1.
Ahlgren, Thorbjörn, 1959-
(författare)
Institutionalisering på hemmaplan : En idés resa i den sociala barnavården
2014
Doktorsavhandling (övrigt vetenskapligt/konstnärligt) abstract
This thesis describes and analyses in three substudies how home-based measures for children are expanding and why an open care idea are established as part of the Swedish child welfare. The first substudy describes the national increment of what today can be considered as a treatment policy – non-institutional care in child welfare. The results are analysed with Kingdon's agenda setting theory and shows that the factors of what Kingdon describes as problems-, politics- and policyflow influenced the national increment. Significant mechanisms have primarily been, the profession, the society's concerns for socially disadvantaged children, negative experiences of institutionalisation and a political position to deinstitutionalise all care. The second substudy focuses on how knowledge and research contributes to ideological, professional, and organizational change in child welfare by analysis of Research & Developments reports and articles from the professional journal Socionomen. Based on the neo-institutional concepts of organisational fields and isoformism the study's results shows that a consequence of adaptation strategies and "rationalized myths" are a number of similarities in how home-based measures are organized and which measures that are used. The third substudy, a case study, analyses how we can understand a local development of ideas in social services for children with concepts from neo institutional theory. Interviews and municipal documents are analysed and shows that the local translation of an open care idea is characterized by discretion, personal preferences and action and affects the choice of method and organization. The study also shows a political mistrust of institutional care while there is at the same time political confidence in the individual social worker's ability to find solutions that allow non-institutional measures to be an alternative to institutional care.An overall conclusion of the thesis is that there is now a treatment policy in social services for the children, which involves extensive efforts at home and it has led to that more children receive support from social services. One result of non-institutional care increment is that it led to increased costs for municipalities for intervention for children and young people when out-of-home care has not decreased. Another general conclusion is that translation and adaptation of ideas to local contexts is something that generally fits street-level bureaucrats need for discretion.
2.
Anderberg, Mats, 1961-, et al.
(författare)
Strukturerade intervjuer inom missbruksvården : - som en grund för kunskapsutveckling
2009
Doktorsavhandling (övrigt vetenskapligt/konstnärligt) abstract
Anderberg, Mats & Dahlberg, Mikael (2009). Strukturerade intervjuer inom missbruksvården – som en grund för kunskapsutveckling (Structured interviews in substance abuse treatment - as a foundation for the development of knowledge). In the discussion on knowledge development in social work, structured interviews have attracted an increasing amount of attention. The aim of this thesis is to examine and analyze how structured interviews can serve as a basis in the compilation and development of knowledge for practice and research in addiction treatment. More precisely, it means a problematization of the methodological issues that are of central importance in studying treatment outcomes, in which structured interviews form the basis. The methodological aspects in focus here are scientific concepts such as reliability, validity and specific factors in the evaluation of treatment interventions. A further objective is to outline a model for analysis when compiling and evaluating treatment outcome. The five empirical studies have been conducted in their natural context, in organisations in which structured interviews with clients are carried out as an everyday routine and used for e.g. treatment planning. The structured interview DOK (a Swedish abbreviation for Documentation of clients) is used as a basis and an example for the empirical studies in this thesis. The validation studies show that the DOK interview generally attains a good level of reliability and validity, but also contains a small number of variables that do not live up to the requirements which may be imposed. Deficiencies in operationalization and question construction seem to have a large impact. Another conclusion is that it is possible to carry out validation studies, where each variable is examined separately and evaluated with the aid of both sound methodological starting points and relevant statistical theory. Another of the central questions, the thesis addresses, is how structured interviews can be used as a basis for evaluation of treatment. The two studies which highlight this issue show that it is obvious that structured interviews are suitable for such a purpose, through its standardized form and multi-dimensional nature. Validation of structured interviews or evaluation of social interventions should not be reduced to single numbers or values. The multidimensional nature of the structured interview shall also be reflected in the results and analysis. The thesis presents an analysis model for evaluating treatment outcome in relation to two empirical examples and foregoing theoretical starting points. Our view is that structured interviews can provide a link between practice and research and thus contribute to the development of knowledge in social work and substance abuse treatment.
