Människans livskvalitet hänger tätt samman med vilken lyckonivå personen befinner sig på. Det finns flera faktorer som påverkar lyckonivån och ibland kan det behövas lite hjälp av exempelvis personlig assistans för att kunna uppnå lyckonivåerna.Senaste tiden har vi nästan dagligen kunnat läsa i dagspressen om hur den personliga assistansen överutnyttjas, den har ökat i kostnader och att det är mycket fusk inom den. Utöver det har vi kunnat läsa om individer vars assistansersättning helt eller delvis har dragits in. Genom en litteraturstudie, en så kallad scoping study undersöker denna studie vad tidigare forskning säger om upplevelser kring livskvalitet och empowerment för personer som lever med personlig assistans. Syftet var även att se om personlig assistans inverkar på individens livskvalitet. Kan personer med funktionsnedsättningar och som är i behov av stöd och hjälp uppnå de tio förmågor som Martha Nussbaum anser sig vara nödvändiga för att känna livskvalitet? Resultatet visar att den personliga assistansen har både för- och nackdelar men att fördelarna väger tyngst och hjälper assistansanvändarna till ett självständigt liv. Med hjälp av assistansen kan användarna bland annat nå ett självbestämmande, komma ut i arbetsliv och ha möjlighet till familjebildning. / The quality of life depends on the happiness of the person. There are several factors that affect happiness and sometimes some help from personal assistance may be needed to achieve happiness levels.Recently, we have been able to read in daily press about how personal assistance is overused, it has increased in costs and that there is a lot of cheating on it. In addition to that, we have been able to read about individuals whose assistance compensation has been fully or partially withdrawn.Through a literature study, a so-called scoping study, this study studies what previous research says about experiences about quality of life and empowerment for people living with personal assistance. The purpose was also to see whether personal assistance affects the individual's quality of life. Can people with disabilities who are in need of support and help achieve the ten thresholds that Martha Nussbaum considers necessary to feel quality of life? The result shows that personal assistance has both pros and cons, but the benefits weigh heaviest and help the assistance users to an independent life. With the help of the help, users can, among other things, reach self-determination, get into work life and have the opportunity to family-run

Introduction: The major changes which are in progress in today’s society affect, among other things, leadership that is exercised at a distance. In order for leaders of personal assistance organizations to be able to adapt their organization to the outside world, learning and leadership are crucial, and it is therefore important to explore how distance leaders in personal assistance perceive their impact on their employees' learning, and how these leaders perceive changes that take place in the organization.  Problem formulation: 1) What are the perceptions of leaders in personal assistance regarding their impact on employees’ learning and development? 2) What are the perceptions of leaders in personal assistance regarding changes which are in progress in the organization?   Aim: The aim of the thesis is to contribute knowledge about how leaders in personal assistance who lead at a distance, create conditions for employees’ learning and development. The purpose is also to contribute knowledge about the leaders’ perceptions of changes in organizations where leadership is exercised at a distance. Method: The study was conducted with a qualitative approach through semi-structured interviews with leaders at personal assistance organizations. Theory: The thesis is based on concepts such as distance, learning organization, transformative leadership and change leadership and which are used to interpret and analyze the respondents’ answers and to discuss the results of the study. Results and analysis: The results show that the respondents perceived that distance leadership in personal assistance can affect employees’ learning and development in personal assistance through three important aspects: organizational learning, promoting dialogue and having well-functioning meetings. In the event of changes, the leader has an advisory and supportive role, and the leader must be positive, clear and a role model for his employees. It is important that the leader looks at the whole of the organization and ensures that all employees receive information and are involved in changes in the organization. The parts of the organization must be organized to create a whole and there must be interaction with all parts of the organization.   Discussion: The results of the study and analysis are discussed based on previous research on learning in organizations, transformative leadership and change leadership as well as concept formation, leadership, distance leadership, learning and change processes in organizations. Conclusion: · The leader at a distance affects employees’ learning and development through dialogue and discussion, especially at various meetings. It is especially important to have an open dialogue and an effective discussion in order to reach conclusions on a particular issue. By enabling teamwork, the leader creates opportunities for individual learning, which later leads to collective learning. The most problematic with distance leadership is precisely the physical distance between leaders and employees, as the leaders cannot monitor and give feedback on the employees’ work. Nor can employees receive clear instructions. · Changes must take place when the attempt at change is directed towards the whole, i.e. towards the network of relationship that exists between different parts of the organization. The leader should realize that a change is a long process and undergoes different phases where even these phases require different lengths of time. It is not just an event but a process. Since it is a matter of leadership at a distance, it is especially important that the leader, based on limited insight, gets the employees involved and assesses they need for competence development.

