The purpose of this study is to describe and analyze how health care providers, working at care facilities providing maintenance treatment programs for opiate dependence, perceive and manage the legal framework governing the treatment. The study is limited to a few particular rules within this framework which over the recent decade have been the subject matter of debate regarding i.a. their alleged lack of relation to scientific research and their frequently disastrous implications for program participants. The empirical material consists of interviews with five respondents working at four different care facilities and has been analyzed by using Lipskys theory on street-level bureaucrats as policymaking agents. The results of the study show that the rules are looked upon and dealt with in a liberal fashion and that the primary loyalty of the maintenance treatment staff is clearly directed towards promoting the well-being of their patients and helping them reach their treatment goals rather than strictly following the rules.

The public and media are paying more attention to youth offending today and reform proposals that call for more parental responsibility as a means of preventing crime have taken note of this trend. The purpose of the study is to examine discursive descriptions on parenting as they are articulated in relation to parents of young offenders in a selection of publications published by the Swedish National Board of Health and Welfare. Based on Foucauldian discourse analysis and Foucault’s theorizations on power, knowledge and subject, the study identifies four discursive representations of parents within the material. We found that parents of young offenders are portrayed as ignorant, immature, morally responsible or risky. It is assumed that the parent is both the cause of unlawful behavior and its solution. The study concludes that in the publications and their underpinning knowledge base, the accountability for societal problems is attributed to the parents. / Allmänheten och media ägnar idag mer uppmärksamhet åt ungdomsbrottsligheten och reformförslag som efterlyser mer föräldraansvar, som ett sätt att förebygga brott, har tagit fasta på denna trend. Syftet med studien är att undersöka diskursiva framställningar om föräldraskap, så som de formuleras i relation till föräldrar till unga lagöverträdare, i ett urval av publikationer utgivna av Socialstyrelsen. Baserat på Foucaults diskursanalys och Foucaults teorier om makt, kunskap och subjekt, identifierar studien fyra diskursiva framställningar av föräldrar i materialet. Vi fann att föräldrar till unga lagöverträdare framställs som okunniga, omogna, moraliskt ansvariga och riskfyllda. Det antas att föräldern är både orsaken till det olagliga beteendet och dess lösning. Inom studien konstateras att publikationerna och deras understödjande kunskapsbas tillskriver föräldrarna ansvaret för samhällsproblem.

Studiens syfte är att undersöka hur barn som har en omsorgsgivande och ansvarstagande roll i förhållande till sina föräldrar skildras i svenska, statliga texter om barns utsatthet. Utgångspunkten är fenomenet och begreppet young carers/unga omsorgsgivare som har fått stor uppmärksamhet i bland annat England och Australien, men knappt belysts alls i Sverige. Med ett diskursanalytiskt angreppssätt genomförs en näranalys av fyra publikationer utgivna mellan år 1999 och 2013 av Socialstyrelsen. Teorin och metoden som används är en kombination av Faircloughs kritiska diskursanalys och diskursteori. Andra teoretiska utgångspunkter är socialkonstruktionism och teori om hur sociala problem konstrueras. Socialstyrelsen har som myndighet stor makt att påverka bilden av sociala problem bland professionella inom bland annat socialtjänst och sjukvård. Den diskursanalytiska genomgången av Socialstyrelsens publikationer fann två diskurser om barns omsorgsgivande och ansvarstagande; en aktörsdiskurs och en objektsdiskurs. Ordet omsorgsgivande återfinns knappt i materialet, men däremot är avsnitt om barns ansvarstagande mer vanligt förekommande. Även familjens och professionellas roll i förhållande till dessa barn och det de gör analyseras. I texterna framträder kärnfamiljen som utgångspunkt vilket problematiseras. Socialsekreterares självuttryckta brist på kompetens gällande barnsamtal diskuteras, samt vad det kan få för effekt för barnen i fråga och på konstruktionen av sociala problem. Unga omsorgsgivare dryftas i förhållande till den svenska välfärdsstaten, då man kan anta att det utbredda sociala skyddsnätet leder till att barn som omsorgsgivare är ett ovanligt fenomen i Sverige. Å andra sidan skulle socialpolitiken kunna osynliggöra unga omsorgsgivare då det blir förgivettaget att barn och föräldrar får det stöd de behöver. Uppsatsens bidrag är att diskutera ett ämne som relativt sällan åskådliggörs i Sverige, men som möjligtvis kommer att bli alltmer uppmärksammat då medvetenheten om barns rätt till delaktighet och aktörskap som omsorgsgivare ökar. / The object of this study is to investigate how Swedish official texts describe children who care for and take responsibility for their parents. The starting point is the term and phenomena young carers which has received a lot of attention in for instance England and Australia, but is yet relatively unknown in Sweden. Through discourse analysis four publications by the National Board of Health and Welfare (Socialstyrelsen) are scrutinized. The theory and method used is a combination of Fairclough’s critical discourse analysis and discourse theory. Other theoretical points of departure are social constructionism and theory on construction of social problems. Socialstyrelsen has considerable power when it comes to exerting influence on professionals within the institutions of social care and medical services concerning how problems are to be understood and dealt with. The discourse analytical reading of Socialstyrelsen’s publications found two discourses when it comes to young carers: a discourse of agency and a discourse of objectification. The word caring (omsorgsgivande) is hardly to be found in the material, but paragraphs dealing with a taking of responsibility among children occur more frequently. Also the role of the family as well as the role of professionals in relationship to these children and what they do are analyzed. The texts show the conjugal family as a starting point and this fact is problematized. The social worker’s selfexpressed lack of competence in reference to talking to children is discussed, and also what kind of effect this might have on the children in question and in the construction of a social problem. Young carers are mentioned in relation to the Swedish welfare state, since one can assume that the prevailing social safety nets makes young carers an unusual phenomenon in Sweden. Social politics could, on the other hand, make young carers invisible as it becomes a given that children and parents receive all the support they need.  The contribution of the study at hand is to discuss a subject that does not get much visibility in Sweden, but that may attract more attention with greater awareness of children’s right to participate and agency as contributors.

