Residents in marginalized areas tend to show a lower level of confidence in the criminal justice system and carry out police reports and testimonies to the criminal justice system to a lesser extent than residents in other areas. In this scientific essay, a qualitative study is conducted to analyze the disinclination to leave testimonies and report crimes in marginalized areas, along with researching possible ways to improve the residents relationship with the criminal justice system. The theoretical framework for this study consists of Žižeks theory of violence, territorial stigma and social exclusion. The sample group for the study is advocates in non-profit organizations operating in marginalized areas. Using a semi-structured interview method, this study’s empirical findings reveals that a critical view of the criminal justice system, lack of confidence in the criminal justice system, ambivalent feelings about the residential area and mass medias stigmatizing effects are believed to cause a reluctance to cooperate with the criminal justice system in marginalized areas. Furthermore, our findings show that an admittance of the existence of racism within the justice system, increased communication, cultural competence, and safe meeting places are believed to improve the relationship between the residents and the criminal justice system.

The purpose of this study is to examine the experiences and perspectives of need assessors working with mental illness in older adults. This will be studied to gain a deeper understanding of their work with mental illness in older adults and how they work to promote mental health amongst older adults. A qualitative interview study with six needs assessors was completed to fulfill the purpose of the study, and were later analyzed using thematic analysis. The study’s collected data were furthermore analyzed using two theoretical tools:human service organizations as well as ageism. The results of this study conclude that needs assessors experience their work with mental illness in older adults as indirect due to a lack of elaborate working methods to meet the needs of older adults with mental illness. The study’s results also show that needs assessors perceive mental illness in older adults as a sensitive topic to work with. Additionally, this study highlights that needs assessors feel restricted in their work to promote mental health in older adults as a result of organizational prerequisites in elderly care. 

The dissertation is a product of four separate cultural studies, intended to throw light on the changes in Swedish alcohol policy taking place in recent years.

Paper 1 discusses factors contributing to the rapid proliferation of restaurants in Sweden in the 1980’s and the subsequent tensions arising from a restrictive legislation, an increasingly liberal legal praxis and the new, public alcohol culture. Urban transformations and changes in public life, the transition from modem to late modernism, the emergence of a new middle class and the redefinition of women’s use of alcohol were among the crucial developments. Beginning in the late 1950’s and early 1960’s, important steps away from the traditionally strict control of restaurants stimulated competition and led to a loosening up of Swedish restaurant culture. By the 1980’s, the restrictive laws governing restaurants had begun to lose legitimacy as legal praxis was applied in an increasingly liberal spirit. The establishment of the Stockholm Water Festival, which allowed central parts of the city to be transformed into a gigantic beer hall, is one example of this. As in many other countries, age limits have now become almost the only actual restriction on the availability of alcohol. Today, rather than protection, the aim of alcohol policy - especially with regard to restaurants - is keeping damage to a minimum.

Paper 2 is based on participant observation in three types of restaurants in Stockholm’s city centre. These are characterised as ‘the fashionable bar’, ‘the folksy bar’, and ‘the ethnic bar’. The study takes its starting point in Goffman’s (1956) concepts of ‘performance’, ‘setting’ and ‘personal front’, and how people consciously or unconsciously choose different milieus as a way of controlling the impression of themselves they wish to project. The fashionable bar clearly functioned as an arena for demonstrating professional and social success. The folksy bar could be used as the setting for a form of play in which company colleagues could temporarily set aside their differences in status. The closed room of the ethnic bar encouraged ‘time-out’ behaviour - seeming to serve as a second home, but also as a sex market for contacts between African men and Nordic women.

Paper 3 presents an analysis of how five different occupational groups discuss their alcohol habits in serious compared to humorous speech. The occupational areas are media, politics, business, culture and civil service. In serious speech, the speakers tended to value cautious drinking, setting sharp limits as to how and when use of alcohol is appropriate. In humorous speech, the situation was largely the opposite - the interviewees often presenting themselves as being under external constraints with regard to alcohol. The situations that provoked humour are also where we find controversy in serious speech. Discrepancies between alcohol habits and the role model one represents as a parent gave rise to a number of jokes. The parts of serious discourse that concerned other people displayed a very different content, dealing with excessive drinking, not being able to handle alcohol and not being permitted to drink alcohol - a content reflected in humorous form when the interviewees talked about themselves.

