The purpose of this thesis was to increase our understanding of how the social service in Sweden deals with reported incidents of addiction to medicines. Another purpose was to point out the different opinions concerning addiction to medicines amongst actors as well as possible ways to handle the problem.We have conducted a quantitative and qualitative e-mail survey targeting all communities in Sweden, with the ambition of gaining further knowledge about the role and responsibility of the social service concerning reports of addiction to medicines. Two quantitative questions were one asked about how many clients requested/were reported for needing help with their drug abuse alone, and the second question about how many clients needing help for drug abuse as a part of a wider addiction.The survey revealed that the social services judge their role/responsibility differently; some take the main responsibility while others think that drug abuse is created by the general health care and should be handled by this organization as well. In relation to the estimated amount of drug addicts in Sweden only a small part are in contact with the social service..

The purpose of this study was to explore the experiences of being a homosexual immigrant in the Swedish society. Our questions were how the interviewed homosexual immigrants experience being treated by the people in their surroundings and how they are influenced by their attitudes. We also wanted to know what kind of thoughts they have about affiliation considering origin and sexuality, and what positive and negative aspects they experience from the combination of being both homosexual and immigrants.To get the answers to these questions we used a qualitative method and interviewed seven homosexual immigrants between the ages of 25 and 40 years. We then compared our material with earlier studies of the living situation of homosexual immigrants in Sweden, Denmark and Norway. We also linked our findings to Goffman's stigma theory and to heteronormativity.The main result was that the combination of homosexuality and immigrantness can result in various difficulties.

En nationell interaktiv webbplats- www.kuling.nu arbetades 2003 fram på Psykosvårdens utrednings-och behandlingsenhet, Karlakliniken. Webbplatsen riktar sig till barn och ungdomar som har en förälder med psykisk sjukdom och är en del av det anhörigstöd som erbjuds på enheten. Denna studie görs som en uppföljning av kuling.nu där syftet är att beskriva den interaktiva webbplatsen kuling.nu med avseende på innehållet i besökarnas inlägg på diskussionsforumet samt användningen av webbplatsen. Huvudinläggen på kuling.nus diskussionsforum har analyserats med hjälp av kvalitativ innehållsanalys. Analysen gav sex teman som speglar innehållet i inläggen: ensamhet; att bära ansvar; känsloupplevelsen; betydelsen för den egna personen; sökande efter svar och förmedling av stöd.

Child poverty in Sweden is a widespread phenomenon and occurs in diverse spheres in society; at home, in school and in leisure activities. Therefore more professions than just traditional social workers meet this phenomenon in varied areas which creates different comprehensions and abilities to handle the issue among various professions.This study aims to investigate the collaboration between different professions in relation to child poverty in a municipality in Sweden. Represented professions are social workers, teachers, welfare officer, recreation instructor and leaders, special assistant and municipality coordinator. In total eleven persons were interviewed.The results illustrate a good will among the professions to collaborate to improve negative consequences of child poverty. Traditional boundaries between professions are limited since every profession is needed in this collaboration and have the opportunity to use their professional knowledge in a certain field.

ABSTRACTThe aim for this study is to examine how relatives to children who participated/participate in Youth and family team Sputnik-group, oriented towards support groups for children of substance abusing parents, perceive the work done by the organization. On the basis of this aim three questions were formulated: do the relatives perceive a change in the communication with the child as an effect of the child?s participation in Sputnik?s activities, do the relatives perceive a change in their relationship with the child as an effect of the child?s participation in Sputnik?s activities, do the relatives think that their awareness of substance abuse have changed following the child?s participation in Sputnik?s activities. Previous research, Mead?s perspective, the concept of ?groups? and support groups for children, were used to interpret the results.

Introduction: Elderly people have much to gain when it comes to physical activity andresistance training. Ageing is a process that every human being has to go through. The mostimportant physical attributes changes, when it comes to handle everyday life and ailment thatusually occurs in the later stages of life. Physical activity and resistance training may help thecommon problem among the elderly, when it comes to cope with issues of pain and strenuouseveryday life that occurs under this ailment. Objective: To identify a senior citizen´sperception about physical activity and attitudes about resistance training.

