The purpose of this study is to examine what professionals tell about stress, rewards, impact and treatment in the professional treatment with young sexual offenders. Eleven qualitative interviews of half-structured design brought up results about the professional role in the treatment process. During the interviews the professionals described which methods of treatment they work with. We examined the methods through literature research, which was added to the study whit the purpose of strengthening the interview data. The professionals consider their work important and meaningful and they feel safe in their working role. They differentiated between the person and the actions in their view of a young offender, which non professionals many times are incapable of doing. There was no single factor causing the development of offensive behaviour, but rather a combination of factors. It was something that the professionals and researchers in the field agreed upon. In the professional work place they experienced both strains and rewards. Signs of stress could occur in terms of powerlessness, not feeling complete in their work. This could be due to work being a burdensome in itself and lack of professionalism working with the young offenders. The rewards in working with youth took many forms, including satisfaction when making progress, and motivated them to continue whit their work and to develop it even more. Methods of treatment for young sexual offenders were cognitive behavioural therapy, psychodynamic theory, individual therapy, group therapy, environmental therapy, aggression replacement training and network therapy. The professionals found themselves having a lot of room for professionalism in their work although it also had challenges. The professionals said that it is always a challenge working whit young sexual offenders. / Syftet med denna studie var att undersöka vad professionella berättar om påfrestningar, belöningar, påverkan och behandling i det professionella behandlingsarbetet med unga sexuella förövare. Utifrån elva kvalitativa intervjuer med en halvstrukturerad design framkom resultat om den professionella rollen i behandlingsarbetet. I intervjuerna tog de professionella upp vilka behandlingsmetoder de arbetade med, som vi undersökte genom litteratursökningar som tillkommit i studien med syfte att förstärka intervjudatan. De professionella ansåg sitt arbete viktigt och meningsfullt samt att de kände sig trygga i sin arbetsroll. De skiljde på person och handling i sin syn på en ung förövare, vilket de inte upplevde allmänheten hade förmåga till alla gånger. Det var ingen ensam faktor som gjorde att ett förövarbeteende utvecklades. Snarare var det en kombination av faktorer. Det var något som styrktes både av de professionella och forskare inom området. I det professionella arbetet kände de av både påfrestningar och belöningar. Påfrestningarna kunde yttra sig i vanmakt av att inte känna sig klara i sitt arbete, det kunde bero på det tunga området i sig samt brist på fler professionella som arbetade med de unga förövarna. Belöningar fanns i arbetet, som tog sig många former, bland annat glädje över olika framsteg med de unga som motiverade dem till att fortsätta med det arbete som tidigare gjorts samt utveckla det mer. Arbetet innebar en viss påverkan, både positivt och negativt beroende på vilken situation de befann sig i. Behandlingsmetoder för unga sexuella förövare var kognitiv beteendeterapi, psykodynamisk teori, individuell terapi, gruppterapi, miljöterapi, aggression replacement training samt nätverksarbete. I behandlingsarbetet upplevde de professionella sig ha stort utrymme för professionalitet som även innebar utmaningar.

The purpose of this study was to examine and increase the knowledge about the way young, newly graduated social workers view their professional role considering their age and professional experience, how they experience the relation to their clients and colleagues and how these experiences all together affect the way the young social workers handle their professional role. Seven social workers in the ages between 23 and 25, who graduated from Socialhögskolan, Stockholm University, in January 2007, where interviewed. They also answered a questionnaire covering the similar questions as the interview. Little research had previously been made in this particular area, why the triangulation of methods was helpful in analyzing the results, with data coming from two different resources. To analyze the data a multidimensional theory was used, containing coping theory, an experiential perspective, Antonovskys theory a sense of coherence, cognitive theory and role theory. In summary, the results showed that young newly graduated social workers experienced expectations both coming from them selves and their surroundings. Finding meaning in their work helped the respondents to handle stress. The relation to their clients and colleagues and the expectations all together participated in the development of their professional role.

