Historically, the horse has in many ways been important to human beings. Today, Equine Assisted Therapy is a form of treatment in which the horse is used as a tool from the treatment of the client. Supported Equine therapy has a therapeutic purpose and may vary depending on the patient's needs and the professionals work competence. Various studies show that animals have a positive impact on people. The aim of our study was to explore how Equine Assisted Therapy is used within the practical fields of social work in Sweden.

The purpose is to illustrate the phenomenon of self-harm from a social psychological and sociological perspective. The purpose is furthermore to examine the role social relationships play in the individuals´ self- imagine and what role does identification play for anyone who harm themselves? We want to examine in what way social relationships are important and how they function for individuals who harm themselves, both once they have started to harm themselves, and if the relationships in any part caused the cutting to begin with.Questions:How do individuals shape their identity based on self- harm? Which self-image do individuals have who self-harm? Is there anything in the person's previous social relationships that have caused them to begin to hurt themselves?Method:In this paper we have analyzed five autobiographies. We have used open coding from grounded theory as analytical method and subject positions based on discourse analysis.Theory:We have used the Cooley concepts looking glass self, Foucault's theory of power, Giddens' concept of ontological security and existential anxiety.Results and Analysis:We found six different categories that we thought were central. These were negative self-image, guilt, lack of family support, negative experiences of others' views, the protective identity as self- harmer and insecure social relationships in school.Conclusion:The self-harming is a very complex behavior.

Prisons are for many an unknown world, and few know about the prison culture which includes unwritten rules, power structures, interactions and relationships between inmates and correctional employees.While many think that Swedish prisons are too comfortable,inmates are facing extreme stress due to surveillance and detention, by depriving inmates their possibility to shape their own lives. When the inmates is deprived of control over their own life?s the penal system have great power to shape and to influence the inmates.The purpose of this paper is to investigate prisoners' experiences of treatment and exercise of power in prisons. Starting point is to examine what are the kinds of relationships between prison officers and inmates from a power perspective, if there is any difference between the closed and open prisons and how the inmates affected by the structures that exist.Based on my overall purpose, and with my informant´s stories which revealed a number of similar points, four main headings were developed; Mass media and society´s view, and unknown world, interaction between inmates and prison officers and consequences.Prison officers with the role as a contact persons as well and other staff which work close to the inmates play a significant role by supporting through motivational interviewing and can help the inmates to gain insight about their life situation and actions. My informant?s underlined that a good contact person can either help or discourage.Inmates who contributed with their experiences express that there is a big difference between open-and closed prisons.

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.

The aim of this thesis has been to investigate women's experience of the Methadone maintenance treatment and what help they believe they need to be able to recover and to improve their social life and whether the medical- and social workers share the similar view.Our method of investigation has been qualitative interviews with four women in the program, two nurses and a counsellor at the methadone clinic and two social workers, who have female clients in the program.The questions at issue were:* how did the women describe their life situation during treatment, compared to the situation they had while they were addicted to narcotics,* did the women experience that the treatment they get in the methadone maintenance program is giving them a better social life situation,* did the employees at the clinic and at the social office share the similar view about the treatments as the female patients?Main problems seemed to be; meeting new non-addictive friends and finding something to do. We could se that, in different ways, they need more support. It wasn't always clear to the people who work with them whose responsibility it was, depending on workplace and/or personality..

Clients with dual diagnosis have difficulties to recover and have a tendancy to fall between two stools. Among other things this is due to the fact that caregivers have different approaches, values and focus. The purpose of this study is to compare how clients, therapists and socialworkers look upon the aim of the treatment, its form, residential care, the conception of goalfulfillment and participation. In our study we have applied the theories of Aaron Antonovsky, Howard Becker and Erving Goffman. The paper consists mainly of qualitative interviews with clients, therapists and socialworkers.

Anorexia nervosa is a psychosomatic eating disorder that involves self starvation and fear of gaining weight. Our purpose was to study the methods of treatment available and the function of them. Another part of the purpose was to find out what kind of goals the treatment has and if an anorectic person can be cured. To understand the methods of treatment we also wanted to find out what the causes to the development of the disease can be. The questions were: 1.

The aim of this paper is to spread some light over contract treatment from the perspective of the District Courts, Social Services and Probation Services, and understand the reason for local variation of the number of people sentenced to contractual treatment.Essential questions asked in this paper are; What advantages and disadvantages are known by the cooperating parties regarding contract treatment in comparison to prison? What parameters are considered when the cooperating parties decide upon contract treatment? What impact does the shared responsibility of cost have? What do the respondents think is the reason for the local variation?In order to answer the essential questions a qualitative and descriptive method has been used to highlight the main question of our study; What is the reason for the local variation in number of contract treatment sentences in Halmstad and Ystads district courts?The paper shows that the local variation between the Probation Services districts is dependent on the conditions to propose a contract treatment. In Halmstad it is not conditioned for the Probation Services to have a responsibility agreement with the Social Services to the same extent as for the Probation Services in Ystad..