Paper 4, based on the same interview data as Paper 3, examines the issue of youth and alcohol. Common dividing lines between the groups could be observed, such as describing the problem as an individual, personal or family affair versus seeing it as a problem for the society, or placing responsibility for problem control on the individual as opposed to placing responsibility on the society. Those active in cultural pursuits viewed teenage use and abuse of alcohol as a social problem, but placed responsibility for its solution on a private, individual level. Journalists saw the problem as belonging within the family, which is also where they placed responsibility for the solution. The politicians clearly perceived teenage drinking as a problem for the society and placed responsibility for solutions on outer agents, such as legislation and extensive information campaigns. Civil servants described the problem both in terms of belonging within the family and as a problem for the society. Business executives varied between the level on which they described the problem and the level on which they sought solutions. In considering the problem from the point of view of the consumer, they stressed individual responsibility. But as the discussion progressed, they came to see teenage drinking both as a family problem and a problem for the society and to place responsibility on outer authorities.

The four studies are linked together in an introductory chapter within the common framework of Swedish alcohol control policy.

Background In the spring of 2020, the Covid-19 outbreak sent a shock wave through the Swedish society and placed an extraordinary pressure on the health and social care system for older people. In the initial phase there were few guidelines for care providers to follow and staff in home care organisations often had to tackle challenges posed by the pandemic as they appeared. The aim of this study was to understand how the spread of Covid-19 was managed in organisations providing home care to older adults in different municipalities in Region Stockholm, and what actions were taken to minimise the spread of the disease among clients and staff.

Method A descriptive qualitative study was performed based on eight interviews with managers of home care providers for older adults in three different municipalities in Region Stockholm.Three of the eight providers operate within an integrated care system. Data were analysed using conventional content analysis.

Results Three themes were identified covering actions taken to handle the spread of the virus, feelings of insecurity and anxiety, and internal and external factors influencing how the pandemic was tackled. There was no single strategy followed by all municipalities or organisations, however, there were similarities between the organisations. One such example was the introduction of cohort care and the experience of lacking personal protective equipment. Providers in the integrated care system emphasized some advantages with their system that was seen as facilitators for minimising the risk of spreading the virus, like the joint meetings with managers from both health and social care and the close contact with healthcare professionals in relation to dissemination of hygiene instructions.

Conclusion Social care workers providing home care to older persons are an important group in preventing dissemination of infectious diseases like Covid-19. For better readiness and preparedness for future pandemics, municipal home care services would need larger stocks of personal protective equipment, clear guidelines and more training on how to reduce dissemination of disease. Ways to achieve closer communication between health and social care providers should also be investigated.

The purpose of this study has been to explore how home care workers experience the use of ICT (that is, digital systems for time registration) in their work. The data collection took place through qualitative semi-structured interviews of seven home care employees in two different Swedish municipalities in Stockholm. Furthermore, a thematic analysis was performed by transcribing the interviews and trying to find common patterns or themes. The interviewees statements have been analyzed using two different theories: the role theory and Davies' (1994) theory of clock time and process time. The results show that the home care staff experience that the use of ICT leads to time pressure and stress during the working day. It also appears that the home care staff may experience the time registration system as a control function or monitoring method on them and their work. Other interviewees, on the other hand, describes that the registration of time contributes to increased security for both home care staff and the elderly care recipient. Finally, the results show that ICT is considered to contribute to an efficient and flexible home service work.

The purpose of this qualitative study is to investigate and analyze how care managers experience working with suicide prevention with the elderly. The study explores identified potential factors of success and perceived obstacles in the care managers current manner of operations. Additionally, the interviewees have suggested various ways on how to improve their current working methods. The data was collected by interviewing ten care managers and later analyzed by means of thematic analysis and applying Antonovsky’s salutogenic approach to wellness. This theoretical framework suggests the importance of an individuals’ ‘sense of coherence’ (SOC) for handling the hardships of life. Antonovsky suggests that the receivers of care can get their SOC strengthened by a professional. The interviewees of this study report the importance of developing a working alliance between the care manager and the receiver of care. They also highlight a lack of knowledge and the need of further training. Additionally, the results suggest that professionals in the field of elderly care can, and should, cooperate interprofessionally to counteract the elderly care’s focus on physical health over the mental. Our findings also suggest that inclusion of professionals with hands-on experience could be helpful when developing new strategies or policies.

