelines and routines in the public sector regarding the working process and do these affect the elderlies influence and participation?Our investigation builds on a qualitative platform where we have presupposed the perspective of the participants and targeted the public administrators perceptive and experience regarding self- determination in the working process. The method we have used is semi-structured interviews with where we have interviewed six accommodation public servants employed within Malmö Stad. We have then, based on our collected material, chosen relevant theories to analyse our empiric material. We have chosen the theoretical concept of limitation and the salutogenic perspective. The investigation reveals that the public servants have two ways to view core values and self- determination. Other conclusions we have discovered is that accommodation public servants have different approaches regarding the limitations of their work process. We have also identified conclusions that capture how the guidelines and routines in the public sector are followed and in what way this may affect the participation and influence of the elderly, Next of kin reveals itself as a restricting factor for the self- determination of the elderly in certain situations. We have noticed that a salutogene perspective stands out in the public servants work process as they adapt the self- determination by the individuals understanding and abilities.Keywords: Aid, autonomy, kin, public administrators, participation, working process, influence, national value base, self-determination, retirement home, elderly.