The aim of this study is to investigate how social services handles and experiences threats in the workplace with focus on prevention and how follow up work is conducted. Data collection involved six qualitative interviews with four social workers and two unit managers. The results indicate that social workers normalizes threats at the workplace and that the leadership is crucial for both prevention and follow up. Routines at work are important but social workers are rarely informed or updated about these routines. Social workers experience that follow up is not a priority by their unit managers and after a threat social workers have a lack of time to take care of themselves. Unit managers experience the importance of routines for prevention of threats in the workplace. As unit managers they have the biggest responsibility when threats occur in the workplace and follow up should include an individual plan for every social worker. Both social workers and unit managers agrees that the experience is enough when determining if a threat is real or not.

Introduktion: Prehospital personal utsätts ofta för hot och våld i flera länder. I studien definierats hot/våldstyper som verbala, upplevt hot/obehag, fysiska, sexuella trakasserier och sexuella övergrepp/närmanden. Arbetsmiljölagen säger att arbetsgivaren är skyldig att tillhandahålla utbildning och information om hot och våld så att arbetsplatsen blir säker. Syfte: Syftet var att beskriva och jämföra likheter och/eller skillnader i förekomst och handläggning av hot och våld inom den prehospitala sjukvården i Sverige och Sydafrika. Metod: Denna studie hade en kvantitativ design och genomfördes i form av en enkätstudie med flervalsalternativ. Statistical Package for the Social Sciences (SPSS) användes för statistiska beräkningar. Den statistiska signifikansen har mätts med hjälp Chi två-test där signifikansnivån valdes till p=<0.05. Resultat: 69 ambulanspersonal deltog, 32 från Sverige och 37 från Sydafrika. 87 % uppgav att de blivit hotade/överfallna där det vanligaste hotet var det verbala och den mest förekommande förövaren var patienten. 98,5 % av ambulanspersonalen ansåg att de var i behov av ytterligare stöd/utbildning kring hot/våld för att i framtiden klara av sådana händelser. En signifikant skillnad mellan länderna visade sig i att Sydafrikas ambulanspersonal önskade sig skydds- och försvarsutrustning i större utsträckning än den svenska. Konklusion: Tydligare riktlinjer och mer utbildning inom hot/våld behövs för ambulanspersonalen. / Introduction: Prehospital personnel are often subject to threats and violence in several countries. This study categorizes types of threat/violence as: verbal assault, intimidation, physical assault, sexual harassment and sexual assault. The working environment law states that the employer must provide education and information about threat and violence so that the workplace is safe. Aim: The aim was to describe and compare similarities and/or differences of the presence and of the handling of threat and violence in the prehospital care in Sweden and South Africa. Method: This study had a quantitative design and was performed with a questionnaire using multiple choices. Statistical Package for the Social Sciences (SPSS) was used for statistical calculations. Statistical significance was controlled using the chi-square test with a significance level of p=<0.05. Results: 69 ambulance personnel participated, 32 of them from Sweden and 37 from South Africa. 87 % stated that they had been threatened/attacked, verbal assault being the most prevalent kind of threat and the most common attacker being the patient. 98,5 % of the questioned ambulance personnel claimed to be in need of further support/education regarding threat/violence in order to better manage this kind of events in the future. One significant difference between the two countries showed that South African ambulance personnel wished for protective gear and defensive gear in a greater extent than their Swedish equivalents. Conclusion: Clearer guidelines and more education regarding abuse/violence is needed for ambulance personnel

With the ongoing conflict in the Middle East and other regions of the world, the eminent influx of refugees to European nations has become a topic of great concern and discussion. An increase in research has occurred concerning attitudes towards refugees and immigration in general, which has put forth the question of whether larger numbers of foreign born correlates positively or negatively to attitudes towards immigrants. Much of the previous research has focused largely on cross-national comparisons but has overlooked the importance of contextual factors at lower levels of analysis. Using cross-sectional data, the focus of this thesis is on the proportion of foreign born in Swedish municipalities and its correlation to attitudes towards refugees. The results confirm intergroup contact theory, which stipulates interaction among different groups results in greater tolerance, which is facilitated by a larger proportion of foreign born. In addition, the results also support the negative impact of poor economic conditions. When looking at the effect of unemployment on attitudes towards refugees; less tolerant attitudes arise as a consequence of higher unemployment. More research is needed in order to understand the importance of the proportion of foreigners and socioeconomic factors in the formation of attitudes towards refugees.

