The purpose of the study was to examine how exercise of authority social worker´s view and work with normality has changed. Together with the role of changes in society, as LSS (Act concerning Support and Service for Disabled), user influence and the principle of normalization had in this context. The material has been collected through a qualitative method with semi-structured interviews which were held with eight social workers. Three of them had not been active within the field of this study for more than ten years and five of them are currently working. The collected material was analyzed through the theoretical perspective social constructivism and the theoretical concept case management. The results of this study shows that exercise of authority social worker´s have slightly different views on the priorities in the concepts of normality and user influence, both over time and between those who are working today. The conclusion of this study is that respondents have basically the same view of the application of normalization and user influence in their work. However, they have different personal beliefs about what the terms mean.

Brukare och brukarinflytande har på senare tid, blivit allt mer uppmärksammat inom den offentliga sektorn i socialt arbete (Svensson., Johansson & Laanemets, 2008, sid. 133-136). Frågan är huruvida brukare inom äldreomsorgen, kan göra sina röster hörda och vilka möjligheter till inflytande det finns för äldre i samhället? Det övergripande syftet med denna studie är att söka kunskap om äldres möjligheter till brukarinflytande, inom äldreomsorgen i Kumla kommun. Ett delsyfte är att undersöka vilka former av brukarinflytande som tillvaratas i Kumla kommun, efter genomförandet av projektet ”Vägar till ökat brukarinflytande och medborgerligt inflytande över kvaliteten i äldreomsorgen”. Frågan om på vilket sätt brukarinflytande kan ske i det praktiska arbetet med äldre med demenssjukdom, utgör även det fokus för denna studie. Genom en kvalitativ forskningsansats, har intervjuer genomförts med tre respondenter; en tidigare projektledare, en representant från Väntjänsten i kommunen samt med nuvarande äldreomsorgschefen i kommunen. Kvalitativ data har därefter analyserats genom meningskoncentrering, i syftet att utmynna i tematiseringar. Resultaten av studien påvisar att det i Kumla kommun, finns flera olika möjligheter till inflytande för brukare inom äldreomsorgen. Bland annat kan äldre ges inflytande över sitt eget ärende genom talesombud eller så kan de äldre genom att ingå i brukarråd, ges möjligheter till inflytande mellan omsorgsgivare och omsorgstagare. Brukarinflytande bland äldre med demenssjukdom, innebar vanligen att vårdpersonal förde de äldres talan och att anhörigas önskemål för den äldre prioriterades sekundärt. / Users and user influence has in recent years, become more noticed in the public sector in social work (Svensson., Johansson & Laanemets, 2008, p. 133-136). The question is whether users of the elderly care, can make their voices heard and what possibilities there is for older people to influence in society? The overall aim of this study is to learn about older people´s opportunities to user influence, in elderly care in Kumla community (in Sweden). A second aim is to examine which forms of user influence that are procured in Kumla, after the implementation of the project "Vägar till ökat brukarinflytande och medborgerligt inflytande över kvaliteten i äldreomsorgen ". The question of how user involvement can occur in the practical work with older people with dementia is also the focus of this study. Through a qualitative research approach, interviews were conducted with three respondents; a previous project manager, a representative from Väntjänst in the municipality and with the current elder care manager in the municipality. Qualitative data were then analyzed by sentence concentrator, with the purpose to culminate in themes. The results of the study indicate that in Kumla community, there are several possibilities to influence by patients in nursing homes. One example is that elderly people are given control over their own case through spokespersons or by the elderly thought participating in user councils, and thereby be provided opportunities for influences between caregivers and care recipients. User influence among elderly with dementia usually meant that health workers helped the elderly with their claims and that relatives requests for the elderly where prioritized secondary.

Syftet för uppsatsen var att undersöka om klienter med tidigare narkotikaberoende upplever att de har möjlighet till inflytande inom vården som de tar del av. Syftet var även att ta reda på hur socialarbetare inom samma vårdprogram arbetar för att möjliggöra brukarinflytandet för klienterna. Vi utförde semistrukturerade intervjuer med fem klienter och två socialarbetare från samma behandlingshem. De teoretiska perspektiv som stod till grund för analysen av empirin var brukarinflytande och demokrati. Resultatet visar att klienterna upplevde stor delaktighet inom vårdprogrammet samt i kontakten med socialarbetarna på behandlingshemmet. Vidare visar resultatet att socialarbetarna arbetar utifrån deltagardemokrati då klienterna ständigt uppmuntras till att tänka självständigt, planera, fatta egna beslut och sätta upp mål för både behandlingen och inför framtiden. De begränsande faktorerna för brukarinflytande ansågs bland annat vara ekonomi, oengagerade socialarbetare samt skilda arbetssätt mellan kommunerna. Brukarinflytande inom missbruksvården kan gynna behandlingsresultaten och förebygga återfall då klienten får vara delaktig och påverka vårdens innehåll. Brukarinflytande kan leda till goda klient- och socialarbetarrelationer och detta kan även bidra till att allt fler individer med beroendeproblematik frivilligt söker hjälp. / The purpose of this study was to examine whether clients with former drug addiction feel that they are able to influence the care that they receive. The aim was also to find out how social workers operate to enable user influence amongst clients. We conducted semi-structured interviews with five clients and two social workers within one treatment home. The theoretical perspectives that were used to analyze the empirical data were user influence and democracy. The results show that clients experience significant involvement in their care-program and in relation to social workers at the treatment home. The results also show that the social workers apply democracy to their work since they constantly encourage clients to think independently, make their own decisions and set goals for the future. The limiting factors of user influence were considered to be financial questions, unengaged social workers, and different work procedures among municipalities. Since clients become involved and are able to influence the content of the care, user influence within addiction care is believed to benefit patient outcomes and prevent relapse. User influence can lead to positive social worker-client relationships and encourage individuals with addiction to voluntarily seek care.

