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- Abrahamsson, Agneta, et al.
(författare)
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Sense of coherence of reindeer herders and other Samis in comparison to other Swedish citizens
- 2013
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Ingår i: International Journal of Circumpolar Health. - : Informa UK Limited. - 1239-9736 .- 2242-3982. ; 72:1, s. Art. no. 20633-
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Tidskriftsartikel (refereegranskat)abstract
- Background. Samis are indigenous people in north Europe. In the territory called Sapmi (Lapland), reindeer herding is the traditional base for the Sami economy. The relation between living conditions and positive health of the Swedish Samis has been sparsely studied. As health is closely linked to sense of coherence (SOC), an understanding of the background factors to SOC may contribute knowledge that might be useful in promoting living conditions and health. Methods. The study examines relations between the level of SOC and background factors from surveys in a Sami population (n = 613) in comparison to a non-Sami population (n = 525) in Sweden, and in comparison between 2 subsamples of Samis, that is, herders and non-herders. Results. There are more similarities than differences between the Sami and non-Sami populations. However, dividing the Sami population, reindeer herders had significantly lower SOC, and in specific the subcomponent manageability, that is, less ability to use available resources to meet different demands in life, compared to non-herders. Conclusions. In addition to age and health, predictors of SOC are related to the life form of reindeer husbandry and the belonging to the herding community.
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| 2. |
- Blid, Mats, 1951-
(författare)
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Ett folkhem för alla? : Kommunala insatser mot hemlöshet
- 2008
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Doktorsavhandling (övrigt vetenskapligt/konstnärligt)abstract
- The overarching aim of this dissertation is to explore and describe Swedish local authorities’ measures to prevent and manage homelessness; how these measures diverge between different municipal categories; what factors predict homelessness, provisions of accommodation and cov-erage rates between the number of accommodations and the respective municipalities’ housing interventions. Measures studied are policies and housing interventions. The housing interventions re-ferred to here are those provided by or through the social welfare authorities to persons living with unstable housing or who are homeless. The interventions can be divided into two main categories: 1) preventive interventions in the form of daily-life support, usually in the form of personnel support in the individual’s own apartment, designed to help persons at risk of becom-ing homeless to remain housed and prevent eviction; 2) accommodation support for persons who are already homeless and in need of housing. Such accommodations may be more or less temporary, more or less integrated and include a greater or lesser amount of care. Two sets of data were collected for the study: 1) a case study of two category-housing programmes using both qualitative and quantitative data; 2) a survey of 147 randomly chosen municipalities (about half of the municipalities in Sweden) to explore the prevalence and charac-teristics of policies and housing interventions. Findings from the case study show that special-category housing has positive direct effects on the housing stability of the residents and their feelings regarding their quality of life, but does not have a direct effect on their substance misuse. Moreover, the increased housing stability seems to be more a direct effect of the person having stayed on the programme, rather than a long-term effect. Furthermore, although their quality of life improves, the residents still experi-ence a lack of belonging and feel that their lives lack meaningful content. On the national level, the findings show that an array of housing interventions divided into 12 sub-categories is offered to counteract homelessness. These categories vary along two central dimensions: care and normality. The two most frequent types of housing interventions in all types of municipalities are daily-life support and social contracts. Other housing interventions are marginal compared with these two. There is greater fluctuation between municipalities in the level of care provided than in the level of normality. Furthermore, the more densely populated municipalities are more highly engaged in developing housing policies and the administrative means to handle them. Such policies, however, seem to decrease the level of normality without promoting levels of care. When exploring factors that predict homelessness, the findings show that urbanisation is central to understanding variations in homelessness, not only in the largest cities but also in less densely populated areas. In addition, higher rent levels and more of aggregated psychiatric prob-lems in the municipality seem to increase homelessness. The apartment rate and the proportion of public housing within the stock of apartments are both important for the possibility to pro-vide accommodations. Moreover, the proportion of single-parent households seems to enhance the need to provide such accommodations. Political majority and the functional organisation of the social services both seem to have an impact on the coverage rates. Thus, the findings indicate that the municipalities have various options for managing factors that impact on the homeless-ness rate. Keywords: housing interventions, level of care, level of normality, policies, municipality, predicting homelessness
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| 5. |
- Blid, Mats, et al.