Akutmottagningar, psykiatrin, jourcentraler, äldrevården och ambulanssjukvården är några av de verksamheter som är utsatta för hotfulla och- eller våldsamma situationer inom sjukvården. Situationer som sjuksköterskor associerar till hot och- eller våld är i mötet med intoxikerade personer, vid triagering av lämplig/korrekt vårdnivå och i de fall då patienterna inte delar samma åsikter som sjuksköterskorna vid bedömning av lämplig vårdnivå. Det är inte enbart patienterna som är våldsamma utan också anhöriga eller åskådare. Rapportering av hot och- eller våld är bristande vilket kan bero på attityden hos en del sjuksköterskor att det ingår i yrkesutövningen. Hotfulla och våldsamma situationer ökar inom hälso- och sjukvården. Dessa situationer har belysts tidigare inom ambulanssjukvården vilket motiverar till att sammanställa redan existerande forskning i en systematisk litteraturöversikt. Syftet är att undersöka ambulanspersonalens erfarenheter av hotfulla och- eller våldsamma situationer i sin yrkesutövning. Till resultatet analyserades och sammanställdes tio kvantitativa studier och en kvalitativ studie. Det framkommer i resultatet att vanligast är att ambulanspersonal utsätts för verbala hot i form av trakasserier. Efterföljande var hot om fysiskt våld. Förövaren är den vårdsökande, den vårdsökandes anhöriga men även kollegor. Våld av fysisk karaktär förekommer oftare mot kvinnlig personal. Förövarna som var våldsamma var ofta drogpåverkade, patienter med skalltrauma, diabetes eller demens. Det rapporteras om sexuella trakasserier och sexuella övergrepp vilket den kvinnliga personalen var särskilt utsatta för. Gemensamt är bristen av rapportering av hotfulla och- eller våldsamma situationer. Orsaker till detta var dåligt förtroende för ledningen och att hot och- eller våld ansågs ingå i yrkesutövningen. Åtgärder från organisatorisk nivå i form av utbildning av ambulanspersonal krävs för att öka medvetenheten av potentiellt hotfulla och- eller våldsamma händelser. Med ökad medvetenhet kring fenomenet höjs personalsäkerheten, arbetsmiljön förbättras vilket leder till ökad patientsäkerhet.