Följande studie behandlar delaktighet för brukarrepresentanter från olika sociala företag. Det övergripande syftet med studien är att undersöka hur delaktighet kan påverkas genom social interaktion mellan blivande socionomer och representanter från sociala företag. En kvalitativ studie har genomförts genom en deltagande observation under två dagar i en framtidsverkstad mellan socionomstudenter, lärare och brukarrepresentanter. Empirin har analyserats med hjälp av symbolisk interaktionism och Goffmans dramaturgiska teaterscen. Åldersspannet på deltagarna i studien ligger på 22 - 70 år, och det var en övervägande kvinnlig deltagarskara. Studiens resultat visar att delaktighet med ett reellt inflytande är något som eftersträvas både från politiskt håll bl.a. av socialstyrelsens riktlinjer och från samhällsmedborgarna, i den här studien i form av studenter och brukarrepresentanter. Detta är dock inget som visar sig i praktiken utan det handlar snarare om en pseudodelaktighet, som innefattar "mycket snack och lite verkstad", där delaktigheten inte leder till något reellt inflytande. Det krävs en jämn maktfördelning mellan olika grupprepresentanter för att ge rätt förutsättningar i skapandet av delaktighet på lika villkor. Tidsbrist är en förhindrande faktor. Det visas att en framgångsfaktor för delaktighet är att vi delar samma verklighetsförståelse och eftersträvar en maktutjämning för bekämpning av stigmatisering. För detta krävs gemensamma mötesplatser. Studien visar att det krävs en långsiktighet för en lyckad implementering i alla led från utbildning till arbetsplats till medborgare. Det är en lång kedja där mycket kan gå fel på vägen. Detta kan förklara den tröghet som påvisas i denna studie. / The following study deals with the participation of user-representatives from various social enterprises. The overall aim of the study is to examine how participation can be influenced by social interactions between future social workers and user-representatives from social enterprises. A qualified study has been carried out through a participant observation for two days in a future-workshop between social work students, teachers and user-representatives. Empirical data has been analyzed by means of symbolic interactionsm and Goffman's dramaturgical theater analysis. The age range of study participants is at 22-70 years and it was predominately female group of participants. The study-results show that the inclusion of real influence is something pursued both from the policies of the National board and from community citizens, in this study in terms of students and user representatives. However, this is nothing that shows in practice, it is rather a pseudoparticipation which includes a lot of talk and little action, where participation does not lead to any real influence. It requires an even division of power between different group representatives to provide the right conditions in the making of participation on equal terms. Lack of time is a preventing factor. It appears that the success of participation is that we share the same understanding of reality and pursue a power leveling to fight stigmatization. This requires common meeting places. The study shows that a long term approach for a successful implementation at all stages from education to the workplace to the citizen is required. There is at long chain where much can go wrong along the way. This may explain the inertia detected in this study.

Social workers who working with housing support through the Social Services Act (SOL) has in their profession several factors to take into account to create influence for the individual users. They are governed by the rules of the local organization, their own valuations as well as the users will and needs which constitutes their discretion. The aim of this study was to investigate how professionals experience and act to realize users influence as well as which difficulties they may meet and how they handle them. In order to fulfill the aim qualitative interviews have been used and subsequently analyzed by the theoretical frameworks “empowerment” and “discretion”. The result showed that professionals wants to meet the users requests but they use their discretion in different ways. For example follow the rules of the organization, ignore them or find ways to go around them. The financial constraints of the organization, the fact that they have more users in need of support and that their assignments are more micromanaged are factors that limit user influence.

Syftet med studien är att undersöka personalens upplevelser av att möjliggöra brukarinflytande på verksamhetsnivå inom LSS. Inflytande på verksamhetsnivå innebär att kunna påverka beslut som verksamheten handhar med. Områden som studien har sitt fokus på är aktiviteter som genomförs på fritiden och att förändra lokaler på boendet. Det som arbetet kommer att belysa är hur personalen arbetar för att ge brukaren inflytande, samt vilka svårigheter och begränsningar personalen upplever med att tillgodose brukarens önskemål om aktiviteter och lokalanpassning. I resultatet av denna studie framgår det att svårigheter som bristande engagemang påverkar personalens möjligheter med att uppnå brukarinflytande. Det framgår även i resultatet att personalen upplever sitt handlingsutrymme begränsat med att tillgodose brukarens önskemål. De element som utgör en begränsning i personalens handlingsutrymme är främst brukarnas ekonomi, bemanning och arbetsschemat. / The purpose of the study is to investigate the staff’s experiences of enabling user influence at the organizational level within LSS. Influence at the organizational level means being able to affect decisions that the o handles. Areas that the study focuses on are activities that are implemented in leisure time and changing premises at the accommodation. What the work will emphasize on is how the staff works to give the user influence, and what difficulties and limitations the staff experience in satisfying the user’s desires for activities and local adaptation. The results of this study show that difficulties such as lack of commitment affect the staff’s opportunities to achieve user influence. It also appears from the results that the staff experience their room for maneuver limited in satisfying the user’s desires. The elements that constitute a limitation in the staff’s room for maneuver are mainly the users’ finances, staffing and work schedule.