In 1999, Sweden was the first country in the world to criminalize the buying, but not the selling, of sexual services. This law is based on the ideological stance that transactional sex is to be understood as men’s violence against women. Since 1999, however, various studies have shown that not only women sell sex, but that a large number of sex workers are men and transgender. The aim of this study is to investigate how Sweden’s national board of health and welfare (Socialstyrelsen) constructs and presents the gender and sexuality of individuals who are engaged in transactional sex. Educational materials on transactional sex, created by Socialstyrelsen and aimed at health care professionals who work with said individuals, have been processed using critical discourse analysis as elaborated by Fairclough. In this educational material, individuals who engage in transactional sex are portrayed primarily as victims; as such, they lack agency to represent themselves and their situation to the various authorities. Furthermore, professionals who work in this field have asked for methods to talk about transactional sex with their clients, but the material does not supply any such methods or vocabulary. Instead, it is mainly focused on the clients’ need for therapy.

Homelessness and homeless people is something that is described and explained in different ways over time. Since the 1950s, two discourses about homelessness and its causes has been competing with each other. One discourse hold the meaning that homelessness is caused by housing shortage and the other focus on individual shortcomings that make homeless to unsuitable tenants. In the media, homelessness and homeless often is associated with crime, addiction and mental illness, this reinforce the public perception of homeless people as deviants, which separates the homeless from society even more.   The purpose of this study is to examine whether media representations of homeless and homelessness in an evening paper and a morning paper, has changed in the 2000s, and if these representations are consistent with those found in the reports of homelessness from The National Board of Wealth and Welfare. In order to achieve the purpose of the study and answer our research questions, the authors have used a discourse analytical approach using some key analytical tools from both critical discourse analysis and discourse theory in the analysis of the empirical material. The material consists of articles from two of the largest newspapers in Sweden, Dagens Nyheter and Aftonbladet, and the reports from The National Board of Wealth and Welfare.   The result of the study shows that in year 2000 the image of homeless as substance abusers and mentally ill middle-aged men who are roughsleepers is dominating in both Aftonbladet and Dagens Nyheter and in the report from The National Board of Wealth and Welfare. In year 2012 this representation of homeless remains but is no longer the dominant, when new homeless groups are presented in our material. Our results also indicates that homelessness discourse changed in the 2000s from a antisocial discourse to a discourse that focus on right. The study also shows that the discourse on homeless women has not changed in the 2000s.

I problemdiskussionen lyfts att litteraturen och forskningen utgår från att en controller är en ekonom som arbetar med ekonomistyrning. Enligt min erfarenhet stämmer inte detta för verksamhetscontrollers i statliga myndigheter. Syftet med uppsatsen är att öka kunskapen om rollen som verksamhetscontroller i statliga myndigheter. Forskningsfrågorna är vilka krav ställer myndigheterna vid rekrytering av verksamhetscontrollers och hur beskriver de arbetsuppgifterna? Vad innehåller tertialuppföljningarna? Metoden har varit att genom en diskursanalys studera innehållet i tertialuppföljning på Socialstyrelsen, Statens institutionsstyrelse och Tullverket. Dessutom har myndigheternas rekryteringsannonser som avser verksamhetscontroller analyserats. Slutsatsen är att arbetsuppgifterna för verksamhetcontrollers på myndighetsnivå är likartade och det ingår inte ekonomiska arbetsuppgifter. De förefaller dock ha olika mandat. Arbetsuppgifterna på avdelnings-/ kompetenscenternivå skiljer sig mellan och inom myndigheterna och inte heller dessa verksamhetscontrollers har ekonomiska arbetsuppgifter. Kraven som ställs på utbildning och erfarenhet har stor spännvidd och ibland har man krav på att den sökande ska ha ekonomisk bakgrund. Min slutsats är att rollen som verksamhetscontroller på avdelnings-/ kompetenscenternivå är under utveckling och att rollen på myndighetsnivå är tydligare. / In literature and research the definition of a controller is an economist working with financial control. According to my knowledge this is not correct for controllers focused on operations management in government agencies The purpose of this thesis is to increase the knowledge of the role as a controller focused on operations management in state agencies. The questions to be answered are what demands does government agencies have when they recruit operations management controllers and how do they describe the  assignments? What is included in the four month follow ups? The method has been by discourse analysis study the content in the four month follow ups at the National Board of Health and Welfare, the National Board of Institutional Care and the Swedish Customs. In the thesis the agencies recruitment ads for controllers focused on operations management is also analyzed. The conclusion is that the assignments for controllers focused on operational management on the agency-wide level is similar between the agencies and few financial assignments are included. The assignments for the lower levels differ within and between the agencies and financial assignment are not included. The controllers at the agency-wide level seem to have different mandates between the agencies. The agencies demands for education and experience varies widely and some of the ads have demands for a background in  finances. My conclusion is that the controller at the department level is under development and the role at the agency-wide level is more distinct.