Titel: Att vårda under rädsla- en litteraturstudie om vårdpersonals upplevelser av hot och våld inom psykiatrisk vård. Bakgrund: Rapporter visar att hot och våld är vanligt förekommande inom vård och omsorg. Våld förekommer i alla delar av vården, men det finns vissa avdelningar som är mer utsatta för våld än andra, exempelvis psykiatrin. Det verbala och fysiska våldet skapar en otrygg miljö och kan ge allvarliga konsekvenser för både för personal och patienter. Syfte: Att beskriva vårdpersonals upplevelser av hot och våld inom psykiatrisk vård. Metod: En litteraturstudie baserad på åtta artiklar med kvalitativ ansats. Dessa artiklarna granskades, analyserades och sammanställdes. Resultat: Hot och våld orsakade starka känslor som rädsla och ilska hos vårdpersonal som påverkade arbetet och privatlivet negativt. Den otrygga arbetsmiljön utgjorde ett hot mot vårdpersonalens yrkesroll och självbild. Våld på en psykiatrisk avdelning ansågs oundvikligt, och vårdpersonals förmodades acceptera det som en del av arbetet. Våldet hanterades och förebyggdes med olika strategier, samtidigt som stöd från chefer var bristfälligt. Konklusion: Våld mot vårdpersonal inom psykiatri är ett relativt outforskat ämne som är i behov av mer forskning. vårdpersonalen blir lidande av fysiska och psykiska konsekvenser, som påverkar vårdandet av patienterna och vårdpersonalens hälsa. För att förbättra arbetssituationen krävs mer utbildning för vårdpersonal i hantering av våld. Nyckelord: Vårdpersonal, Psykiatri, Hot och våld, Arbetsrelaterat våld / Title: Working under fear- a literature review about nursing staff’s experiences of threat and violence in psychiatric care. Background: Reports show that threat and violence is a common phenomenon in healthcare. It appears in every part of healthcare, but some units are at more risk than others, for example psychiatric care. The verbal and physical violence creates an insecure work environment and can cause serious consequences for both personnel and patients. Aim: To describe psychiatric nursing staff’s perceptions of threat and violence in psychiatric care. Methods: A literature review based on eight qualitative articles. These articles were examined, analyzed and compiled. Results: Threat and violence caused strong emotional reactions, like fear and anger, among nursing staff that influenced the work and their private life. The unsafe work environment composed a threat to the nursing staff’s professional role and self image. It was percieved that violence were unavoidable, and that nursing staff were expected to accept violence as a part of the job. Violence were handled and prevented with different strategies, while manegement support were lacking. Conclusion: Violence against nursing staff in psychiatric care are a relatively unexplored subject in need of more research. Nursing staff are suffering both physical and psychological damage due to violence in the workplace, which also effects the care given to patients and the nursing staff’s own health. To improve the work situation the nursing staff need more education in handling violence. Keywords: Nursing staff, Psychiatry, Threat and violence, Workrelated violence

The Purpose of this study was to investigate the relationship of the repression-sensitization dimension and leisure preferences, specifically threatening versus nonthreatening physical activity and television program preferences. The hypotheses were that sensitizers would prefer threatening (violent) television programs and threatening (competitive) physical activities to a significantly greater degree than repressors. Sixty college undergraduates were designated repressors, sensitizers, or middle group by their scores on Byrne's Repression-Sensitization Scale. Preference sheets determined subjects' preferences for threatening and nonthreatening television programs and physical activities. Simple analyses of variance revealed no significant differences in repressors', sensitizers', or middle group's preferences for threatening television programs or physical activities, and thus the hypotheses were rejected. Non-significant tendencies in the data, in hypothesized directions, suggest further research.

Many people who receive exposure-based treatments for anxiety disorders exhibit a return of fear and avoidance which is often referred to as renewal or relapse. Human and nonhuman research on fear conditioning and renewal has been instrumental in helping understand relapse in anxiety disorders. The purpose of this investigation was to examine renewal of human avoidance and assess whether avoidance may aid in sustaining renewal of fear responses. We adopted a multimodal measurement approach consisting of an approach-avoidance task along with ratings of perceived threat and fear and measures of skin-conductance, a widely used physiological measure of fear. A traditional, single-subject research design was used with six healthy adults. All tasks employed a discrete trial procedure. Experimental conditions included Pavlovian fear conditioning in which increased probability of money loss was paired with a “threat” meter in Context A and later followed extinction in Context B. Fear and avoidance increased to higher threat levels in Context A but not Context B. Renewal testing involved presenting the threat meter on a return to Context A to determine if it evoked fear and avoidance (i.e., relapse). As predicted, renewal testing in Context A showed that increased threat was associated with increased avoidance, ratings of perceived threat and fear, and higher skin-conductance. Moreover, results showed that renewal maintained over six blocks of trials. This is the first investigation of renewal of threat and avoidance in humans that highlights avoidance as a mechanism that may contribute to maintaining fear in anxiety pathology.

