Ear piercing performed in hairdressing salons and jewellery shops using a piercing gun has been set aside from the obligation to notify the local environmental and public health authorities, due to the use of disposable cassette with the piercing gun. According to the Swedish environmental code each practitioner are required to prevent any health hazards arisen from the operation. Local bacterial infection is the most frequent complication associated with the ear piercing procedure and to prevent the potential risk of such an event, hygiene conditions in both the premises and in procedures are essential. The purpose of the report was to examine the presence of ear piercing practitioners in Umeå and their current hygiene conditions. The study consisted of interviews with employees and managers on site whose answers was evaluated and compared to the general recommendations of The National Board of Health and Welfare.

The purpose of this study was to examine creativity in psychosocial work. The aim issues where to find out how creativity develops in social work, why the relation is important for the innovativeness and how the creativeness can change a person. Through a qualitative method with interviews of four persons in psychosocial work and with one man who's a professor in philosophy, four relevant themes were identified. The themes are about the relation, the meeting, the dialog and the changing. All four themes are related to creativity and I used existential, philosophic and also psychoanalytic theories when I analyzed the material.

The purpose of my essay is to highlight the various dilemmas that can occur in the preschool during the moments of guided reflection but also the opportunities it can provide. I am using my own practical experience from situations where care for the children can be questioned and needs to be considered in comparison to the further development of the preschool teachers and with them the entire organization. In my research, I have chosen to highlight the importance of guided reflection, the importance of reliable and secure relationships for children and how these can be eradicated, and finally the importance of ethics for the preschool-teacher?s actions in a given situation.Key questions in my text are; What role does the reflection have in the work at the preschool? How are children affected while this is happening? How important is close and secure relationships for young children and how can they be affected? How can one find a balance between care and learning?By writing my essay I reflect on myself and my own actions. This leads me to a greater selfawareness and greater understanding of my own feelings and my role in the dilemmas I face in my profession.The conclusion of my work is that the preschool organization is not given and it can be constructed in many different ways.

The purpose of this essay was to investigate the care personnel's experience, and thoughts concerning the elderlies use of sedatives and sleeping tablets. The purpose was also to make a comparison between different forms of living, in an attempt to find out if the form of living in itself was a factor that affected the use of sedatives and sleeping-tablets.In order to investigate this, the main questions of this essay became:- To what extent do the patients use sedatives and sleeping tablets?- What is the care personnel's experience of, and thoughts about the patients' use of sedatives and sleeping tablets?To obtain answers to my questions I interviewed care personnel working at different types of homes for elderly people and working with elderly people still living at home.I came to the conclusion that where you live may also have an influence on the use of sedatives and sleeping tablets. This could be seen when a group of elderly people lived together, and some of them were suffering from dementia. Then it could happen that the elderly with dementia where given sedatives and sleeping tablets, not just in order to calm them, but also to give the others a better environment to live in..

This essay is regarding the problematic facts about child poverty in Sweden. Since the beginning of the new millennium child poverty has increased, in Sweden. The last report which came out in the spring this year (2012) opened up for a lively political debate as well as big headlines in news papers and other media. The attention it got in Society became hard for the politicians to avoid. The Swedish section of Save the Children, demanded in their report concerning child poverty in Sweden that the Swedish Government need to do an inquiry about the increasing child poverty.  Today in Sweden, there are two big parties, and they have been the biggest for a long time now.

Background: Recently, the Swedish food culture has expanded by leaps and bounds. Interest in food and cooking has taken more space in the Swedish welfare state. Products and icons, such as organic free range chicken or Per Moberg have had greater impact on the way we consume food. Consumers have become increasingly aware of what they should and should not be eating. With an increased interest in food, supply and distribution channels have become increasingly important for the major grocery retailers (Board of Agriculture 2011).

The aim of this thesis was to examine what stories the Swedish periodical Fokus write about in their main reportage, "Veckans reportage", and how they express their stories. Through the survey we wanted to examine which topics, areas and actors that occurred in the texts during the year of 2008. We studied Fokus in two parts. In the first part we read every "Veckans reportage" published in 2008, which is 43 reportages, and categorized them into groups based on topics, areas and actors. The result helped us to pick two representative texts to analyse further.

