The present study deals with the scope of action available to a social worker when analyzing, assessing and proposing measures regarding young persons experiencing social problems. The interest in the subject area emanates from the fact that the number of youth placed in different forms of round the clock out-of-home care in Sweden increases, whereas research in the subject shows that such placement gives few positive results and sometimes even has negative consequences for their development.The study investigates how the preconditions of the social worker influence their scope of possible action, in particular as regards their place of work, the situation of the individual dealt with, and the profession itself being one based both on scientific evidence and knowledge gained by experience. Lipsky?s theory on ?street-level bureaucracy? and Hasenfelds theory on human servicing organizations form the theoretical framework of the present study. The empirical input comes from interviews with focus groups of active social workers.The analysis of the interviews shows that social workers generally feel that they have a broad scope of action as far as the regulatory framework and office management are concerned.

The purpose of our study is to get more knowledge about how moral dilemmas affect social workers in their work. This because we find that a big part of social work involves ethic reflections and that is why we find it important for social workers to have knowledge about how they should and can think and act in these situations. Ethic statements exist for social workers to use in their work but we haven?t found any guidelines for concrete situations and that?s why we decided to study this area. Questions we want to answer are how do the social workers define moral dilemmas in social work? How do the social workers deal with moral dilemmas in their work? How do moral dilemmas affect social workers in their work? This is a qualitative study with interviews from seven social workers from one social service office although they are from different units.

HOW DO SOCIAL WORKERS WORK WITH PROSTITUTION? A case study on social work in the work with prostitution and perspectives on the sex purchase law from social workers. PERNILLA ELOFSSON MARIA AHLQVIST Elofsson, P. & Ahlqvist, M. How do social workers work with prostitution? A case study on social work in the work with prostitution and perspectives on the sex purchase law from social workers.

The aim of this paper was to examine how social workers' comprehension of the need of financial aid exists in, and is influated by, the organisation they work in. To investigate this, we asked ourself questions concerning how the social worker view the way that the finicial aid-system and work surrounding it is formed, whether the social worker's understanding of the need of financial aid co-exists with the percieved common understanding of the work place (do the understandings coincide, do the social worker adjust his or her understanding or is it possible to have a separate understanding), whether the social worker feel that he or she have discretion to influence the organisation and how possible conflicts between different views are handled. We felt that a qualitative method would best help us answer these questions. We therefore interviewed seven social workers working in the same organisation. We then looked at our material from an organisational theory perspective, focusing on the individual in the organisation.We found that the social workers were socialised into the organisation and adapted the norms and values that existed there.

Purpose: To compare the expectations of coming profession in social work with experienced social work. We wanted to compare the pictures between the students in school of social work studies with social workers. We also wanted to increase social workers as well as other readers? awareness of social work as a profession.Questions: What characterizes the school of social studies? How do students in school of social work view the coming role as a professional? How do students in school of social work view upon social workers as professionals? How do social workers view upon their own profession? How do social workers view upon the own role as a professional? How do social workers view upon the relation between the idea of the profession and the daily practice? How do the students in school of social work studies and social workers view upon professional social work?Method: Qualitative study with qualitative interviews.Conclusion: Social work is a low status profession. How to increase the status of social work is not easy.

Lately, alarming reports have appeared regarding the work environment and work situation of social workers. Research focusing on the promotion of health and well-being in the workplace among other professionals show that factors such as social relationships, ability to influence their work situation and leadership are important. A quantitative study was conducted focusing on the work climate for social workers employed by some of the district administrations in the City of Malmö. A questionnaire with questions and statements on various factors in the work environment was sent to 34 social workers. They were asked how important these factors were for their well-being, as well as to what extent they felt that these factors were present at work.

The aim of this study was to describe how male social workers who work in the section for children and family in one municipality in southern Sweden, experience that their gender influences their daily work. The main focus is to understand what it means to be a man in the social services department. The first research question was how the male social workers experienced how their gender influenced their contact with children and parents in terms of possibilities and obstacles. The second research question was how the male social workers experienced how their gender influenced their working place in terms of possibilities and obstacles. The third research question was how the male social workers experienced that their gender affected the work with women colleagues.