The present study's purpose was to investigate the home care staff's experiences of working as key workers, which factors they consider is relevant to key working and what obstacles and opportunities they experience in their work as a key worker. The study also focused on how the home care staff perceive that key working can enable user influence. A qualitative approach was used and the material for the study was collected through semi-structured interviews. The result shows that there are areas for improvement that may develop key working. The study shows that the staff generally feel that working as a key worker works well and that it can enable user influence in many areas. The study finally illustrates factors such as continuity, working relationship oriented, and taking responsibility, as significant for key working to work as successfully as possible. / Föreliggande studies syfte var att undersöka hemtjänstpersonalens upplevelser av att arbeta med kontaktmannaskap, vilka faktorer de anser är av betydelse för ett fungerade kontaktmannaskap samt vilka hinder och möjligheter de upplever i sitt arbete med kontaktmannaskap. Därtill fokuserade studien på hur hemtjänstpersonalen upplever att ett kontaktmannaskap kan möjliggöra brukarinflytande. En kvalitativ ansats användes och materialet till studien samlades in genom semistrukturerade intervjuer. Resultatet visar att det finns hinder som kan påverka personalen att uppnå det som är syftet med kontaktmannaskapet samt att det finns förbättringsområden som kan utveckla kontaktmannaskapet. Studien visar att personalen överlag upplever att arbetet med kontaktmannaskapet fungerar bra samt att de upplever att ett kontaktmannaskap kan möjliggöra brukarinflytande inom många områden. Studien åskådliggör slutligen faktorer såsom kontinuitet, att arbeta relationsorienterat samt att man tar sitt ansvar som kontaktman som betydande, för att ett kontaktmannaskap ska fungera så framgångsrikt som möjligt.

The aim of this study was to gain knowledge about how professionals experience user influence within family-treating residential care. To collect empiricism for this study semi structed interviewes was conducted with eight employees within family-treating residential care. These interviews were later processed through a content analysis, it becomes clear that the participants acknowledged the importance of user influence within its own treatment. Further on, the result has been analysed by the theory called empowerment and previous research within the current subject, ”user influence within family-threating residential care”. However, the result of this study is that the user influence should always exist though in certain circumstances it should be limited.

This study aims to understand how care managers approach consent and user influence related to older people with dementia. The study was conducted through qualitative interviews with individual care managers and with a hermeneutic approach. We have interviewed ten care managers in smaller municipalities whom are experienced in their profession and have been in contact with older people with dementia. throughout all the interviews, we had a semi-structured interview guide at our disposal, and after all the interviews were conducted, we analyzed them with the hermeneutic circle and theoretically analyzed the material with Lipsky´s theory about street level bureaucracy, acting space and, what we call it, the social service as a last resort and finally with Johansson´s theory of client relationships. Our main conclusions regarding consent is that care managers need to relate to the law simultaneously have the individual needs and wishes in regards. Also, the care managers have a few ways to circumvent the absolute that the individual needs to give his or hers consent to everything. Our main conclusions regarding user influence is that the care managers need to use other professions for information regarding the individual, such as nurses, carers, dependants and so on. They also prefer to get in touch with the individual whom is diagnosed with dementia as early into the disease as possible to get to know them and learn how they want their care to be. As a last conclusion about the whole study is that the care managers find working with older people with dementia is a vastly difficult task, and they need to rely on dependants, other professions and have a lot of knowledge about the individual.

The aim of this study was to create an understanding of how unit managers and care workers work with user influence in connection with elderly moving to nursing homes. This study was delimited to analyze two nursing homes in a medium-sized municipality in southern Sweden. The study was based on qualitative semi-structured interviews from two unit managers and six care workers in nursing homes. To analyze the data, Michael Foucault’s theory about power, Pierre Bourdieus's concept of doxa and symbolic power have been used as well as client construction. The result of this study indicates that elderly are given the opportunity to influence through implementation plans, welcome talks, being listened to, relationship-building, feeling homelike, resignation and reluctance, adaption to the conditions that are available and rethinking. The results of the study also shows that elderly were transformed and adapted according to the nursing homes guidelines and routines when moving in. Therefore, there were opinions taken for granted and not questioned within the organizations. With this basis, situations that caused limited influence of the elderly were excused and justified according to the organizations´ implied logic, which was deeply rooted in the workplace structure including the unit managers and care workers.