(författare)
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Prediction of homelessness and housing provisions in Swedish municipalities. : Nordiska nätverket för forskning om hemlöshet (Nordic Network on Homelessness Research), Kuopio, Finland, October
- 2007
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Konferensbidrag (refereegranskat)abstract
- Problem: The study explores predictors of homelessness in Swedish municipalities and of the amount of accommodations provided to the homeless. Theoretically, structural factors (e.g. housing market) and individual factors (e.g. social and health factors) have competed in theories explaining homelessness. Here, the focus is not on individuals, but rather the aggregated levels of such problems. Methods: Homelessness rates were collected in a national inventory (NBHW 2006.) and data on municipal support provisions were collected in a representative sample of half of the Swedish municipalities. Candidate explaining factors of homelessness studied here are variables related to urbanisation, economy of the municipality, various housing market factors, level of social and health problems and demographic factors. Level of homelessness and political majorities are also used as predictors of provisions. Results: Homelessness rate (per 10 k inhabitants) is predicted (R2= .36) by urbanisation (no of inhabitants), market (rent level) and level of psychiatric health problems in the municipality. Amount of accommodations (per 10 k inh.) is predicted (R2= .18) by homelessness rate, social welfare costs and structure of housing market, i.e. greater public owned sector in normal housing. Conclusions: Structural factors and level of individual problems both add to the explanation of homelessness. In addition, degree of urbanisation seems to be an additional factor. This however, may in turn indicate more specific factors not studied here. The amount of accommodations per inh. is, as expected, related to the level of homelessness and the level of social problems in the municipality. Additionally, the structure of the housing market seems to have important impact on the amount of provisions, independent of problem levels.
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| 6. |
- Blid, Mats, et al.
(författare)
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Prediction of homelessness and housing provisions in Swedish municipalities
- 2008
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Ingår i: European Journal of Housing Policy. - : Informa UK Limited. - 1461-6718 .- 1473-3269. ; 8:4, s. 399-421
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Tidskriftsartikel (refereegranskat)abstract
- This article explores key predictors of homelessness rates in different Swedish munici-palities, the accommodation provided and the coverage of accommodation to homeless-ness. In order to create realistic models, seven sets of factors represent various structural levels in stepwise regressions. These sets are urbanisation, economy, demographic com-position, housing market, aggregated individual problems, political majority and policies and organisational features of the social services. The findings show that urbanization is central to understanding variations in homelessness and has also impact on housing pro-visions. In addition, higher rent levels as well as aggregated psychiatric problems seem to increase the level of problems. Overall supply of apartments and the proportion of public housing are important factors in providing accommodation, and a demographic factor, such as the proportion of single-parent households, seems to enhance such a provision. Political majority as well as the functional organization of the social services seems to independently impact coverage rates. Despite the importance of urbanization, findings indicate that a number of factors with impact on the problem and on the possibilities to handle them are manageable by the municipalities. Key words: predicting homelessness, accommodation, housing provisions, local author-ity, social services.
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| 7. |
- Blid, Mats, et al.
(författare)
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Socially excluding housing support to homeless substance misusers : Two Swedish case studies of special category housing
- 2006
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Ingår i: International Journal of Social Welfare. - : Wiley. - 1369-6866 .- 1468-2397. ; 15:2, s. 162-171
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Tidskriftsartikel (refereegranskat)abstract
- This paper discusses special category housing for homeless addicts, based on case studies of two different housing programmes, using both qualitative and quantitative data. The staff and residents were interviewed about their experiences of the programmes. Longitudinal data was collected on various indicators of substance misuse and the frequency of contact with the social services at different levels. Our findings show that the special category housing has positive direct effects on the housing stability of the residents and their feelings regarding their quality of life, but not on their substance misuse. However, the increased housing stability seems to be more a direct effect of them staying on the programme, rather than a long-term effect. Furthermore, although their quality of life improves, the residents still experience a lack of belonging and that their lives lack a meaningful content. The choice of special category housing as an intervention model thus seems to perpetuate rather than prevent social exclusion and can possibly be described as an expression of institutionalised resignation
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