Personlig assistans är en insats inom lagen om stöd och service till vissa funktionshindrade (LSS) och syftar till att ge individen kontroll och självbestämmande i sitt liv. Syftet med denna studie var att undersöka hur den assistansberättigade upplever sin personliga assistans utifrån självbestämmande i förhållande till de aktörer som är inblandade i processen såsom sjukvården, Försäkringskassan, kommun, assistansanordnare samt personliga assistenter. Den teoretiska utgångspunkten var Self-determination theory, vilken utgår från begreppen självbestämmande, kompetens och tillhörighet. Semistrukturerade intervjuer med nio assistansberättigade, analyserades tematiskt. Resultaten presenterar fem teman som centrala för upplevelsen av självbestämmande: relationens betydelse - personkontinuitet underlättar; makt, kontroll och kunskap; ingen assistans, inget självbestämmande; kommunikation och stöd för kommunikation samt politik och besparingar. Resultatet visade att relationen till samtliga aktörer påverkar upplevelsen av självbestämmandet, samt att kunskap, kommunikation och stöd är av vikt. Genom att själv vara arbetsledare för sin assistans återtar individen kontrollen över viktiga beslut och kan därmed utöva självbestämmande.

The thesis analyzes the structure of needs, barriers and effective demand for social services in the town Strmilov. Using multiple methods (interviews, public inquiry, observation, experiment) this thesis presents the initial conditions for the planning of social services in the town, including proposals for the development of social services.

The aim of this study was to examine how heads of unit in charge of personal assistance (PA)for the disabled experience and handle ethical dilemmas and situations within theirworkgroups when The Work Environment Act and The Swedish Act Concerning Support andService for Persons with Certain Functional Impairments collide with each other. The methodof the study was to use semi-structured interviews based around three main topics; the head ofunits opinions about the value and purpose of The Work Environment Act in theadministering and implementation of personal assistance services, the problem solvingprocess and the head of units own individual experiences of ethical dilemmas or workenvironment-related conflicts or situations within their workgroups. Four heads of unit wereinterviewed for this study. The results of this study showed that the interviewed heads of unitexperienced a lack of clear and factual information about how they were meant to solvedilemmas emerging from the two laws conflicting with each other regarding the rights of thecare recipient to layout their personal assistance to their liking, versus the rights of thepersonal assistant to have acceptable working conditions. The heads of unit could not rely onlegislation and/or other specific directive documents when work environment-relatedproblems arose. There is a strong emphasis on the care recipient’s rights both within thelegislation and throughout the different fields of social work in general, which makes it harderfor the personal assistant to claim their rights. Both The Swedish Act Concerning Support andService for Persons with Certain Functional Impairments and the PA-profession is relativelynew in Sweden and has yet to be adequately explored and discussed.