The purpose of this qualitative study was to explore professional social workers perceptionson cultural competence. Seven semi-structured interviews were conducted with professionalsocial workers from different municipalities in Sweden. The interviews were analyzed usingthematic analysis and social constructivism as a theoretical framework along with theoreticalconcepts such as; culturally sensitive social work and cultural competence, professional roleand cultural capital.The result of the study shows that professional social workers experience several factors inwhat affects cultural competence. Further the result shows that cultural competence can varydepending on the personal experiences and on cultural belonging. The professional socialworkers experienced a lack of prerequisites in acquiring cultural competence in the practicalsocial work but also in the social education.The professional social workers stated that the cultural competence was something that theindividual needed to acquire on their own initiative - either based on interaction withindividuals of cultural diversity or by their own studies.

This study aimed to investigate the role, possibilities, challenges and emotional labor of Healthcare Counselors in pediatric palliative care. Through semi-structured interviews with five counselors, a thematic analysis was conducted. The findings reveal a broad and dynamic role, partially unclear, allowing individual shaping. Additionally, the study highlights counselors' capacity to support families during severe crises and discussions about end-of-life matters. The work is both meaningful and emotionally challenging, and coping theory illustrates how counselors manage their emotions using problem-focused and emotional coping strategies. The conclusions emphasize the relevance for counselors, collaboratingprofessions and management in pediatric palliative care. 

In this qualitative study of text documents, 23 cases reported to the Swedish Schools Inspectorate are analysed through a theory of the ideal crime victim. The results show that expectations of the victim's passivity are the same for the ideal victim of aggression in Swedish schools as for the ideal crime victim. Legitimacy as a victim in school conflicts, however, requires social normality, not weakness. The study highlights that Swedish school staff need awareness that hostile acts, according to the Swedish Education Act, are not necessarily diminished if they take place as part of a mutual conflict. Schools should therefore focus on matching measures with problems without searching for moral innocence in the exposed child. The study also shows that assessment strategies to clarify matters such as repeated aggression and power imbalance need to be developed.

Problematic school absenteeism is receiving an increasing amount of public attention in today's Sweden due to the impact it has on young people's health and their families. A relatively new profession, School Social Worker (SSW), constitutes a role in the intersection between schools, families, and the social services. The aim of this study is to examine SSWs experiences and how organizational conditions affect their work. The data was collected through nine semi- structured interviews and a thematic analysis was made based on the interviews using organizational theory and domain-conflict theory. Our findings are based on two main themes: The school social workers conditions and approaches and The social services in the pedagogical sphere. The results show that the SSW has a lot of freedom to shape their own professional role. The results also indicate that SSWs had different structures, goals and guidelines depending on the workplace. A common theme was preventive work, with the majority focusing on attendance-related issues. The results suggest a potential change in SSWs tasks if they fail to communicate clear boundaries with other professionals. The assignment's intent and adherence vary, especially regarding the issues SSWs are expected to address, such as handling twice the specified absenteeism rate. 

This study aims to explore the perspective of school counsellors on sibling violence, focusing on their understanding of the phenomenon through their professional experiences and their perceptions of their own abilities in addressing it. The study was conducted through a qualitative approach, where six school counsellors working with teenagers aged thirteen years and up were interviewed using a semi-structured interview method. The findings of this study suggest that school counsellors play an important role in identifying, responding, and promoting change in cases of sibling violence within the school system. Furthermore, their observations indicate that the family environment can be significant to the occurrence of sibling violence through the normalisation and perpetuation of the violence, be it directly or through a general culture of violence in the family. Additionally, the occurrence of sibling violence has also been observed to have some potential consequences for persons experiencing it, such as anxiety, low self-esteem, and mistrust of others.

Background

Past research has shown that individuals who have had experiences of out-of-home care (OHC) in childhood have increased risks of premature mortality. Prior studies also suggest that these individuals are more likely to follow long-term trajectories that are characterised by economic, work-, and health-related disadvantages, compared to majority population peers. Yet, we do not know the extent to which such trajectories may explain their elevated mortality risks. The aim of this study is therefore to examine whether trajectories of economic, work-, and health-related disadvantages in midlife mediate the association between OHC experience in childhood and subsequent all-cause mortality.

Methods

Utilising longitudinal Swedish data from a 1953 cohort (n = 14,294), followed from birth up until 2008 (age 55), this study applies gender-specific logistic regression analysis to analyse the association between OHC experience in childhood (ages 0–19; 1953–1972) and all-cause mortality (ages 47–55; 2000–2008). A decomposition method developed for non-linear regression models is used to estimate mediation by trajectories of economic, work-, and health-related disadvantages (ages 39–46; 1992–1999), as indicated by social welfare receipt, unemployment, and mental health problems. To account for selection processes underlying placement in OHC, an alternative comparison group of children who were investigated by the child welfare committee but not placed, is included.