Social work in Sweden has historically been mostly done by the public sector andthe work has been regulated by law. In the last two decades, private and voluntaryactors have played an important role as providers of welfare state; one of theseplayers is the Swedish Church. The aim of this thesis has been to describe thework the deacons perform in the Swedish Church in a medium-sized municipalityin Sweden. To find out how much freedom of action the deacons themselves feelthat they have and if they feel that their work is influenced by the social work thatother performers are doing. In order to reach the goal, a qualitative approach wasused where seven deacons were interviewed.

The aim of this essay was to gain a deeper understanding about how school employees interpret and practice school law regarding cyber-bullying that occurs between pupils on the internet. To examine this we used a qualitative method. We completed eight interviews with five teachers, one headmaster, one school welfare officer and one special educationist. These eight school employees were from four different high schools. In our interviews we found that the school employees thought it was difficult to define different concepts within the school law such as in association with the occupation and offensive behaviour which prohibits them from interpreting the school law in the same way.

Different forms of relaxing methods can be used in rehabilitation for individuals with tinnitus and Ménièré?s disease. Research continues to find convincing proof of effects from the different methods. This study presents methods of relaxing, massage and Mindfulness, as possible complementary rehabilitation tools.The purpose of this study was to investigate opinions about relaxing from professionals working with hearing care. A qualitative approach with phenomenological influence was chosen for the study.

Background: Research on presenteeism has been performed mainly during the last 15 years, where several consequences on health such as cardiovascular disease and mortality have been identified. Studies have shown a relation between sickness absenteeism and presenteeism, where presenteeism could lead to long-term sickness absence. Aim: The aim of the present study was to investigate work-related and personal causes of sickness presenteeism. The study also aimed to identify the overall prevalence of sickness presence in Scandinavia, including potential occupational sectors with higher prevalence. Method: The study was literature based and consisted of 15 peer-reviewed scientific articles that were found by a systematic search in PubMed and Scopus.

The analysis of regional development and the formation of regional policy have experienced an increasing importance in Europe and in Sweden during the last decades. There is a widespread assumption that the increasing significance of regions is due to the diminishing role of the nationstate in the era of globalization. This essay suggests that there is a hegemonic discourse, heavily relying on the assumptions of New Regionalism, when addressing regional building. Sometimes described as an ideology, New Regionalism, which is derived from research of successful regions, is based on the assumption that regional competitiveness and autonomy creates economic growth. The Committee on Public Sector Responsibilities (Ansvarskommittén) suggests that Sweden requires new regional structure, due to the increasing expenditures facing the welfare state.

The aim of this Masters thesis is to investigate how trained social workers experience information in their daily work. The thesis focussed on three major questions: - What type of information and information sources are mostly used by the trained social workers? - What kind of information barriers are described by the participants? - How can the patterns of information seeking and information use be understood on the basis of the trained social workers professional and social context? Semi-structured interviews were carried out with trained social workers working with child welfare enquiries. My theoretical framework consists of user and context oriented theories about classifications of information, information barriers and models of information sources. My conclusions are that trained social workers working with risk assessment in child protection services, need to use different kinds of information in their daily work, such as problem information, domain information and problem-solving information.

The purpose with our essay was to examine which clients/patients get treatment for alcohol problems from either health care units or social service units. We also wanted to find out how staff in these units considers the importance of social background in the assessment of treatment. The questions we have focused are: How do the clients/patients get in contact with the units? How does staff in these units consider the importance of social background in the assessment of treatment? How is the social background like for the present clients/patients? To fulfil the purpose with our investigation and to get answers to our questions, we performed an explorative examination and applied a qualitative method in the form of a semi-structured interview with six persons. The investigation showed that clients/patients get in contact with the units by looking for treatment by themselves or by relatives and other organisations.

The levels of unemployment are unusually high compared to recent years, and the consequences are diligently debated in media. Swedish safety systems regarding people?s welfare have gone through changes lately which affected the situation negatively for many concerned citizens. This study aimed to illustrate individual?s situation of unemployment within their social context.