The purpose of this study was to examine and increase the knowledge about the way young, newly graduated social workers view their professional role considering their age and professional experience, how they experience the relation to their clients and colleagues and how these experiences all together affect the way the young social workers handle their professional role. Seven social workers in the ages between 23 and 25, who graduated from Socialhögskolan, Stockholm University, in January 2007, where interviewed. They also answered a questionnaire covering the similar questions as the interview. Little research had previously been made in this particular area, why the triangulation of methods was helpful in analyzing the results, with ata coming from two different resources. To analyze the data a multidimensional theory was used, containing coping theory, an experiential perspective, Antonovskys theory a sense of coherence, cognitive theory and role theory. In summary, the results showed that young newly graduated social workers experienced expectations both coming from them selves and their surroundings. Finding meaning in their work helped the respondents to handle stress. The relation to their clients and colleagues and the expectations all together participated in the development of their professional role.

Syftet med studien är att undersöka hur socialt arbete i en internationell kontext formas efter kulturer och hur detta kommer till uttryck. Vidare ämnar studien ta reda på hur socialarbetare själva ger uttryck för kulturell kompetens samt vilka element som gagnar respektive försvårar det internationella sociala arbetet. Studien har en kvalitativ ansats där semistrukturerade intervjuer genomfördes med fyra kvinnliga respondenter. Databearbetningen gjordes genom tematisering där tre huvudteman framkom, kulturell anpassning, kulturell kompetens och svårigheter, möjligheter och dilemman. I resultatet framkommer att samtliga respondenter ger uttryck för en kulturell anpassning i det internationella sociala arbetet. Detta urskiljs genom att respondenterna uppmärksammar de fungerande kulturella strukturerna, bygger arbetet kring detta och lägger stor vikt vid inhemsk kunskap. Det arbetssätt och den främsta framstående faktor vilken underbygger en kulturell anpassning är empowerment. Vidare ger även samtliga respondenter uttryck för kulturell kompetens genom att visa en medvetenhet kring den egna kulturens påverkan, genom synen på den egna kunskapens giltighet samt genom den vikt respondenterna satte vid att skapa relationer. Studien visar den kulturella anpassningens beroende av socialarbetares kulturella kompetens. Vidare visar resultatet hur den kollektivistiska samhällsstrukturen kan ses som både ett hjälpmedel och som försvårande element. Genus, etik och moral tycks vara de faktorer som främst ställer socialarbetare i svåra situationer och har visat sig frambringa ett arbetssätt som kännetecknas av att verka utan att synas. Relationer visar sig vara en underlättande faktor, men även här framkommer en baksida. Relationen tycks nödvändig på grund av den bristande tillit individer har inför internationella socialarbetare. / The purpose of this study is to examine how social work in an international context is formed by cultures and how this is expressed. Furthermore, the study aims to explore culture competence as is expressed within the social workers themselves and which elements that benefit or alternatively hinder, the international social work. The study has a qualitative approach where semi-structured interviews were conducted with four female respondents. The analyzing method chosen to process data was thematization, where three main themes emerged, indigenization/cultural adaption, cultural competence and difficulties, opportunities and dilemmas. The result shows that all respondents express an indigenization process while describing their work. This is distinguished by the attention all the respondents gave to the functioning cultural structures and how they built the work around this. It also showed through the great emphasis the respondent put on indigenous knowledge. The approach and the main prominent factor which underpins an indigenization process is empowerment. The results show that all respondents express cultural competence. This is observed through the respondents awareness of their own culture's influence, through the respondents evaluation and validation of their own personal knowledge and by the expressed importance of creating relationships. The study shows that an indigenization process is dependent on social workers' cultural competence. Furthermore, the result shows that the collectivist social structure can be seen as both an aid and as an aggravating element. Gender, ethics and morality seem to be the main factors which place social workers in difficult situations. This has also been shown to produce a work approach that is characterized by acting without being seen. Relationships prove to be a facilitating factor, but it is not grown for all good reasons, it seem to be necessary because of the lack of trust people have for international social workers.