Results

The results confirm that individuals with experience of OHC have more than a two-fold increased risk of all-cause mortality, for men (OR: 2.10, 95% CI: 1.42–3.11) and women (OR: 2.23, 95% CI: 1.39–3.59) alike. Approximately one-third (31.1%) of the association among men, and one-fourth (27.4%) of the association among women, is mediated by the long-term trajectories of economic, work-, and health-related disadvantages. The group who were investigated but not placed shows similar, yet overall weaker, associations.

Conclusions

Individuals who come to the attention of the child welfare services, regardless of whether they are placed in out-of-home care or not, continue to be at risk of adverse outcomes across the life course. Preventing them from following trajectories of economic, work-, and health-related disadvantages could potentially reduce their risk of premature death.

Importance Children placed in out-of-home care (OHC) have higher rates of suicidal behaviors, including suicide attempts, compared with those who grow up in their family of origin. Several studies have shown that this elevated risk persists into young adulthood. Yet, our knowledge about any longer-term associations of OHC with suicide attempts is limited. Objective To examine how childhood experiences of placement in OHC are associated with trajectories of hospitalization because of suicide attempts (HSA) from early into late adulthood. Design, Setting, and Participants This prospective birth cohort study that was conducted in Stockholm, Sweden, and analyzed in March 2020 included 14559 individuals born in 1953 who were living in the greater metropolitan of Stockholm in November 1963 and followed through registers up until December 2016. Exposures Childhood experiences of OHC based on information from the Social Register (age 0-19 years). Main Outcomes and Measures Hospitalization because of suicide attempts based on in-patient care data from the National Patient Register. Group-based trajectory modeling was used to cluster individuals according to their probabilities of HSA across adulthood (age 20-63 years). Results In this cohort of 14559 individuals (7146 women [49.1%]), 1320 individuals (9.1%) had childhood experiences of OHC, whereas 525 individuals ( 3.6%) had HSA. A Cox regression analysis showed a substantially higher risk of HSA among those with childhood experiences of OHC (hazard ratio, 3.58; 95% CI, 2.93-4.36) and after adjusting for a range of adverse childhood living conditions (hazard ratio, 2.51; 95% CI, 2.00-3.15). Those with at least 1 HSA were grouped into 4 trajectories: (1) peak in middle adulthood (66 [12.6%]), (2) stable low across adulthood (167 [31.8%]), (3) peak in early adulthood (210 [40.0%]), and (4) peak in emerging adulthood (82 [15.6%]). A multinomial regression analysis suggested that those with experiences of OHC had higher risks of following any of these trajectories (trajectory 1: relative risk ratio [RRR], 2.91; 95% CI, 1.61-5.26; trajectory 2: RRR, 3.18; 95% CI, 2.21-4.59; trajectory 3: RRR, 4.32; 95% CI, 3.18-5.86; trajectory 4: RRR, 3.26; 95% CI, 1.94-5.46). The estimates were reduced after adjusting for adverse childhood living conditions. Conclusions and Relevance The findings suggest that the elevated risk of suicide attempts among former child welfare clients does not cease after young adulthood, indicating the necessity for clinical attention to childhood experiences of OHC as a risk marker for suicidal behavior across the life span. Question How are childhood experiences of placement in out-of-home care associated with trajectories of hospitalization because of suicide attempts from early into late adulthood? Findings In this cohort study of 14559 individuals, individuals were grouped into 4 trajectories with differential onset of suicide attempts across adulthood. Childhood experiences of placement in out-of-home care were associated with increased risks of following each of these trajectories. Meaning The elevated risk of suicide attempts among former child welfare clients persists into young adulthood, indicating the necessity for clinical attention to childhood experiences of out-of-home care as a risk marker for suicidal behavior across the life span. This cohort study examines the association between childhood experiences of placement in out-of-home care and trajectories of hospitalization because of suicide attempts from early into late adulthood in Sweden.