The aim of the study was to examine how social workers investigate and assess addiction cases whether gender matters or not. The following questions were asked in the study; ? Does the gender of the client influence whether a case is opened after the first meeting at the Addiction Unit? ? Do social workers consider there is a difference in handling an addiction treatment investigation when the client is a man or a woman? ? Do divergences exist in the assessment and the final decision process when the case concerns a man or a woman? The study is based on the qualitative method. The material is gathered from semi-structured interviews with social workers. Their job tasks include assessment and evaluation of addiction cases.

This study aims to examine how the students ethnic background affects them in their social relationships at school. The main research questions in this study have been: How does the ethnic background of students affect there social relationships with their friends at school?How does the identity creates and develop in the context of social relationships? What significance does the language that is spoken hold in the social relationships of the childrenThe main research questions have been investigated based on the students perspective, where the two main methods were individual interviews and observation on the schoolyard during recess. The interviews and observations where carried out at eight informants with three different ethnic backgrounds. The three ethnic backgrounds were Swedish, Somali, and Syrian.           The results of the study showed in the interviews that no one of the informants differentiated themselves from their friends who came from different ethnic backgrounds from which they did, they did not categorize themselves based upon their ethnicity.

The purpose with our essay was to examine what favourable factors there are for women to get out of drug abuse and from a gender aspect interpret how these factors are used in the treatment of female drug-addicts, regarded from the treatment personnel view. The questions we have focused on are: What are the favourable factors for women in the way out of the addiction. How can the use of favourable factors be interpreted from a gender aspect. In what way is the knowledge about these favourable factors used in the drug abuse treatment.To fulfil the purpose whit our examination and to get answers to our questions we performed an explorative examination and applied a qualitative method in the form of a half structured interview with five persons.The main features of the results in our examination were that unisexual treatment, the group and the friendship between women, children and pregnancy and professional and private social network were considered as the favourable factors for the women out of their addiction. Certain factors were used in the treatment as a way to socialize or resocialize the female drug-addicts to predominant social models of how a woman should be like..

The practice of residential treatment of youth has been up for debate for quite some time. The debate regarding institutional care has voiced concerns regarding the lack of follow-up and evaluation of treatment and its efficacy. It is especially important with additional research on residential treatment conducted from the perspective of those being treated, as well as the treatment providers. This study aims to add to this field of research. The study is based on two empirical studies conducted through qualitative interviews.

The purpose of this study was to do a narrative survey of the discussion about violence in partner relationships that is held in research literature. The question at issue was: How do research literature discuss violence in partner relationships, with focus on heterosexual relationships? The eight primary documents that have been chosen are written by researchers, professional therapists, National Counsil for Women's protection (Nationellt Råd för Kvinnofrid, NRK) and Swedish Government Official Report (Statens Offentliga Utredningar, SOU). To investigate the theories, discover the similarities and differences between them and how they can complement each other, the documents statements has been analyzed with a dialectic-hermeneutic approach and social constructionism and discourse theory.The research findings showed that the gender perspective theory, the psychodynamic theory and the social psychology theory have a few things in common, but that they on the whole are different and contradict each other. The gender perspective theory dominates the discussion but needs to be combined with the other theories to give a more all-embracing understanding.

This study aims to explore parents and treatment personnels experiences of the Marte meo methodat a family treatment home. Three retrospective interviews were made with parents whoexperienced Marte meo treatment, as well as four interviews with treatment personnel. The purposeof the Marte meo method is to develop the interaction between parent and child. Previous resultsfrom studies show that treatment with the Marte meo method could provide positive effects to theparent child relationship. The results in this study have been analyzed by using parts of attachmenttheory, the salutogenic perspective and the term intersubjectivity.

The purpose of this study was to examine why adventure treatment is mainly directed towards young men and how that can be related to the construction of masculinity.Our questions were:- What were the social workers thoughts and images about masculinity?- Why did they think adventure treatment were suitable for young men and for what reasons?- How did the social workers describe their role as treatment providers?This study was a qualitative study that was based on six interviews as well as observations. We tried to find patterns and deviations in our empirical material. Then we connected them with previous research and theories. The social workers described the typical client as a competitive kind of person, interested in physical activities and with boyish manners.