The purpose of this study was to inquire how social workers perceive and describe financial abuse of older persons. Six qualitative interviews were carried out and the assembled data was then categorized and analyzed using a theory considering exercise of power and ageism as a theoretical frame. Previous research has shown that at least 10% of older persons have been exposed to some form of abuse or violence; however, there is a lack of research carried out in a Swedish context regarding financial abuse specifically. The six persons interviewed in this study all presented financial abuse as some kind of violence and as previous research has shown the study suggests that this is an increasing problem. Further research ought to be carried out to increase the awareness of this particular form of abuse and to facilitate discovery and development of measures to prevent financial abuse of older persons. The result of this study as well as previous research indicates that there is a high amount of unrecorded cases; therefore, it is hard to define financial abuse since the use of the term varies among different contexts and that the term consists of very differing examples.

The aim of this bachelor thesis was to examine attitudes among social workers, particularly their attitudes toward their clients’ poverty and towards economic counseling as a method. A further aim was to study the relationship between attitudes towards poverty and economic counseling. Primary data used for the study was assembled among social workers (n = 111) with the use of an electronic questionnaire that was sent out to social welfare offices in 34 city districts in Stockholm,Gothenburg and Malmö. The findings showed that a majority of the social workers had a structural understanding of poverty and a positive attitude towards economic counseling. No correlations were found between the attitudes towards poverty and towards economic counseling. Although economic counseling can be seen as a method for individual change, the social workers had a positive attitude towards using it with clients’ whose inability to support themselves was interpreted as structurally implied. This was understood as a means to minimize the negative effects of poverty and as a way to go beyond administrative tasks. Through Giddens duality of structure theory, economic counseling was interpreted as a way of affecting the structurally caused problem of poverty by changing the actions of the client.

The purpose of this paper has been to reach a greater understanding in how moral inflicts social workers way of handling everyday situations. In what way, if in any way, moral comes to play a part in the making of decisions. In order to reach this understanding we have interviewed two different groups of social workers which we also later on came to compare . One of the groups contained six interviewees and the other group contained five interviewees. Both of these groups were in the ages between 27 – 52.To shed some light over this phenomenon did we use two theoretical perspectives, first Kant’s morale theory and second, consequentialistic utilitarism theory. As a result from the interviews we’ve made, we came to an understanding that the meaning of morale and in what way it can be applied in the everyday work differs between these two professional groups. One of the greater conclusions we came to make, is that one key role is the differences between both work environments, both on a social and a structural level.

I socialt arbete finns det flertalet lagar, riktlinjer och regler som påverkar socialarbetares förhållningssätt gentemot deras klienter. Inom kommunalt utredningsarbete representerar socialarbetarna en myndighet och deras arbete genomsyras av en maktobalans som existerar mellan dem och klienterna. Maktobalansen uppenbaras av att socialarbetaren har lagar som ger dem maktbefogenheter att ingripa i människors liv och bestämma över beslut som rör deras klienter oavsett om klienterna själva vill det eller inte. Utifrån denna komplexa relation har studiens syfte växt fram; att undersöka hur socialarbetare beskriver sitt förhållningssätt gentemot sina klienter. En kvalitativ metod i form av fem semistrukturerade intervjuer har används för att uppfylla studiens syfte. På utredningsenheten vuxen i Örebro kommun bemöter socialarbetarna både unga vuxna och vuxna personer. Eftersom unga vuxna personer nyligen enligt lag har blivit ansedda som vuxna, innebär det att de får ett större ansvar för sitt eget liv. Med anledning av detta har studien även i syfte att undersöka om det går att uttyda skillnader i socialarbetares beskrivningar av deras förhållningssätt beroende på om klinten är ung vuxen eller vuxen och i så fall vilka. Enligt vår tolkning har resultatet för studien påvisat att socialarbetarna har ett etiskt och professionellt förhållningssätt gentemot sina klienter. Vi anser att socialarbetarna har ett annat tänk gentemot klienter som är unga vuxna men vi menar att förhållningssättet är detsamma som mot vuxna och påverkar inte etiken i det sociala arbetet. / In social work there are a lot of rules, guidelines and laws that influence the social workers relationship with their clients. Within the local authority the social workers represent an agen-cy witch execute investigative work. This work is imbued with a power of imbalance between the social workers and their clients. The social workers have the authority by law to involve in other people’s lives and make decisions that affect their clients, even if the clients want it or not. Based on this complex relationship the purpose of the study has developed; to examine how social workers describe their attitudes toward their clients. A qualitative method with five semi-structured interviews was used to fulfill the purpose of the study. In the adult unit of investigation in the local authority of Örebro, Sweden, the social workers meet both young adult and adult clients. Since young adults recently by law are considered as adults it means taking a more substantial responsibility for their own lives. Regarding this, the study also has the purpose to examine if differences can be interpreted from the social workers explanations about their attitude toward their client, depending whether if the client are young adult or adult. According to our interpretation, the results of the study revealed that social workers have an ethical and professional attitude toward their clients. According to us, the social workers have a different mindset towards clients whom are young adults but we mean that their attitude is the same as toward the adults and do not have an effect on the ethnics in the social work.

