The purpose of this paper was to examine social workers' experiences of integration of unaccompanied children. We aimed to study which factors in the individual and the community social workers experience affect the integration and how they, based on their understanding, work to promote integration. The essay has a phenomenological approach and focuses on the social workers' own experiences of the phenomenon. The empirical data was obtained from qualitative interviews conducted with five social workers, all administrators in cases involving unaccompanied children. The result shows that the social workers feel that the desire to integrate is the most important presumption that must be present in the unaccompanied children.

The purpose of this study is to search and analyze different logics that operators use in the work of helping juvenile delinquents to break their criminal behavior. New institutional theory is used in this study to analyze the results. The study was conducted through qualitative interviews of six professionals in two municipalities which work with juvenile delinquency. There are two questions that we want to address in this study. The first one is what methods the social workers are using in two middle large municipalities to help youth to brake there criminal behavior.

The intension of this study is to investigate the interaction between teachers and social workers in two diffrent countys. The study is focused on how teachers act upon suspicions when there are children at risk and what kind of support the teacher gets from social workers. Another importent question is if the teachers know what kind of rules regarding to confidentiality and if it would be better for the pupils if there were no confidentiality.To get answers to my questions, i have interviewed teachers and social workers in both countys.In this study I assume that the power has three dimensions and that there are four levels of interaction.Due to the law about confidentiality the social worker has the power over the teachers. Because the law about confidentiality it is difficult for teachers and social workers to interact.If the teacher want help from social services, she or he must call the social worker because the social worker will not call the teacher. If the social worker want to help the teacher and give her advice, the social worker can do that without breaking confidentiality.

Placed in an institution, what happens next? A study concerning how social workers handle the after-care of adolescents who earlier has been placed in an institution is written by Therese Wester and Sanna Sjölander Wirlöf. The purpose of the study is to understand and explain how social workers handle the after-care. This study is based on an organizational perspective since the after-care has been studied in relation to the structure of the organization and the laws and guidelines that the organization has to relate to. The method that has been used is semi-structured interviews with six social workers in different municipalities in Stockholm.

The aim with this study is to see how social workers apprehend the law, support and service for persons with certain functional impairments (LSS) and the application. We interviewed six social workers in six different municipalities to get a distribution between small and big municipalities. In the study we have used a qualitative method with half structured interview questions, since we wanted to get a comprehension for the social workers apprehensions. We have used a communication theory and a role theory in the study. The result showed that the social workers consider that the LSS is important, but that there are a few difficulties in the application.

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.

In the last couple of years changes in the legal systems treatment of young offenders has given the social worker more legal responsibility. In view of this, our purpose with this study was to examine how social workers and prosecutors apprehend the role of the social worker during the legal process. The study was delimited to look into the handling of young offenders between the ages of 15 and 18 years old. The questions we intended to look at were: How do the social workers reason when trying to see the need of a child within a legal context; Do prosecutors and social workers experience that they have different approaches when looking at young offenders, as a consequence of their different professions; What is the opinion among social workers considering the duty of the social services to administrate community service for young offenders; How do the social workers argue when determining whether or not a young offender has a "special need for care". These questions were answered through empirical studies where six social workers and two prosecutors were interviewed.

This masters degree was a study of some social workers in Gothenburg Community and their expectations of leaders in general, their opinions of work and the leaders influence. The city of Gothenburg will within a few years recruit about 500 leaders. Depending on large pensions among leaders. It is important to have knowledge of the social workers expectations of leaders, their opinions of work and the leaders influence. It is also interesting to see if different generations have similarities or if they have different opinions.

The purpose of this study was to investigate how social workers who worked with financial assistance perceived their work situation and the impact work-related stress had on their health and quality of work. Further, the study intended to find out if they felt that they received support from their employer that could prevent stress-related sick leave. The following two research questions were to be answered: In what way does work-related stress affect social workers? health and job quality according to their own experience? What kind of support and help experienced social workers were available within their organization? To receive answers to the questions semi-structured interviews with five social workers were conducted, analyzed and interpreted. The results showed that when social workers have a heavy case burden, high stress and a risk of deteriorated job quality occurred.

The aim of this study is to examine what social workers consider as ?challenging behaviour? among adolescents, but also to examine the connection between investigation and intervention in cases where such behaviour is being displayed. The questions of the study are to examine what social workers think of the instrument of assessment BBIC (Children?s Needs in Focus) and how the usage of BBIC affect social workers understanding of challenging behaviour. Moreover, it is a qualitative study and the respondents are all social workers with various length of professional experience who work with making decisions in juvenile welfare cases.

The main purpose of this study was to examine, and illustrate, highschool social workers experiences of pupils with self-injurious behaviour. Self-injurious behaviour in this study refer to individuals who harm them-selves, with physical injury as consequence, without purpose to commit suicide. A qualitativ method was used and five highschool social workers, in the south of Sweden, were interviewed.The main questions were:- What kind of experiences have highschool welfare officers of pupils with self-injurious behaviour?- What view, and personal opinion have the welfare officers at the problem, and how do this affect them in their work with these pupils.The school social workers experiences of pupils with self- injurious behaviour, were for instance that the pupils often feel ashemed over their behaviour and that they often have lowe self-esteem. The social workers seemed to imagine the behaviour as a copingstrategy.It turned out that the social workers personality and their personal opinion regarding self-injurious behaviour, were of great importance in their work with these pupils..

The purpose of this thesis is to achieve a greater understanding of how the social workers at the family unit in one of Stockholm municipalities comprehend the work environment at the workplace. Our aim is also to find out how the work environment can affect the health of the social workers in the form of their wellbeing and comfort at the workplace. In order to answer our purpose we conducted interviews of all social workers at the family unit in one of Stockholm municipalities that describe how they experience the work-environment in the workplace and how it influences their health.  We have analyzed the interview material in a thematic analysis based on three theoretical perspectives; SOC, claim ? control - support and Human relations. We have also coupled the interview material to the background chapter in this thesis that describes how a good working environment should be structured.  The chosen method characterizes an abductive process.

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.

The aim of the study is to describe social workers discretion when it comes to the relation between children placed away from home and their biological parents.The study describes how the social worker designs the contacts with the biological parents, for instance the extension for the actual meeting. The results are based on six interviews conducted with social workers who work with foster children. They have responded to questions related to the contact between children and their biological parent. The questions are based on eight vignettes. The contents of the vignettes show different conditions that affect the contact, for example age and foster care attitudes The results of the study have been compared to other previous research in discretion of the social worker and contacts between children and their biological parents.In summary the study shows that there is  high degree of independence for the social workers designing their work and that their level of discretion.

The aim of this study was to gain understanding and knowledge about first line manager?s need for support in their leadership and to get more insight into how they handle and perceives their work.The research method is based on studies of relevant theories and qualitative interviews. Eight respondents were interviewed with a structured 40 question questionnaire about how they experience their work and the support they get. The study shows that there are three important categories of people that are most significant to the managers in their need of support. They are their own manager, colleagues and co-workers.The conclusion is that it is important to create conditions for leaders to have good relationships with their closest manager, colleagues and co ?workers.