The purpose of the thesis was to investigate how assistance users and personal assistance are presented in government official reports by examining which discourses dominate the official reports. To achieve the purpose of the study, a discourse analysis was performed based on Norman Fairclough's three-dimensional method. As a theoretical starting point for analyzing the texts, social constructionism and the critical concept of the struggle over needs were chosen. The results showed that the social discourse and the needs discourse were found in all investigations, but there were also dominant discourses that differed between the reports. In the analysis, it could be interpreted that pressure groups for assistance users gained a great deal of influence in the inquiry in 1991, when the dominant discourses were the rights discourse and the self-determining discourse. In recent reports, it could be interpreted as the state has worked to regain influence. The reports, which was published in 2018, was mainly dominated by the cost discourse and the appropriateness discourse. In 2021, a discourse on the rule of law and a discourse on standardization dominated, which could be interpreted as a way of retaining influence and control. The conclusion was that discourses about rights and self-determination have been left behind in recent reports and that discourses about costs and control have been given more space. This results in people with disabilities being portrayed as cost bearers in the latest official report, but as individuals with civil rights in the oldest report. / Uppsatsens syfte var att utreda hur assistansanvändare och personlig assistans framställs i statliga utredningar genom att granska vilka diskurser som dominerar i utredningarna. För att uppnå syftet med studien genomfördes en diskursanalys utifrån Norman Faircloughs tredimensionella modell. Som teoretisk utgångpunkt för analyserna av texten så valdes socialkonstruktionism och det kritiska begreppet kampen om behoven. Resultatet visade att den sociala diskursen och behovsdiskursen återfanns i samtliga utredningar men att det även fanns dominerande diskurser som skiljde sig åt mellan utredningarna. Vid analysen så kunde det tolkas som att intresseorganisationerna för assistansanvändarna fick ett stort inflytande i utredningen 1991, då de dominerande diskurserna var rättighetsdiskursen och självbestämmande diskursen. I de senare utredningarna så kunde det tolkas som att staten har arbetat med att återta inflytandet. Utredningen som publicerades år 2018 dominerades främst av kostnadsdiskursen och ändamålsenlighetsdiskursen. År 2021 så dominerade en rättsäkerhetsdiskurs och en standardiseringsdiskurs vilket kunde tolkas som ett sätt att behålla sitt inflytande och kontroll. Slutsatsen blev att diskurser om rättigheter och självbestämmande har fått stå tillbaka i de senare utredningarna och att diskurser om kostnader och kontroll har fått ett större utrymme. Detta resulterar i att personer med funktionsnedsättning framställs som kostnadsbärare i de senaste utredningarna, men som individer med medborgliga rättigheter i den äldsta utredningen.

Abstract Since the Act Regarding Support and Service to Certain Functionally Handicapped Persons (LSS) were introduced in 1994, social care and service have increased inSweden(SFS 1993:387). The implementation of the act has caused many changes and also progress within the social care system. One main change is the division between public (provided by the municipalities) and private care providers. This division has led to many questions about how leadership is organized within different public and private organizations. The purpose of this study is to investigate differences between leader’s experiences of their role and working conditions within private and public assistance care for disabled. The study is based on a qualitative method and material e. g. literature and six interviews with leaders in middle position and who work within public and private assistance care for disabled. Based on this we have concluded that the leadership of these organizations is not different as such, but since the organizations themselves formulates rules and attitudes they also shape different styles for leadership. Some differences that emerged in the result was that private organizations have a beneficial interest in its activities to develop the company, while the municipal aims to meet the need and contentment for a certain cost. The leaders of the private organizations have more responsibilities and authority which is perceived by the leaders that while developing leaders from municipal organizations feel the opposite. Other differences that occurred in the result are that the leaders of the private organizations have more pressure to succeed and therefore less secure in their employment. The leaders from municipal organizations comply with rules, guidelines and practices that contribute to a more secure employment for them.

The purpose of this study was to examine the experiences and perceptions of representatives for user-organizations regarding personal assistance at occupational activities, such as labour, studies and daily activity centers. This in order to gain knowledge about the meaning of personal assistance in regard to these kinds of occupations. We used a qualitative method with a social constructionist approach and interviewed a total of eight representatives from six different user-organizations. The study was based on their experiences and perceptions regarding the possibilities and limitations to personal assistance related to occupational activities. In order to interpret our empirical material we used empowerment as a theoretical concept. The study shows that personal assistance makes it possible for many users to work, study and participate in daily activity centers, which also has effects on other aspects of the users life. These effects sometimes differ between users and type of activities. Improvements regarding self-perception, health, social relationships and inclusion occurs however within all categories.

