Abstract Author: Ellinor Carlsson and Renate Höjd Title: "When you can make a difference and when you can´t" the power relation between psychiatric disability social worker and client [translated title] Supervisor: Eva Skogman Assessor: Norma Montesino One branch of the social works field of research is the relation between social worker and client. Research has shown that the power and inequality in the relation between helper and person being helped is needed for the helper to provide help. Power is often mentioned under negative circumstances such as social workers abuse of their power position, violating the person being helped. However, Michel Foucault suggests that power is something neutral that exists in every social interaction. The negative aspects of power are effects of the parties not reaching agreement. Through Michel Foucault and Max Weber we have described how the social system affects people seeking help. With a qualitative research we have studied how social workers experience the power relation between them and their clients. We have focused on the group of people with psychiatric disability and interviewed six social workers working with that target group. Our purpose was to describe and analyze how psychiatric social workers experience their power position. Our findings suggested that the social workers have their power position in mind but not in their everyday work. They recognize both positive and negative aspects of power for them and for their clients and describes situations were they don't have power to help. This because of how the system is built and because of the client's right to say no to help. With the results in mind we have argued that social workers have a great impact on their client and his/hers experience of the encounter with the social system. Therefore it's of great importance that the power relation is discussed and taken into consideration.

<p>Abstract</p><p>Author: Ellinor Carlsson and Renate Höjd</p><p>Title: "When you can make a difference and when you can´t" the power relation between psychiatric</p><p>disability social worker and client [translated title]</p><p>Supervisor: Eva Skogman</p><p>Assessor: Norma Montesino</p><p>One branch of the social works field of research is the relation between social worker and</p><p>client. Research has shown that the power and inequality in the relation between helper and</p><p>person being helped is needed for the helper to provide help. Power is often mentioned under</p><p>negative circumstances such as social workers abuse of their power position, violating the</p><p>person being helped. However, Michel Foucault suggests that power is something neutral that</p><p>exists in every social interaction. The negative aspects of power are effects of the parties not</p><p>reaching agreement. Through Michel Foucault and Max Weber we have described how the</p><p>social system affects people seeking help. With a qualitative research we have studied how</p><p>social workers experience the power relation between them and their clients. We have focused</p><p>on the group of people with psychiatric disability and interviewed six social workers working</p><p>with that target group. Our purpose was to describe and analyze how psychiatric social workers</p><p>experience their power position. Our findings suggested that the social workers have their</p><p>power position in mind but not in their everyday work. They recognize both positive and negative</p><p>aspects of power for them and for their clients and describes situations were they don't</p><p>have power to help. This because of how the system is built and because of the client's right</p><p>to say no to help. With the results in mind we have argued that social workers have a great</p><p>impact on their client and his/hers experience of the encounter with the social system. Therefore</p><p>it's of great importance that the power relation is discussed and taken into consideration.</p>

The purpose of the study was to gain a greater understanding of how the amount of stress and workload that exists in Swedish social services affect the clients. The study was based on interviews with socialworkers responsible for childcustody enquiries. I chose to interview socialworkers in two different cities that resembled eachother. One of the interviews was individual and two was in focusgroups. The socialworkers were interviewed with a semi structured interview manual. The results showed that one of the cities social services, the socialworkers had a more difficult worksituation than the other city. The reason to why one city was more well functioning than the other depended on how the organization had handled the past years amount of workload. Both differences and similaritis was found. In the city that had a more difficult work situation the socialworkers had to prioritize with their time more and their clients were more affected than in the other city. Prioritizing time is something that was found in both cities but the city with more difficult worksituation had to prioritize more with their time and that lead to less time with their clients. It also lead to lower quality enquiries.

<p>Family centres are established to serve families with children and the personnel usually consists of units of social-workers, preschool staff, paediatric nurses and midwives. The purpose of the study was to examine the social-workers preventive work with families at the family centre. To fulfil the purpose, a qualitative interview with five social-workers was conducted. The theoretical framework referred to attachment and empowerment theory. The results of the study showed that the main part of the work consists of giving advice and support to parents. The social-workers do also organize different group activities. One example of group-work was about teaching parents to interplay with their children. Some work is also carried through in a structural level. The target groups are very varying, and consist of parents with different income, origin and social networks. Furthermore the study showed that the social-workers apprehend that most of their visitors are satisfied with their work. The important possibility united with the social work in a family centre is to meet the families in the beginning of parenthood, and to offer help early. The difficulties consist among other things to collaborate with the paediatric nurses and midwives, and also to claim the importance of their work towards employers and politicians.</p>

Family centres are established to serve families with children and the personnel usually consists of units of social-workers, preschool staff, paediatric nurses and midwives. The purpose of the study was to examine the social-workers preventive work with families at the family centre. To fulfil the purpose, a qualitative interview with five social-workers was conducted. The theoretical framework referred to attachment and empowerment theory. The results of the study showed that the main part of the work consists of giving advice and support to parents. The social-workers do also organize different group activities. One example of group-work was about teaching parents to interplay with their children. Some work is also carried through in a structural level. The target groups are very varying, and consist of parents with different income, origin and social networks. Furthermore the study showed that the social-workers apprehend that most of their visitors are satisfied with their work. The important possibility united with the social work in a family centre is to meet the families in the beginning of parenthood, and to offer help early. The difficulties consist among other things to collaborate with the paediatric nurses and midwives, and also to claim the importance of their work towards employers and politicians.

