Abstract:Because personal assistance is relatively new in social care in Sweden we were interested in to get more knowledge in how supervisors for personal assistants worked. In our study we choosed to look into how the supervisors worked with the physical work environment for the personal assistants. The questions we wanted to found answers for in this study was, which work directions the supervisors for personal assistants have around the physical work environment, which legal provisions there were around the physical work environment for the personal assistants and how the supervisors experienced the work with the physical work environment for the personal assistants. We did a qualitative interview study with supervisors for personal assistants. We realised in our study that there were big differences in how the supervisors for personal assistants worked with the physical work environment for the personal assistants.

The purpose with our essay was:-          To study how personal assistants understand their occupation role.-          To describe the attitude of personal assistants to the right of self-determination of their care receivers. We have used a qualitative research method called phenomenografic. The empirical material was based on four interviews that served as the data collection methods. The interviewees were four women from two different municipalities of Middle Sweden. The interviewed personal assistants work with adult people who have mental disabilities. As a result we came up with eight categories which showed that personal assistants, despite some difficulties, perceive their careers as crucial for society?s well being. The phenomenon of self-determination was much easier to describe than to put to practice.

Personal assistants ' descriptions of their own professional role are usually removed for the benefit of users ' description of the profession. The purpose of this study is to investigate how the assistants perceive their profession by providing assistants a possibility to talk about their experiences of the profession. Data has been collected by twelve interviews with active working personal assistants aged 22-57 years. Assistants interviewed have different experiences and working with people with various disabilities. The method used is a qualitative method with a narrative analysis method, where the twelve interviews have been merged into four fictional stories.

This essay is about personal assistance for persons with considerable intellectual disabilities.The purpose with the study is: to examine personal assistance for individuals, who can`t speakfor themselves, to examine how the individuals can determine and get influence into theirassistance and how they can get help with it, to examine the role of an representative inrelation to the serviceuser´s assistance and examine if there are factors of gender in theinterviews.The chosen method is qualitative interviews.The interviews has been analysed through earlier research about personal assistance andtheoretical perspectives like: influence, integration and citizenship and discussed throughperspectives of social psychology.The main conclusions are: the influence the serviceusers can have is through persons whoknow them very well, the role of the representatives are indistinct, the serviceusers can´tdetermine their assistance themselves and need help with it from relatives, representatives,personal assistants and managers, the persons who know the serviceuser intimately are best totransform the needs to assistance. The factors of gender, are that there are more men aspersonal assistants than in the care of elderly, and the representatives are mostly men. Thepersonal assistants appreciates the time they have for the serviceuser, the work can be lonelyand demanding..

The focus of our study was to examine personal assistants and group home assistants experiences of stress at work, how they cope with stress and how it affects the relationship with the care recipient. The study is made out of a qualitative frame and based on interviews with two personal assistants and four group home assistants. Our theoretical perspectives consist of Aaron Antonovsky?s SOC theory, Richard Lazarus theory about coping and also sociologist Johan Asplund?s theory about social interaction. The result indicates that the experiences of stress are individual and varied among the participants while the presence of stress at work is a shared apprehension.

This essay is about personal assistance for persons with considerable intellectual disabilities.The purpose with the study is: to examine personal assistance for individuals, who can`t speakfor themselves, to examine how the individuals can determine and get influence into theirassistance and how they can get help with it, to examine the role of an representative inrelation to the serviceuser´s assistance and examine if there are factors of gender in theinterviews.The chosen method is qualitative interviews.The interviews has been analysed through earlier research about personal assistance andtheoretical perspectives like: influence, integration and citizenship and discussed throughperspectives of social psychology.The main conclusions are: the influence the serviceusers can have is through persons whoknow them very well, the role of the representatives are indistinct, the serviceusers can´tdetermine their assistance themselves and need help with it from relatives, representatives,personal assistants and managers, the persons who know the serviceuser intimately are best totransform the needs to assistance. The factors of gender, are that there are more men aspersonal assistants than in the care of elderly, and the representatives are mostly men. Thepersonal assistants appreciates the time they have for the serviceuser, the work can be lonelyand demanding..

Background and aims: The population of older people in our society is increasing. Agerelated changes in the skin results in a diminished perception of pain and pressure and a decreased microcirculation in the skin affects its ability to adapt to injury. Occurrence of pressure sore on geriatrikal clinics are 5-10%, witch means that between five and ten thousand patients gets daily treat for pressure sores. When the patient gets a pressure sore the need for help increases. A common apprehension is that if the patient?s affects with pressure sores it?s because of deficiency in care.

