The objective of this study was investigating social worker?s perspective of how alcohol consumption can affect, and what elements in the social environment that may be of significance for, alcohol consumption and development of identity. The questions at issue were: Do social workers experience any positive effects from alcohol consumption in 16-17 year-old girls with problematic alcohol consumption and what influence do the effects have on self esteem, self image and development of identity? What do social workers experience are the negative effects from alcohol consumption on self esteem, self image and development of identity? How important do social workers find the social environment and how do they believe the social environment affect the alcohol consumption and development of identity? This was investigated with a qualitative approach from a social worker?s perspective, hence social workers were interviewed. The study?s theoretical basis was Symbolic Interactionism and Erikson?s theory of Psychosocial Development.

Unemployment and long term unemployment is a reality for a large number of people in Sweden. This may be the result of structural changes in the labor market, but involves a wide range of issues. Along with other actors, the social services are obliged to support the long term unemployed to find a job. The aim of this study was to describe and analyze the work done by social workers towards the long term unemployed, 25-49 years old, in two municipalities. We performed altogether six qualitative interviews.

This essay focuses on two social workers talking about their working field in the prostitution area in a Swedish city. The study aims to investigate how the social workers talk about their field and clients that are in it through the use of narrative analysis. Furthermore we discuss the complications with qualitative interviews, narrative analysis from a feminist theoretical and methodological point of view. The study is based on an interview with the two social workers. The result reveals only tendencies rather than a general "truth".

The aim of this study was to describe and analyze how social workers working in social services using evidence based practice with special focus on the clients? experiences and wishes as source of knowledge in collecting information, assessment and decision. To get to the social workers experiences and descriptions we used a qualitative method with semistructured interviews. The empiric material of the study consists of eight interviews with social workers working in different social offices in different areas, in southern Sweden. The main result of this study was that social workers use clients? experiences and wishes differently in different parts of the investigations.

The purpose of this thesis is to shed light on the various factors that influence the balancebetween the working lives and family lives of social workers. The research questions posedwere: Do social workers consider there is a conflict between their working lives and familylives? Which factors make maintaining a balance between working life and family life moredifficult and which make it easier to do so? How do social workers describe equality betweenthe sexes in their own family? Regarding methodology, the selection method is strategic andcombines data sources with quantitative and qualitative methodologies. The material collectedand via online survey, targeted to 120 municipal employees social workers in a district councilin a big city, and through interviews with four social workers in a rural community. The studywas performed using gender theory and the demand-support-control model.

The aim with this study is to understand how social workers at the individual- and family sector think about child poverty and how they work with and reason about the preventive and facilitate work they do for financial vulnerable families. We have in our study used qualitative method through semi-structured interviews with social workers at the individual- and family sector to answer our purpose. The results showed that child poverty is a concept hard to define and not well established. The social workers have divided views on child poverty but still at the same time mean that it exists amongst the families they meet. There is also a big difference between municipalities and their reasoning on what a reasonable standard of living is for a financial vulnerable family and how they work with preventing child poverty.

This study examines social workers' perceptions of their daily work with young people who abuse alcohol and drugs. The purpose of this study was to examine how social workers' perceptions are affected by gender and main drug of choice of activities for young people who abuse. Methodically the study was conducted with qualitative interviews with social workers active in youth substance abuse treatment. The study was carried out a review of previous research in relation to empirical data for the reason to have a discussion of possible explanations of social workers' perceptions and their daily work with young people who abuse alcohol and drugs. The results showed that social workers' perceptions of their daily work with young people are about attitude, reflection and development opportunities in the practical session with the youth.

This is a qualitative study which purpose is to examine how the social workers in a medium-sized municipality in southern of Sweden are experiencing the different forms of housing that the municipality has for disposal. The purpose is also to examine opinions - belonging to the social workers? representatives - concerning the value of motivational work in changing the lifestyles of assaulted and addicted women. The questions we have decided to examine are; how is the social services' work with assaulted and addicted women designed, how do the social workers experiences the situation on these forms of housing and what the social workers believe is promoting and inhibiting factors for motivation with assaulted and addicted women. The results in this study are built on qualitative semi-structured interviews with social workers where both sexes are represented.

This thesis aims to explore how medical social workers/counselors perform their workwith people during crisis and how they accumulate and practice scientific crisisknowledge. This study is an empirical research paper based on qualitative interviewsconducted with eight medical social workers. The data was analysed with Kvalesmodel for categorization, which constitutes the basis of the research. The results ofthe research was then analysed with the use of Cullbergs crisis theory and a model ofevidence based practice which is described by Topor and Denhov. The results showthat the medical social workers practice the evidence based practice model, describedby Topor and Denhov, in combination with Cullbergs crisis theory.

The background of this paper is the dual role that the social worker can have, of beeing both supportive and controlling in the meeting with clients. It is also about the power the social worker can have, how they handle the power in their profession and how they remain to it in the relationship with the client. The study is qualitative and built on interviews with eight social workers that work in different areas in the social services. We have chosen to see this dual role as if the social workers have to, in their daily work, handle the roles as one authority role and one supportive role towards the client.The purpose of this study is to understand how the dual role as the social worker has in the profession, as a helper and a authority, is expressed in the work and relationship with the client. We have turned this purpose into two questions: How do social workers with authority remain to the dual roles of the profession? How do the social workers describe and understand power?We don´t want to generalize in this study, we want to give an example of the social workers own experiences about the dual role.

This study examines the opinions of social workers regarding the social networks of people with a substance addiction. The intention was to get a more nuanced understanding of what characterizes a positive or negative social network, as well as which functions different types of social networks serve. Data were collected through qualitative interviews with seven social workers. More specifically the social workers were oriented towards working for social services with clients that struggle with substance abuse. The empirical material has been analyzed with a thematic analysis.

This study is about a social workers? knowledge of shame. Shame in this context is the embarrassment and humiliation that many people feel when they have to apply for financial assistance which equates to approximately half a million people each year in Sweden. The aim of this study is to understand if and how social workers in this field become acquainted with shame, and how it is exposed and then handled by the social workers in the meeting and work with clients. In order to achieve the purpose of the study, we also to some extent, need to study knowledge and how social workers obtain knowledge in social work.

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.

Author: Martina Holgersson och Pranvera VishajSupervisor: Matts MosessonTitle: ?A study about how Social Services understand and put child perspective into practice?The purpose of this study is to describe and understand how the child perspective is perceived and put into practice by the Social Services. Our questions were: ?How is the child perspective perceived by the Social Services?? and ?In what way is the child perspective put into practice in the Social Services? work?? Our approach to knowledge is based on the hermeneutic tradition of knowledge. The essay rests upon semi-structured interviews with ten Social Services? workers.

According to statistics, a significant increase in sickness has occurred in the public sector in recent decades in Sweden. Human therapeutic professions is the area where the illness is most prevalent. The purpose of this study was through a qualitative method and hermeneutic approaches explore how conscious six social workers in the social services are on stress and how they cope with it. Further it investigates and analyzes how these results affect their daily work.One important result due to stress is that the social workers ability to treat their clients is impaired and they are less able to be empathetic. Inadequacy in the work environment leads to a sense of insufficiency by social workers, and a reduced quality of life.