Conservatism reflects a general attitude structure characterized by a preference for traditional social practices and an aversion to uncertainty and threat. Though the social environment undoubtedly plays a role in shaping conservative attitudes, recent studies suggest that trait-level characteristics may contribute to their development as well. The present research investigated trait-level cognitive threat detection ability as a factor which may influence the development and maintenance of conservative social attitudes. A computer simulation indicated that socially conservative attitudes may function as a strategy for increasing the survival rate of an individual with poor threat detection ability living in a relatively dangerous environment. Three studies were conducted to further investigate the hypothesis that individuals who are less accurate in detecting threats would report more conservative social attitudes, particularly when the surrounding environment is perceived to be highly dangerous. In Study 1, participants who were less able to distinguish between images of safe and dangerous stimuli presented outside of conscious awareness tended to endorse higher levels of social dominance orientation, and participants who reported higher belief that the world is dangerous tended to endorse higher levels of social dominance orientation and right-wing authoritarianism, as well as a more conservative political ideology. In Study 2, less accurate detection of threats was associated with a more conservative political ideology. In Studies 2 and 3, experimental manipulations of participants’ dangerous world beliefs failed to produce differences in the endorsement of socially conservative attitudes. An additional experimental manipulation of participants’ perceptions of their own ability to detect threats in Study 3 did not affect the endorsement of socially conservative attitudes either. Across the three studies, the results suggest that individual differences in cognitive mechanisms associated with the ability to differentiate between safe and dangerous stimuli presented outside of conscious awareness may hold a weak but significant relation to socially conservative attitudes. Additionally, the results indicate that individuals who hold a stronger belief that the world is a dangerous place tend to endorse more conservative social attitudes; however, these views appear to be pervasive and persist in the face of short term fluctuations in perceptions of danger.

This master's thesis Preparedness for Crisis Situations in Schools from the Teachers' Point of View deals with primary and secondary level education teachers' opinions on school safety and their experience with crisis situations in school. The main reserach matter is to carry out a survey based on questionnaires which ascertain the percentage of teachers who have had to intervene during crisis situations in their schools, find out which threats they consider most serious for their school, discover the teachers' opinion on security literacy and it's importance for their profession. Furthermore, this thesis stives to use the acquired data to design an informational poster targeted at school teachers which could help them get familiar with securiy relationships and contacts within and outside their school more easily. The theoretical part encompasses existing research on the topic of school safety in the Czech Republic and also selected foreign literature dealing with the subject. The primary method used in the theoretical part is study of scientific literature, professional journals and reliable on-line sources. The practical part is based on the survey results gathered by means of a questionnaire distributed among selected schools. Graphic and statistic representations of the survey results are...

The purpose with this study was to create an understanding of how paramedics have experienced situations where they were exposed to threats and violence, and how the staff described how threats and violence could be prevented. Five semistructured interviews was performed in a mid sized region in Sweden. The main result showed that all respondents, at some occasion, have felt threatened. There have also been situations where they have been exposed to violent events. Patients with certain illnesses could contribute to the feeling of being exposed to threats and violence; although, if the employer had provided education and support in this, then maybe the situations could have been prevented. Our most important conclusion was that there have been little to no preventive work against threats and violence, except for a few courses, although, all respondents felt that experience had the biggest impact for how threatening and violent situations were handled. / Syftet med studien var att skapa förståelse för hur ambulanspersonal har upplevt situationer där de mött hot och våld samt hur personalen beskrev att hot och våld kunde förebyggas. Fem semistrukturerade intervjuer genomfördes i en medelstor region i Sverige. Huvudresultatet visade att samtliga intervjudeltagare vid något tillfälle hade känt sig hotade, det har också förekommit situationer där de blivit utsatta för våldsamma händelser. Patienter med vissa sjukdomsbilder kunde bidra till känslan av utsatthet för hot och våld, men hade arbetsgivaren gett utbildning och stöd i detta kanske situationen hade kunnat förebyggas. Vår viktigaste slutsats blev att det förebyggande arbetet för hot och våld har lyst med sin frånvaro, någon enstaka utbildning har erbjudits men alla intervjudeltagare menade att det var erfarenhet som hade störst betydelse för hur hot- och våldssituationer hanterades.