Research on psychosocial health in social work isn't developed enough. Instead, there's much more research on psychosocial unhealth. What about social workers, the unhealth is often related to the situation at work and the work environment. The aim of this study was to "during interviews understand the factors which social workers experience as important to maintain their own psychosocial health in the life situations". With hermeneutic method the particular interest was directed on how the participants experienced and explained their psychosocial health on the basis of their life situations, and the results was analyzed with Antonovsky's (1991/2005) perspective directed on health and Sense of Coherence (SOC). In the study, we used a qualitative form of interviews which allowed our participants to answer with their own words and from how they interpreted the questions. We have made interviews with eight social workers in a average municipality in Sweden. The results are shown qualitatively in current text. With our interest in social workers´ psychosocial health, we have understood that it's complicated to make a partition line between the life at work and the private life when it comes to the social workers´ experiences of factors that helps to maintain psychosocial health. Instead, it's about to understand the social worker's psychosocial health as a whole, on the basis of the work as well as the private life. In comparison to research on psychosocial unhealth, our participants said that it's especially the private life, rather than the life at work, that influences and sometimes even controls the psychosocial health in general. Nevertheless, there were plural factors at work which were experienced as especially important to maintain the psychosocial health, for example a "good director", "good colleagues", "ability to let go of the liability for clients" and a working situation where you "work two together" plus "experience and knowledge" from the whole life situations. In private life, and in addition to work, the experiences were about "enriching leisure time", social support from friends and family and the ability to make "reasonable demands and limits for yourself" in private life as well as at work.

Social workers ideas about what domestic violence is influence their ability to recognize vio-lence in cases where this occurs. Social workers awareness and understanding of domestic violence can also influence the handling of these cases. Education on the subject domestic violence can increase social workers knowledge about, awareness and handling of violence. The present study aims to investigate how social workers in child protection investigations understand, recognize and interpret domestic violence and which interventions the social workers suggest. This is a qualitative vignette study in which semi-structured interviews was carried out with social workers working with child protection investigations. The result of the interviews has been analyzed using a social constructionist perspective and the theoretical concepts victims and perpetrators based on various forms of domestic violence. This study shows that the understanding and the interpretations by the participating social workers of domestic violence and victims and perpetrators influences if and how they recognize violence, which in turn influences their choices of interventions. / Socialarbetares föreställningar om vad våld i nära relation är påverkar om de uppmärksammar våld i de fall det förekommer. Hur socialarbetare uppmärksammar och förstår våldet kan ock-så påverka hanteringen av dessa ärenden. Utbildning i ämnet våld i nära relation kan påverka socialarbetares kunskap och uppmärksamhet på, samt hantering av, våld. I studien avser vi att undersöka hur socialarbetare som arbetar med barnavårdsutredningar förstår, uppmärksammar och tolkar våld i nära relationer samt vilka insatser socialarbetarna föreslår. Detta är en kvali-tativ vinjettstudie genomförd genom semistrukturerade intervjuer med socialarbetare som arbetar med barnavårdsutredningar. Intervjuerna har analyserats med hjälp av ett socialkon-struktionistiskt perspektiv samt de teoretiska begreppen offer och förövare utifrån olika for-mer av våld i nära relation. Denna studie visar att de deltagande socialarbetarnas förståelse och tolkningar av våld i nära relation samt offer och förövare påverkar om och hur de upp-märksammar våld, vilket i sin tur påverkar val av insatser vid utredning av familjer där våld förekommer.