Syftet med denna studie är att undersöka upplevelsen av stress hos socialarbetare i relation till rättssäkerheten på arbetsplatsen. I studien har kvalitativ metod använts genom sex semistrukturerade intervjuer på två olika enheter inom socialtjänsten. Enheterna som inkluderats är Enheten för ekonomiskt bistånd och Beroendecentrum. Resultatet analyserades med hjälp av alienationsteori, systemteori och tidigare forskning för att tydliggöra mönster samt dra slutsatser. Resultatet visar att socialarbetare upplever stress i det vardagliga arbetet på båda enheterna. Faktorer som kan vara avgörande för stress i arbetet är arbetsbelastning, otillräcklig kunskap, tidspress och personalbrist. Studiens resultat visar också att det finns höga förväntningar på socialarbetare, i stor utsträckning från dem själva. Samtliga respondenter upplever även att rättssäkerheten påverkas av stress. Vidare visar resultatet att några respondenter upplever att klienter får felaktiga beslut och andra tror att det handlar om mer tekniska felaktigheter när stressnivån är hög. Slutsatsen vi kan dra är att upplevd stress hos socialarbetare kan påverka rättssäkerheten. / This study aims to discover the experience of stress among socialworkers and how it affects the rule of law. In this study qualitative method was used and six semistructured interviews were completed with socialworkes from two different departments. Three participants came from the financial aid unit and three from the addictioncenter. The result of this study was analyzed with help from previous research, theory of alienation and system theory to make it possible to see some kind of pattern that could lead to conclusions. The result shows that all six socialworkers experience stress in their daily work. Some things that could be cardinal is workload, insufficient knowledge, timepressure and staff shortage. Also that there’s high expectations on socialworkers and it’s connected to their own view of what should be good enough. The result also shows that some of the socialworkers believe that clients get wrong decisions and others think it’s more technical errors that gets visible when they’re stressed. Our conclusion is that there’s socialworkers who feel stressed in their work and that it can affect the rule of law.

<p>Syftet med uppsatsen var att undersöka socialsekreterarnas arbete med att följa upp det familjehemsplacerade barnet, vårdnadshavarna och familjehemmet. För att besvara undersökningens syfte användes kvalitativ metod. Studien grundade sig på intervjuer med fyra barnhandläggare och fyra familjehemsekreterare som arbetar inom åtta olika kommuner. I tidigare forskning framkom att socialtjänsten brister i sin uppföljning av det familjehemsplacerade barnet, vårdnadshavarna och familjehemmet. För att understryka socialnämndens ansvar under pågående familjehemsplacering har regeringen infört detaljerade bestämmelser i 5 kap 1b § Socialtjänstförordningen. Litteraturen som ingår i studien redogör dels för handlingsutrymmet som existerar inom socialsekreterarnas arbete och hjälper till att få en djupare förståelse för kontexten inom organisationen. Tolkningsramen innefattas även av den diskussion som förs angående socialsekreterarnas kompetens inom uppföljningsarbete. Resultatet från intervjuerna visade att socialsekreterarna i varierande omfattning utför det uppföljningsarbete som lagen föreskriver men att i socialförvaltningarnas organisationer prioriteras inte uppföljningsarbetet. Respondenterna i studien anser sig ha bristande kompetens och att de har svårt att se sitt eget handlingsutrymme i uppföljningsarbetet.</p> / <p>The purpose of this paper is to research how social workers manage to follow up cases with children placed in foster homes, their guardians and the foster homes. To meet this purpose a qualitative method has been used. The study is founded upon eight different interviews. Four with social workers who deal with children exclusively and four with social workers who deal with foster homes, within eight different districts/municipalities. Earlier research has shown shortcomings in the way social welfare follow up cases with children placed in foster homes, the guardians and the foster home. The government has introduced regulations in chapter 5, first section of the Swedish security law to stress the responsibilities that the social welfare committee has during an ongoing foster care placement. The background literature included in this study describes what possibilities social workers have in their work situation, and helps to gain a deeper understanding of the context within the organization. It also includes the ongoing discussion about social workers’ knowledge of how to follow up cases in a correct way. The interviews that this study is founded upon shows that the social workers meet the regulations, that the law prescribes for this area, of varying degree. To follow up cases in a correct way is not prioritized in the organization of the social welfare administrations. The respondents in this study do not believe that they have enough knowledge and have difficulties seeing what possibilities their work situation gives them when it comes to following up cases.</p>