This diploma thesis is concerned with individual planning with regard to the social service of personal assistance. The theoretical part contains a description of the origin and history of personal assistance in the world and in the Czech Republic. The theoretical part elaborates in detail on the no. 5 standard of quality of services provided and its four criteria. It also provides an overview of existing approaches toward individual planning of the social service of personal assistance for the target group of people with physical disabilities and seniors, including their positives and negatives, which the system of individual planning brings to providers of the social service of personal assistance and its users. The diploma thesis had two goals. The first was to ascertain the value of individual planning for users of the social service of personal assistance. The second was to assess the benefits that individual planning brings to organizations that provide the social service of personal assistance to people with serious physical disabilities and seniors with regard to improving the efficacy of the work of their employees. The practical part is based on qualitative research, with the main method of data collection being semi-structured interviews. The results showed that users do not see a major change in the way personal assistance is provided after the introduction of the individual planning system when compared to the situation before. Users mainly appreciated the fact that assistants are well-prepared even before the provision of assistance starts. This factor was unequivocally praised as a positive and a reason why individual planning should be introduced. In conclusion, the only negative aspect of individual planning for the employees was considered to be a higher administrative load, which, however, they were able to handle in the end, according their responses. On the other hand, both groups considered the greater level of preparedness of the social workers ? personal assistants during their social work a big benefit.

Les systèmes multi-agents (SMA) mettent en relations des entités autonomes, les agents, dont les actes et les interactions participent à la mise en place d'un comportement et d'une fonctionnalité globale du système. La structure et le fonctionnement global du système sont décrits à travers la notion d'organisation : celle-ci regroupe l'ensemble des places occupées par les agents, de leurs relations et de leur importance dans la fonctionnalité attendue du système. Usuellement, ces concepts sont formalisés par des notions empruntées à l'analyse des organisations humaines et animales : rôles, groupes, normes, etc. Cependant, une part importante des organisations des SMA n'est que partiellement décrite par ces notions : la dynamique. En effet, dans les SMA ouverts, dans lesquels des agents, parfois inconnus à la conception du système, peuvent entrer ou sortir de celui-ci à tout instant, et dans les SMA auto-organisés, où la structure du système se forme et se reforme en fonction du contexte, la dynamique des organisations, c'est-à-dire l'analyse de leur évolution au cours du temps, est un champ important qui est difficile à décrire avec les notions de haut-niveau usuellement utilisées pour formaliser les organisations. Ce que nous proposons dans cette thèse est donc un modèle de description des organisations pour les SMA, axé sur la possibilité de décrire une vaste variété de système, à la fois dans leurs aspects statiques et dynamiques. Pour atteindre cela, nous nous appuyons sur une conception émergentiste et calculatoire, et nous créons notre modèle autour de trois éléments statiques typés et de bas-niveau : les agents, les relations et les tâches, et un élément dynamique : les mécanismes organisationnels. Nous proposons ensuite des méthodes descriptives des organisations fondée sur l'agrégation de contraintes sur les systèmes exprimées à partir de ces éléments, ainsi que des méthodes calculatoires destinées à permettre l'extraction de propriétés globales sur les organisations à partir de ces descriptions ; tout cela dans l'optique de fournir une aide méthodologique à la conception et à l'analyse d'organisations pour les SMA. Nous appliquons ensuite l'utilisation de notre modèle sur des applications précises afin de démontrer son intérêt et sa pratique dans la formalisation et dans la comparaison d'organisations dynamiques pour les SMA. / Multiagent systems (MAS) are composed of interacting autonomous entities called agents. Their behaviors and interactions take part in the generation of a global functionality in the system. The notion of organization describes the structural and functional aspects of such systems: it includes the objectives of each agent, the way they can interact and create relationships and their importance in the system's global function. These concepts are usually formalized through notions derived from human and animal organizations: roles, groups, norms… However, an important part of MAS' organization can only be partially described with these notions: dynamics. In open MAS – where agents can enter or exit the system at any time, and where their number and characteristics are often not known at the time of the system's design – and in self-organized MAS – where the system's structure evolves with relation to context and environment – organization's dynamics is very difficult to formally describe with these high-level notions. In this thesis, we propose a model for MAS organizations' description, which is focused toward the description of a wide range of systems and the modeling of both their static and dynamic aspects. In order to achieve this, we ground our model on an approach based on emergence and computation. We then create a model based on three basic, low-level, typed static elements: agents, relations and tasks, and one low-level dynamic element: organizational mechanisms. We then propose some methods for organization description based on our model and the principle of system's constraints aggregation. We also provide some computational methods allowing the calculation of some global properties over described organizations, in order to provide a methodological help for MAS design and analysis. We then apply our model and the proposed methods on practical applications in order to show its pertinence in MAS organizations' formalization and comparison.