This bachelor?s thesis examines costs of welfare services in municipalities of the region of Västra Götaland in Sweden. Previous research provided reasons to expect a link between costs of welfare services and demographic changes. Furthermore, Willam J. Baumol?s theory about ?the cost disease? also provided reasons to expect a link between welfare services and salary levels.

This thesis examines the presence of threats and violence directed towards animal welfare inspectors/ officers. The main tool is a survey regarding threats and violence directed at animal welfare inspectors/officers. The questionnaire was distributed to animal welfare inspectors/ officers who worked on 15 of the country's 21 provincial governments. The response rate of the survey was 68.9 percent. The main conclusion of the study is that threats and violence directed at animal welfare inspectors/ officers are common.

Many social services cases have been reviewed in the media during the last years. One of those cases is ?Lasse and Karin?, handled by the Social Services in Oskarshamn in 2002. Lasse and Karin had their son taken into custody by the Social Services and the case was reviewed in national media. Through this case the Social Services received much attention, of which most was negative, and their handling of the case was greatly criticized.

In recent times statistical findings suggesting a deteriorating mental health among teenagers, have been published. Not only did I find the lack of an all-inclusive analysis problematic, but also the fact that the studies themselves where often insufficient. Thus my purpose has been to chart these statistical studies, and then scrutinize the results.My method has been inspired by critical theory, where an interpretive starting point, self-reflection, and the idea that man and society interacts as a whole, is of great importance. Aside from the above mentioned studies, I have also employed secondary empirical data from TV, newspapers and the Internet. My own experience as a social worker has also been an important resource for this paper.

In this master thesis, which is made in a qualitative manner, we have as purpose to investigate the nurses' estimation of the hospital welfare officer. We find it interesting to take a closer look at their opinion, because of our earlier, bachelor thesis, based on the same subject, only then in the welfare officer´s perspective on themselves. We have interviewed ten nurses and our questions at issue were the following four: Where in the hospital´s hierarchy do the nurses place the welfare officer? In what way do the nurses look at themselves and on the fact that they are leagally authorized? How do the nurses define the welfare officer´s occupational sphere and his part of the medical care? Which opinion do the nurses have on the co-operation with the hospital welfare officer? The primary information, together with two maintheories and a collection of litterature on the subject have helped us to answer the four questions of issue. We have found that the results we see, in some ways are compareable to our first investigation.

The school can be seen as a place that reflects the wider community. Here is a school welfare officer an important representative of the school social work. The main subject of our study is to clarify how the school welfare officers? talk about documentation in the individual meeting with the pupil. Through individual interviews with five school welfare officers in elementary schools in three municipalities in the southern part ofSweden, we have attempted to explore these main research question.In addition to qualitative interviews we have accomplished a survey study that included 178 school welfare officers throughout the country.The result of our two studies demonstrates the school welfare officers? free work where the choice to document or not is wide.

The aim of this undergraduate thesis was to explore how the welfare officers at palliative units in Stockholm respond to the patients? thoughts and experiences during the last phase of life, as well as exploring their picture of the patients experiences. The research questions of the study were:? How do the welfare officers relate to the patients? experience of their death? ? In what way do the welfare officers respond to the dying patient and his or her experiences?? What knowledge/experience do the welfare officers have and what knowledge/experience do they consider is needed in their profession?To answer the research questions a qualitative method was used where five welfare officers in three different palliative units were interviewed. The empirical material was analysed through meaning concentration and are presented using exact quotations.

AbstractTitle: Welfare officers personal experiences of stress and coping in an emergency hospital in StockholmThe purpose with this study was to describe how welfare officers in an emergency hospital experienced stress in their workplace and what coping strategies they used. Through qualitative interviews the welfare officers thoughts and experiences were examined. The result showed that welfare officers experienced some stress at the workplace; this was related to lacks in the organization, heavy workload and short of time. The most commonly used coping strategies were social support, physical training, short breaks during the day to handle the stress at work. The conclusions of this study was that factors that reduces stress for welfare officers who work at emergency hospitals was a functioning organization and management, the ability to control and at some levels effect their own work, to have guidance and other opportunities to ventilate with co-workers.

The aim of the present study was to investigate the kind of support society offer parents, by illuminating some of the parent education programs which are arranged by social services. By interviewing some of those who are involved in these education programs, we tried to figure out what society would like to mediate as good parenting.Our main questions was:* Why are parental education needed in society of today?* What are the purpose of the education?* For whose sake are these educations arranged, for the childrens, the parents or in public interest.* This model which you are using, what would it like to mediate as most important in good parenting.We found that the respondents all agreed that the main purpose of these educations was to improve the relationship between parents and children. However they all pointed out the fact that there are great gains in public finances to do as well..

This thesis examines the presence of threats and violence directed towards animal welfare inspectors/ officers. The main tool is a survey regarding threats and violence directed at animal welfare inspectors/officers. The questionnaire was distributed to animal welfare inspectors/ officers who worked on 15 of the country's 21 provincial governments. The response rate of the survey was 68.9 percent. The main conclusion of the study is that threats and violence directed at animal welfare inspectors/ officers are common.

The purpose of this paper was to study the various organisations that work with drug abusing homeless people in Lund. We have tried to compare the possibilities they have to change the way the homeless people look at themselves. The organisations that we have studied are Aluma, Diakonicentralen, the shelter Piletorp and the social welfare office.The methods used to collect data were interviews with professionals and homeless people as well as reading literature. We have used Ted Goldberg's (docent in social work at the university in Stockholm) theory. He writes that you have to be a significant other to persons with deviant behaviour to be able to help them become a part of the society and to change the way they look at themselves.

How does a social welfare officer know when a parent with mental illness or behavioral symptoms is harmful to the children? As a social you are confronted with different ethical dilemmas on a daily basis. The social welfare officers have to follow their own authorities, laws, guidelines and regulations while at the same time do everything to satisfy their clients? needs. This inconsistency can sometimes be difficult to handle.

The objective of this essay was to analyse if the same housing needs are assessed equally by Swedish welfare agencies in ten districts in Malmö. If not, why?Welfare officers from all districts were interviewed. They were all working with homelessness among families. We had an idea that the districts were forced to prioritize because of the meagre recourses, and that clients who really needs help doesn't get what they need.

The objective of this thesis was to study how parents of adult drug addicts experience their contact with the social welfare office, what elements affected the parents degree of satisfaction with the contact with the social welfare office, and whether the contact meant any help for them. Six parents of adult drug addicts were interviewed..

We live in a society that has changed rapidly in recent years. The Swedish welfare state identity consisted of structures that had been formed from an emancipatory project. Today, these structures seem to have been erased and replaced by a different form of society. When a society is changing it affects the political, social and economic levels.In this social change Social Democracy seems to have lost its hegemonic position in society and describes itself as standing in a crisis. An effort to modernize the party has therefore begun.