3.
Johnsson, Eva
(författare)
Självmordsförsök bland narkotikamissbrukare
2002
Doktorsavhandling (övrigt vetenskapligt/konstnärligt) abstract
The aim of this thesis is to describe suicide attempts in a group of drug abusers who previously had received treatment of their addiction. Another aim is to interpret and analyse the life situations that the individual associates with the suicide attempt. The dissertation is based on interviews conducted on two occasions with 92 drug abusers, 62 men and 30 women. The majority of the drug abusers were injection addicts with a complicated social situation going back many years. The theoretical tools focus on an interactive and an individual level and the analyses concern the relation between the suicide attempt and the drug abuse, social interaction, emotional experiences, and self perception. Results from the study shows that 39 percent of the drug abusers had attempted suicide during their period of active drug abuse, 60 percent were women. The suicide attempts took place at the start of their abuse career or /and after many years of abuse when they were deeply involved in the life of a drug addict. Five "keysituations" were identified and related to the suicide attempt. Theese reflected different lifesituations, which were related to the drug career. The keysituations were: suicide in the teens, mental pane which became unbearable, various coersive interventions linked to the abuse, the negative effects of the addiction such as an increasingly chaotic situation which could be described as "the rock bottom" and finally the fifth situation which reflected the processes of breaking out of addiction and the difficulty of living an "ordinary" social life. The analyses of the interviewees´narratives showed the relation between social, interactive, and individual factors and the significance of the abuse for the suicidal act. It was palpaple that the suicide attempt was explained on the basis of the specific stiuation in which it happened. This indicate that the suicide attempt is linked to specific social contexts, interactions with other people and the individual´s interpretation of this context. Whatever the context, the emotional experienes of the subjects were charged with feelings of shame and guilt and despair over their lifs situation.
4.
Järkestig Berggren, Ulrika, 1969-
(författare)
Personligt ombud och förändringsprocesser på det socialpsykiatriska fältet
2010
Doktorsavhandling (övrigt vetenskapligt/konstnärligt) abstract
In a new reform in 2001, Swedish authorities emphasized the need for support for persons with psychiatric disabilities living in the community. This reform included the establishment of a new occupation: the Swedish case manager, personligt ombud (PO). In examining this new occupation, the overall aim of this thesis is to analyze how the Swedish case manager, PO, as an evolving occupation, affects and is affected by the organisational and professional field in which it enters. More specifically, the aim is to describe and analyse, using organisational and professional theories, the changing processes that the PO con-tributes to in the welfare system and the practice of social policy, the field of social psychiatry focusing on the discretion for professionals and in the under-standing of the professional role to help as described by clients.Three studies have been carried out. The first study, for the licentiate´s degree, focused on the PO occupational role and functions for the welfare system as well as for mental health service users. In the second study, the results from the first study were analyzed together with the results of another reform, namely, the Swedish care manager reform, in order to investigate their joint implications for social policy and its practice. The third study focused on what meaning the PO has for the clients and particularly what features of the service the clients find to be helpful.In summary, the results indicate that the PO contributes to the development of a negotiated rights model, by taking on the assignment of advocacy as a client representative, and then defining the social worker as a representative for the organisation with the assignment of needs assessment. In the field of social psychiatry, the PO fills a vacancy by supporting the legitimacy of the professionals as well as their organisations. Furthermore, the PO has a function of providing organised transparency through restricting the discretion of other professionals. The discretion of the PO itself has weak boundaries allowing for great liberty of action. Finally, the PO service has led to a new understanding of the professional role, as built on reciprocity with the client, using knowledge evolving from the interaction between the professional PO and the client. These findings suggest that the PO could be understood as a new occupation evolving from weak professional traits to, as suggested, a new model for professionalism, called user-mandated professionalism. This emphasizes the reciprocative foundation of knowledge between the service user and the professional.