This study intends to examine the psychotherapist`s experience of videotherapy and therapeutic relation and alliance in videotherapy. Earlier studies show that videotherapy is a positive contribution to healthcare systems and increases accessibility for patients, but there are technical issues and limitations in non-verbal communication. The therapeutic alliance between patient and therapist is not negatively affected. The experience of the patient tends to be more positive than the experience of the therapist. This study´s approach is qualitative and inductive. Data are obtained from interviews with five licensed psychotherapists. The study shows that videotherapy is a good flexible alternative, but therapist attitude towards it, varies. A good therapeutic relation and alliance is possible and depends on both patient and therapist factors, though the quality is deepened in face-to-face sessions. The psychotherapists describe that some therapeutic interventions need to be modified and amplified, due to the unique settings.

This is a qualitative study focused on social workers experience of stress and their coping strategies in the light of organizational culture. Previous research shows that stress is common in social services and highlights five coping strategies that social workers use. It also shows that the organizational culture has an impact on the social workers work environment. This study shows that the stress social workers experienced was mainly connected to workload, administration and moral stress. The coping strategies that the social workers used were both problem focused and emotion focused. The strategies used were compensatory strategies, standard lowering strategies, disengagement, voice and exit. They also tried to handle stress through walks, talking to friends and training. We identified two forms of organizational cultures, professional and organizational culture characterized by by silence lack of support . In the not professional organizational culture support from management was poor and the social workers main strategies were exit and standard lowering. In the professional organizational culture they experienced good support from both management and coworkers. They used to a larger extent compensatory strategies and were more satisfied at their workplace. The reliability in this study is affected negatively due to the low number of respondents.

Introduction: Refugees face the process of cross-cultural transitions upon arrival in their host country. This process is commonly referred to as acculturation and can be particularly challenging for asylum-seeking children and adolescent unaccompanied by a caregiver. To more effectively facilitate unaccompanied refugee minors (URMs) resettlement, this study sought to obtain an enhanced understanding of the acculturation processes of these youth’.

Methods: Thus, interviews with 48 URMs, all of whom arrived before the age of 16 years, were analyzed in two steps. First, how the youth described their host country’s society and culture, followed by how they navigated within this societal and cultural landscape during resettlement.

Results: The youth described how they navigated the Norwegian cultural and societal landscape by gaining cultural competence, adapting and finding ways to contribute, which made it easier for the youth to gain access to the society, to succeed as well as enhance their sense of agency. However, the youths also reported having to navigate between the expectations of their original and host country cultures, struggling with finding a balance between the two cultures.

Discussion: The youth’ acculturation processes seemed to be the result of both their own needs, wishes and behavior as well as specific features in their host country culture, which supports the notion that acculturation processes to some degree are context- and culture-dependent. Knowledge regarding the cultural and societal framework that these youth face and how they navigate within it during resettlement is critical for identifying possible cross-cultural challenges and promoting positive developmental tracks. To understand more about acculturation and integration processes, future research should include specific cultural and societal features as well as immigrants’ own perspectives and experiences during resettlement.

The living conditions for persons with severe mental illness have undergone substantial change in Sweden as well as in the rest of the Western world due to the downsizing of inpatient care and the development of community-based interventions. However, there is a lack of knowledge concerning the “trajectories of interventions” in this new, fragmented, institutional landscape. The aim of the study was to explore types of interventions and when they occur in a 10-year follow-up of 437 women and men diagnosed with psychosis for the first time. Based on registers and using a timegeographic visualization method, the results showed a great diversity of trajectories and differences between sexes. The aggregate picture revealed that over the 10-year period there were considerable periods with no interventions for both men and women. Furthermore, institutional interventions more commonly occurred among women but appeared for longer periods among men. Community-based interventions declined among women and increased among men during the period.

This article discusses the contribution of standardized methods to knowledge-based social services. The point of departure for the study is theSwedish assessment method the Individual’s Needs in Focus (IBIC). Howdoes the IBIC, based on the terminology of the ICF, contribute to standardizeddocumentation and to a focus on the needs of the individual? Thestudy is based on 80 social service investigations, from four differentSwedish municipalities, concerning daily living support interventions, aswell as 13 interviews with case officers. Our analysis exposes major flaws interms of clarity and uniformity. The client’s needs may be seeminglyrandomly assigned to a particular life domain; environmental factorsand personal factors have no specified content, and the assessment ofthe degree to which functioning is limited is subjective. As a standardizedmethod, the IBIC fails in the fundamental requirement of providing a basisfor comparison – the headings do not necessarily coincide with thecontent. From a social perspective, one can also question why, accordingto the IBIC, needs are centred to functions, supposedly improved bypractice/learning. Overall, this also jeopardizes its value relative to goalfulfilment at both individual and aggregated levels. We argue that onereason why it is difficult to apply the IBIC is that its construction does notalign with the premise of social work. The IBIC constructs an approach toknowledge that tends to place a high premium on the simple and welldefined,rather than the holistic and complex.