Den polariserade debatten om hedersrelaterat våld och förtryck i Sverige har karaktäriserats av å ena sidan en feministisk förklaringsmodell, å andra sidan en kulturspecifik förståelse av problemet. Debatten har sipprat ner till det sociala arbetet och orsakat osäkerhet hos socialarbetare i arbetet med hedersrelaterat våld och förtryck. Socialstyrelsen, som utgör den primära kunskapskällan för socialtjänstensarbete, bidrar inte med tillräckligt stöd för professionella i denna fråga. Syftet med studien är att undersöka hur problemrepresentationer av hedersrelaterat våld och förtryck produceras genom diskurser i ett urval av Socialstyrelsens kunskapsstöd. Med hjälp av en postkolonial feministisk ansats och diskursanalytisk metod med utgångspunkt i Bacchis angreppssätt ”What’s the problem represented to be?” identifierades och analyserades tre olika diskurser. Vi fann att hedersrelaterat våld och förtryck och patriarkalt förtryck framställdes som ett ”osvenskt” problem, liksom motsägelser mellan problemframställningar och föreslagna insatser. Begreppet ”hederskontext” är centralt i Socialstyrelsens inramning av problemet, men begreppet definieras aldrig utan används snarare för att dölja Andrefiering av våldsutsatta. / The debate on honor-related violence and abuse in Sweden has been characterized by two polarized understandings of the issue, one being feminist and the other a culture-based understanding. This has affected social workers who work with these issues to a point of uncertainty. The National Board of Health and Welfare (NBHW), the Swedish authority responsible for producing guidelines for social workers, has not contributed with enough support in this matter. The aim of this study is to analyze how problem representations of honor-related violence and abuse are produced through discourses in a selection of guidelines published by NBHW. The study takes a postcolonial feminist approach and uses Bacchi’s “What’s the problem represented to be?” approach for analyzing policy. The discourses found seem to be contradicting one another and after reviewing the material, we found that NBHW uses the concept of "honor context" to frame the problem. However, this concept is never properly defined or explained, but is rather used to disguise an Othering of victims of honor-related violence and abuse.

Researchers agree that young transgender individuals are at higher risk of mental illness and suicide problems compared to the general population. Through a literature review, the purpose of this study has been to investigate how young transgender people's mental illness can be affected by the National Board of Health and Welfare's new recommendations to limit hormone treatments for transgender people under the age of eighteen.  Since the National Board of Health and Welfare first started to recommend hormone treatment the access to the medication has now been severely limited. The literature review has been conducted through an analysis of 26 scientific articles and the results has been analyzed on the basis of Goffman's theory of stigma and Meyer, minority stress model. The results of this analysis shows that young transgender people pay a high price of stigma and mental illness for living outside of societal norms. As a transgender person, it is important to be seen for who you are and to be able to freely express your gender identity. Being addressed with the right name and pronoun is part of this. The possibility to undergo hormone treatment is thus of great importance for many individuals. At the same time there are risks linked to this treatment. Good relations with and access to health care is therefore crucial. Nevertheless, according to the results in this study young transgender people’s relationship to health care is in fact both complicated and limited.  Based on the identified themes, the conclusion of this study is that the National Board of Health and Welfare's new recommendations increase the risk mental illness for young transgender people, which consequently also may risk costing the lives of these young people.

No description available.

As with other areas in healthcare, the public mental health body is regulated by governing documents and regulations. As with clinical care ”Socialstyrelsen” has developed national guidelines for how the mental health care should be managed. One of these documents focuses on the treatment of anxiety and depression. From the experience of working as a psychotherapist who meets referred patients for psychological support, the aim is to investigate if and how the national guidelines affect physical patient contact as well as how they influence the overall experience. Whilst trying to answer these questions I refer to hermeneutic and phenomenological theories. I will also use clinical psychology and psychotherapy literature. Through describing a session with a patient in need of support för experiences of anxiety and depression I will show how the recommendations as part of the national guidelines might affect our contact.