The aim of this study was to investigate how staff in their role at special accommodations for people with disabilities are experiencing and handling situations regarding the sexuality of clients with disabilities, to understand how staff uses their discretion in situations regarding client’s sexuality and understand how staff reason and act based on deontological ethics and consequence ethics. Group interviews were conducted with staff at special accommodations for people with disabilities, using a hermeneutic research approach to understand the staff’s narrative. We analysed the empirical material with the concepts and theories such as discretion, a relational perspective on discretion and the two ethical theories mentioned above this were analysed using qualitative content analysis. Our main findings were that staff use discretion in different ways depending on how they reason ethically in situations regarding the client’s sexuality within the limitations of their discretion. We found that staff does not work with client’s sexuality continuously but that they act when a situation arises. We also found that staff took the responsibility to help and guide as well as correct client’s questions of sexuality and sexual behaviours mostly out of the feeling of deontological ethics due to toughs of bad consequences for the clients or the surrounding community. Staff needs more knowledge and education about the sexuality of clients with disabilities; how they should balance their many responsibilities and their personal values which without support could lead to inner conflicts and feelings of being insufficient. We found that education and information about the client's sexual needs and staff’s working conditions are needed for better understanding and development of the discussion regarding the client's sexuality. We also found that education for staff about how sexuality is being expressed by people with mental disabilities could be valuable for continued social work.
| Identifer | oai:union.ndltd.org:UPSALLA1/oai:DiVA.org:lnu-89991 |
| Date | January 2019 |
| Creators | Håkansson, Anton, Gustafsson, Gabriella |
| Publisher | Linnéuniversitetet, Institutionen för socialt arbete (SA), Linnéuniversitetet, Institutionen för socialt arbete (SA) |
| Source Sets | DiVA Archive at Upsalla University |
| Language | Swedish |
| Detected Language | English |
| Type | Student thesis, info:eu-repo/semantics/bachelorThesis, text |
| Format | application/pdf |
| Rights | info:eu-repo/semantics/openAccess |
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