The purpose of the study is that based on focus groups with personal assistants understand how self-determination and participation, expresses itself in work with the users. The study has a focus on the concepts of power and help and social citizenship in the context of self-determination and participation. We are interested to explore how personal assistants reason and argue about different design cases and situations related to self-determination and participation in the relationship with the users. For this study we have used a qualitative method and to collect our data we have used focus groups and different design cases (vignettes). To analyze our data we used the theory about power and help and the theory about social citizenship.

The aim of this thesis is to study the effects of self-service on professional qualifications of library assistants in three public libraries in Sweden. The research questions are: - How do the library assistants experience that their professional qualifications have changed since self-service was introduced at the library? - Does the view on library assistants? professional qualifications and future differ between library managers and library assistants? - Does the view on library assistants? professional qualifications and future differ between the three different libraries? The method used is qualitative interviews with six library assistants and three head of libraries from three different public libraries. The theoretical framework for this study is constructed by theoretical ideas about professional qualifications and technology's impact on professionalism. The results indicate that the cognitive qualifications of library assistants have increased and social qualifications both increased and decreased.

Constipation is a common problem for people with dementia and it may result in discomfort, suffering and lower quality of life. Nurses in municipal nursing homes have difficult to observe and prevent these problems because they do not participate in the daily caring work. The aim of this study was to illustrate the nurse assistants? reflections about the care they gave people with dementia and constipation. Main questions vas how they became aware of such problems and what they did when someone had problem with constipation.

Constipation is a common problem for people with dementia and it may result in discomfort, suffering and lower quality of life. Nurses in municipal nursing homes have difficult to observe and prevent these problems because they do not participate in the daily caring work. The aim of this study was to illustrate the nurse assistants? reflections about the care they gave people with dementia and constipation. Main questions vas how they became aware of such problems and what they did when someone had problem with constipation.

The work as a personal assistant is sometimes associated with certain problems. Studies have shown that personal assistants often experience indistinct rules and roles concerning what should or should not be included in their duties. This study was undertaken to evaluate problems associated with the profession as a personal assistant, how widespread they are and how they are dealt with. Specifically, the study evaluates if the personal assistants have to do duties that they consider they are not assigned to do. Different roles (formal as informal) are also discussed which may be of current interest in this study, but also how we see people on basis of ethics and moral.

The work as a personal assistant is sometimes associated with certain problems. Studies have shown that personal assistants often experience indistinct rules and roles concerning what should or should not be included in their duties. This study was undertaken to evaluate problems associated with the profession as a personal assistant, how widespread they are and how they are dealt with. Specifically, the study evaluates if the personal assistants have to do duties that they consider they are not assigned to do. Different roles (formal as informal) are also discussed which may be of current interest in this study, but also how we see people on basis of ethics and moral.

The aim of this study was to examine the aspect of power in the relationship between the personal assistant and the disabled person he or she works with (the user). The study was based on interviews with five personal assistants who worked for private companies that provided personal assistance. Seven themes were identified and discussed. These were: the users amount of control over the assistance given, the workplace environment, the working conditions, the organization of personal assistance by private companies, the assistants recourses and usage of power and the users participation in chores. To analyze these themes I used Foucault's theory of power and the perspective of Human Resource.

Little attention has been paid in the literature to libraryassistants in Swedish public libraries. In this bachelor thesis,the professional role, work duties, career prospects and statusof library assistants are examined at two public libraries.Because of a scarcity of published information on thedevelopment of this profession in Swedish public libraries,retired library assistants, as well as currently employedlibrary assistants, librarians and a library head wereinterviewed.Since the ?80s, work duties of library assistants havechanged, with a reduction in some of the more manualaspects of library work, the development of new duties and,overall, an increasing similarity in the duties performed bylibrary assistants and librarians.Additionally, the public perception of library assistants as acategory distinct from librarians was investigated bydistributing questionnaires to library patrons. Contrary toexpectations prompted by statements in the literature, asubstantial portion of visitors was found to be aware of thetwo separate categories.Library assistants at Swedish libraries have no careerprospects, unless they undertake studies in their own freetime and at their own cost, and obtain a librarian degree. Adifference between the situation of library assistants inSweden and corresponding professional categories in a fewother countries is that, at present and for several years, noformal education for library assistants has been available inSweden.