Syftet med uppsatsen var att undersöka socialsekreterarnas arbete med att följa upp det familjehemsplacerade barnet, vårdnadshavarna och familjehemmet. För att besvara undersökningens syfte användes kvalitativ metod. Studien grundade sig på intervjuer med fyra barnhandläggare och fyra familjehemsekreterare som arbetar inom åtta olika kommuner. I tidigare forskning framkom att socialtjänsten brister i sin uppföljning av det familjehemsplacerade barnet, vårdnadshavarna och familjehemmet. För att understryka socialnämndens ansvar under pågående familjehemsplacering har regeringen infört detaljerade bestämmelser i 5 kap 1b § Socialtjänstförordningen. Litteraturen som ingår i studien redogör dels för handlingsutrymmet som existerar inom socialsekreterarnas arbete och hjälper till att få en djupare förståelse för kontexten inom organisationen. Tolkningsramen innefattas även av den diskussion som förs angående socialsekreterarnas kompetens inom uppföljningsarbete. Resultatet från intervjuerna visade att socialsekreterarna i varierande omfattning utför det uppföljningsarbete som lagen föreskriver men att i socialförvaltningarnas organisationer prioriteras inte uppföljningsarbetet. Respondenterna i studien anser sig ha bristande kompetens och att de har svårt att se sitt eget handlingsutrymme i uppföljningsarbetet. / The purpose of this paper is to research how social workers manage to follow up cases with children placed in foster homes, their guardians and the foster homes. To meet this purpose a qualitative method has been used. The study is founded upon eight different interviews. Four with social workers who deal with children exclusively and four with social workers who deal with foster homes, within eight different districts/municipalities. Earlier research has shown shortcomings in the way social welfare follow up cases with children placed in foster homes, the guardians and the foster home. The government has introduced regulations in chapter 5, first section of the Swedish security law to stress the responsibilities that the social welfare committee has during an ongoing foster care placement. The background literature included in this study describes what possibilities social workers have in their work situation, and helps to gain a deeper understanding of the context within the organization. It also includes the ongoing discussion about social workers’ knowledge of how to follow up cases in a correct way. The interviews that this study is founded upon shows that the social workers meet the regulations, that the law prescribes for this area, of varying degree. To follow up cases in a correct way is not prioritized in the organization of the social welfare administrations. The respondents in this study do not believe that they have enough knowledge and have difficulties seeing what possibilities their work situation gives them when it comes to following up cases.

Majoriteten av befolkningen spenderar i regel minst en tredjedel av sitt liv på en arbetsplats. Det är därför viktigt att medarbetaren känner ett välbefinnande i sitt arbete. Flera studier om arbetsförhållanden och arbetsmiljö i socialtjänsten har visat att socialarbetare upplever hög grad arbetsbelastning som en av de främsta källorna till stress på sitt arbete. Arbetsmiljön på en arbetsplats kan därför påverka medarbetares hälsa och välbefinnande både fysiskt och psykosocialt. Studiens syfte avser därför att undersöka hur socialsekreterare upplever välbefinnandet inom Socialtjänsten.  Studiedesignen är av kvalitativ metodansats, där respondenterna har valts utifrån ett ändamålsenligt urval. Datainsamlingen till studien har skett genom åtta djupintervjuer med socialsekreterare inom Socialtjänsten i en medelstor mellansvensk kommun.  Materialet har analyserats genom en fenomenologisk inspirerad ansats. Resultatet visar att det finns en obalans mellan de ställda kraven och de tillhandahållna resurser som råder på arbetsplatsen. Den psykosociala arbetsmiljön anses ha en stor påverkan till detta. Denna studie visar på vilka faktorer som kan påverka en människas välbefinnande på en arbetsplats. / The majority of the population spend at least one third of their lives at work. Research studies have found that a high workload is one of the most important sources of stress for social workers. It’s therefore important that the employee has a sense of well-being and comfort at work. The work environment can affect employees' health and well-being, both on physical and psychosocial aspects. The purpose of this study is therefore to highlight how social secretaries perceive the concept of well-being at work.  The study design is based on qualitative methodology, where respondents have been selected based on an appropriate selection. The data collection for the study has been accomplished by eight deep interviews with social workers in a Swedish municipality.  The material has been analyzed by a phenomenologically inspired approach.  Results show a paradoxical (or contradictory) perception of well-being among the employees. The psychosocial work environment is considered to have a major impact on this. In this study, factors that can affect human well-being in the workplace are identified.

The aim of this study is to examine and deepen the knowledge of how socialworkers within social services unit of children experienced their own requisites to work with disabled children in relation to the organisations requisites. The study emenated from the questions  ”How does the socialworkers experience the organizational possibilities to work with disabled children? ” and “What organizational factors does the socialworkers think affects their work with disabled children? ”. Method: We have used a hermeneutic perspective and qualitative approach. Semi-structured interviews with socialworkers within social services unit of children twas used to collect data. Theory: Our theoretical point have been Lipskys theory about the street-level bureaucrat. In this theory we used the concepts of the problem of resources, pressure of time and discretion have mainly been used as tools in the analyze.