Today is one of the goals with zoos to conserve endangered species and some animals may also become reintroduced. But behaviours can change in generations of captive animals because of environments that differ from the wild. Animals must then be prepared before being reintroduced and predator training enhances the animal?s chance to survive in the wild. When training animals to avoid predators it is often necessary to use frightening stimuli.

The aim of this study was to describe and scrutinise the position of the Swedish government on whether children should participate directly or through a representative in judicial proceedings.The main questions for this study were to find out (1) what position the Swedish government has on the subject, (2) how the position is justified, and (3) what view on children the position reflects.A qualitative design was used in the study and in order to describe the position a descriptive method was used. In the second part of the study a critical approach was used to examine and analyse the position.The main conclusions were that the position is ambiguous but that it mainly reflects, with a few exceptions, that it is better for children to be represented than to participate directly in judicial proceedings. The arguments that are given as basis for the position are short and lack both the objective and subjective grounds needed to decide the best interest of the child. The analysis of the position showed that it mainly reflects a view on children as objects and when the statement reflects a view on children as subjects, it relates to age and maturity in the child..

The Youth Outcome Questionnaire 2.0 Self Report (Y-OQ 2.0 SR) has been implemented in residential treatment centre in the Municipality of Örebro as a result of the strive for a more evidence-based working approach within social work. This study aims to examine how personnel and adolescents describe the treatment/counseling and support and the application of the Y-OQ 2.0 SR in the units. The questions cover the values the personnel and adolescents ascribe to the application of the Y-OQ 2.0 SR, if the result from Y-OQ 2.0 SR is congruent with how the adolescents have been affected during the placement, which obstacles and/or possibilities emerge in the management of the instrument and if there are any indications that the Y-OQ 2.0 SR is advantageous or disadvantageous in the treatment process. The study has a qualitative approach; four interviews were carried out with adolescents and five with personnel. The result shows that structure is an important component in attaining a change in behaviour.

The focus in this paper was on managers in the middle position in the care of the elderly and people with disabilities. The aim was to develop knowledge about the conditions of work among managers in the middle position and what they characterized as good leadership and which strategies they used in their work. The empirical data consisted of nine qualitative interviews with managers in the middle position in the municipality of Halmstad.The frameworks that mainly limited the middle managers' discretion were laws, political regulations and most of all it was the allocated budget. Their discretion was found closer to the operation such as working methods, recruitment and changes in job schedules. The middle managers spent the majority of their working hours with personnel administrative work and that they often had to prioritise among their tasks.

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..

The aim of this paper is to examine how boys in grade nine experience and handle stress, to find reasons why stress occur and what help the boys can get to handle stress in a good way. Our supervisor was Gunilla Lindén. In our study we used qualitative interviews to answer these questions. We interviewed four fifteen- to sixteen-year-old boys and two recreation in-structors. We also conducted a group interview with the boys.

Music and religion are concepts, which have been continually associated with spirituality throughout the history of Western religion. Since the dawn of mankind, it has been considered that music has had a clear function about how individuals grasp their inner emotions to reach the transcendent and comprehend "Self". The aim of this thesis is to gain greater understanding as to how a group of young catechists in the Swedish Lutheran Church feel, interpret and construct their identities through popular music. An exploration as to how this specific group perceives concepts such as the Bible, church, spirituality, and religion was undertaken. The theory forming the basis of this essay is derived from a sociological perspective of postmodernism.

The purpose of this study was to examine domestic adoptions in Sweden, and also compare the Swedish adoption system to the Canadian adoption system. I wanted to find out why there are so few domestic adoptions in Sweden, and how it has changed over the years. I also wanted to know why there is such a large difference between Sweden and Canada regarding adoptions.I interviewed five social workers to find out what attitudes the social services have regarding adoptions. My other questions were how the childs best interest is considered when a parent wants to place a child in an adoptivefamily, and which parents decide to place their child instead of keeping it.I found that the social services are reluctant to place children in adoptivefamilies because their main goal is to keep biological families intact. In Canada the social services goal is to provide the child with a safe and stable home.There is no longer any stigma surrounding single mothers and well developed welfaresystems enable most to keep their children.

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..