The purpose of this study was to examine social workers apprehensions about institutional placement of youths and what determines when these proceedings are used. When research not always shows that institutional placements lead to positive changes for youngsters, we wondered how social workers act on their assessment to institutional placement. We wanted to find out if the social workers meet any dilemmas along the way. To find out about that we used qualitative interviews with ten social workers, who worked in social service and came from different places in the southern parts of Sweden. To analyze our material we used the theory of human service organization and street-level bureaucrats work situation.

The purpose of this thesis is to examine how social workers perceive the concept of knowledge within social services, particularly within children and youth services. Our goal is also to study the employer's expectations and demands on graduate social workers. The main questions we address in this thesis are; What knowledge is seen as useful by employers and graduate social workers working in social welfare offices? To what extent does university education bring useful knowledge to the work being done by social workers? What practical knowledge is there in the workplace for social workers to learn? When recruiting, what expectations does the employer have of graduate social workers? What challenges are there with recruiting a graduate social worker?We have interviewed six social workers and four employers in the social childcare division in different municipalities in Skåne region, Sweden. We have used epistemology in our analysis.

Social work is a social phenomenon, existing in most societies, that has given rise to a multitude of special organizations and professions. For that reason social work is dealing with a complex identity. The purpose of this study is to illustrate how social workers and the scientific discourse interpret the concept of social work. In addition to that the study intends to show similarities and differencies. The research process containes two studies, one based on qualitative interviews with five social workers and the other consisting a surway of academic litterature.

The purpose of this study was to examine how some social workers in Sweden describe the social work with unaccompanied children. Emphasis was on the role of culture in social work with the unaccompanied children. I wanted to examine how the social workers describe their view on social work with unaccompanied. I also wanted to examine how the social workers describe their view at their own and the unaccompanied children?s cultural backgrounds influence on the social work with the unaccompanied.

This study focuses on the use of animals in social work from the perspective of social workers. The purpose of this study is to examine social workers? experiences of animal assisted social work and how social workers view the integration of animals in various fields of social work. The research is based on a qualitative method and four semi-structured interviews were conducted with social workers. The theories incorporated in the study are Attachment Theory and Sense of Coherence (SOC).The following results are presented: Social workers are considered to have a more comprehensive understanding of clients compared to their associates who do not hold a degree in Social Work.

Our paper is targeting mainly students, but also all other people interested in social work with children. The purpose of our study was to investigate how the social workers experience and handle their work with children, who have been exposed to sexual abuse, and what kind of support and guidance the social workers are offered, in order to handle their working situation. We chose to perform a qualitative study, by the use of interviews, since we found it to be the most appropriate way to gather the information. Our conclusion is that the work with these issues is emotionally burdensome and requires a great commitment, however it is essential for the social workers to maintain a certain distance to their work, in order not to influence their personal lives. It is through experience and knowledge that the social workers learn how to handle their working situation. We also learned that although the work with sexual abuse against children gave birth to different emotions of the social worker, the social workers feel satisfaction with their work, by helping the exposed children. We hope that our paper will inspire and encourage to further studies in the area, since there is still much to be explored. .

The purpose of this essay was to examine what Ungbo in Kalmar has meant for the adolescent from their point of view and to examine the social workers opinions of Ungbo.My questions were: What expectations did the adolescent and the social workers have on Ungbo? How has these expectations been fulfilled? What expectations does the social workers think the adolescents has on Ungbo? How is the impact of involvement for the adolescents when planning the living environment in Ungbo? What changes has Ungbo brought to the adolescent? What changes has Ungbo brought in the work of the social workers? What does Ungbo mean for the adolescent? What does Ungbo mean for the social workers and what experiences does the social workers have on the importance of Ungbo for the adolescents? How has the teamwork been working around the adolescent during the time at Ungbo?The questions were answered by asking four adolescents and two social workers with their experiences of Ungbo. My study showed that Ungbo was of importance for the adolescents that has been a part of the project, but it is also important in the work of the social workers. The adolescents noticed a change in them selves after their stay in Ungbo. The social workers were positive to Ungbo but they felt a need for others resembling activities in Kalmar..

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.