The focus of this thesis is on social workers? knowledge in assessing and making decisions in child welfare cases. The primary aim is to identify what skills or knowledge social workers find most useful within child welfare agencies in Swedish municipalities. Six different types of knowledge, social policy and the approach of child welfare cases are perspectives considered in the analysis. The interviews with social workers were held in three agencies in southern Sweden, in 2014.

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.

Our curiosity was awakened when we became aware that many social workers use "mindfulness" methods in their profession. In this study, we used qualitative methodology in our desire to examine and understand why the mindfulness approach, with its roots in eastern philosophy, is becoming established in society at large and, simultaneously, being used in the social work field. We were interested in when and why social workers choose to use mindfulness with their clients. Our prior research has revolved around development and use of methods in social work, and on the human reaction to stress.We conducted seven semi-structured interviews, which incorporated four comprehensive questions:1. Why has the mindfulness method become established in the social work field and in the culture in general?2.

The purpose of this study was to examine knowledge within the social services. We narrowed the study down from general knowledge to scientifically produced knowledge and how the social workers relate to such knowledge. We aimed to see how the social workers perceive different knowledge and how they relate to the different sources of knowledge. We also examined the different factors that will enable and motivate social workers to stay updated with scientifically produced knowledge that is relevant to their work. We also examined what limits the ability or motivation for renewing ones knowledge.

The purpose of this paper is to explore the social worker?s perspective on working for the government as a professional in care of children, in relation to the family's right to self determination. The essay's empirical material is gathered from qualitative, semi-structured interviews with social workers who work with children and youth in communities and districts in Skåne and Stockholm City, Sweden. The analysis was conducted in line with theories of social constructivism. The results and analysis show that the interviewed social workers did not believe that the state has too much power over the citizen.

A large number of children and teenagers are placed in foster care for various reasons. Social services have a responsibility to follow up youths and ensure that they have the same opportunity for positive development as other young people. A qualitative study was conducted with an abductive perspective by gathering material from social workers in this particular field. The research design of this study is an interview study. The theoretical premise was Bronfenbrenners ecosystem theory and Maslows hierarchy of needs theory.

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.

The purpose of this essay was to study social workers´ and polices contributions with criminal youth gangs and get an insight in how co-operation in the contributions between these governments comes to rank and works.To find out, we carried out a study with a qualitative design based on document studies and interviews with social workers´ and polices who were meeting youths in their work.Our findings were that it's hard to define a criminal youth gang. The social workers´ and polices have both individual and common contributions with criminal youth gangs. One of their most important lining is to prevent new recruitment of young people to criminality. The social workers´ and polices both have an intention to cooperate but they can?t agree about the method of work they shall use, ?the kid-glove or the whip?..

The aim of this study was to examine the use of critical reflection in two social fields of work, using social workers that have at least five years professional experience. We have chosen to examine two fields of work in the same organization to be able to see possible similarities and dissimilarities that occur in the same organization.In our studies at B ?level we examined the use of critical reflection, using social workers that just gotten their degree and that were out working on their first job. In our study we discovered that because of the culture in the organization it?s easier to accommodate the already existing ways of working, than to ?go your own way?.

The aim of this essay was to investigate how social workers, within chosen Social services districts in the northwest of Skåne, work with children placed in foster care. Our purpose was to investigate the interaction between the child and the foster home from the perspective of the Ecology of Human Development. Our questions were:* How do the social worker prepare the child and the foster home before a placement?* What kind of support is offered to the foster home with the purpose of supporting the child?* How do the social worker make the childs contact with the biological parents easier?* To what degree does the social worker work on strengthening the child's network?* Which factors do the social worker decide the allocation of support?* What do the social worker think affects the work with the foster home from a society level?To answer our question we have interviewed nine social workers. We found that the social workers were generally good at perceiving how the micro- and meso-systems, and to a certain extent the exo-system, influenced the foster child.

The aim of this essay was to describe how school social workers can help and support students with parents who abuse alcohol or other drugs. We wanted to see how school social workers room for action is presented and how it affects their work with students living with parents who are abusing. We used a qualitative method to elucidate how school social workers handle this issue in a more profound way. By conducting semistructured interviews with six school social workers in one province in southern Sweden we gained exhaustive and detailed answers. In the analysis we used street level bureaucracy and theory of recognition.

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.

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.