Social support in independent living for persons with psychiatric disabilities – meanings and impactsSocial support in independent living is the most common social intervention for persons with psychiatric disabilities in Sweden. This article investigates what constitutes supportive social support, its meanings and impacts in respect of context, interaction and time. The article emanates from a reanalysis of the results of three user-oriented studies. In total, 56 persons with experience of this type of social support were interviewed. The analytical framework derives from theories of social interaction. The findings reveal that supporting social support is a complex social intervention conveyed through ”the doing”, the talking and the company of the support worker. The findings also show that the restraints of everyday life are allayed or abrogated due to the support: the undoable becomes doable. Finally there are impacts on the psychosocial situation: it contributes to increased well-being and improved psychiatric conditions.

People with severe mental illness face a different 'interventional' landscape compared to some decades ago, when mental hospitals were dominant, in Sweden as well as in the rest of the Western world. The aim of the research reported in this article was to follow men and women diagnosed with psychosis for the first time over a 10-year period, and to explore what interventions they experienced. The interventions, here defined as spheres, were either community-based or institutional. A third sphere represents no interventions. Based on data from registers and using a time-geographic approach, the individuals were visualised as 10-year trajectories where their transitions between the different spheres were highlighted. The results show a great diversity of trajectories. Two main categories were detected: two-spheres (community-based and no interventions) and three-spheres (adding institutional interventions). One third of the population experienced only community-based interventions, with a higher proportion of men than women. Consequently, more women had institutional experience. Two sub-categories reveal trajectories not being in the interventional sphere in a stepwise manner before the 10th year, and long-term trajectories with interventions in the 10th year. The most common pattern was long-term trajectories, embracing about half of the population, while one-fifth left the institutional sphere before the 5th year.

Unemployed youth are a heterogenous group facing varying and sometimes complex problems. Being young and unemployed can have a negative impact on future life chances and quality of life. Studies on youth unemployment have mostly focused on education and labour market responses, leaving the involvement of social work aside.

   This thesis aims to explore policies for unemployed youth in three key policy areas: social work, education and labour market, in Europe and Sweden. The thesis consists of four separate studies highlighting how policy ideas are translated into agendas, and how responses are administered and organized at national and local level. Applying an institutionalist theoretic framework, the results are analysed with consideration to the structure of state and welfare state.

   Study I explored the ideas inherent to the social policy concept ‘social investment’, outlining three central dimensions of the concept: temporal-perspective, principles of distribution and policy coherence. A key result of study I is that social investment ideas are nuanced, and that social investments can take different forms. In the following three studies, the dimensions of social investment are used as heuristic tools to examine policy responses for unemployed youth.

   Study II examined how the EU recommendation on establishing a youth guarantee (YG), was translated in national YG plans. The results were analysed using tentative regime-types based on the structure of social work, the education system, and the social insurance system. The results showed that outreach as an early intervention was marginal across countries and regime types, and the involvement of social work was largely absent.

   In study III, the coordination within and between policy areas was analysed between Sweden and the UK, over time. Policy documents on national labour market programs in both countries between 1998-2011, were analysed. The results showed that coordination between labour market programs and social security benefits/social assistance had strengthened over time in both countries. How authority to regulate and administer different policy areas, was also linked to the occurrence of coordination between different policy areas.

   Study IV examined if and how specialization and coordination were part of organizing local level work with NEETs in Sweden. This was explored through structured interviews with local professionals in social work, education and labour market. The results showed a pattern of coordination and specialization among education and labour market actors. The involvement of social work was instead marginal, and primarily concerned social assistance.

   In conclusion, the results of this thesis show that the agenda, content and administration of policy responses to youth unemployment consists mainly of wide, universal and reactive responses. They are also characterized by coordination between labour market measures and social insurance/assistance, in line with an activation trend. An important finding is also the very limited involvement of social work, as noted in national policy agendas and programs, and in local level work. Both activation and social work involvement did however vary somewhat with administrative levels and between different policy areas. The results thereby indicate that institutional aspects such as organizational structure and administration, matter for the involvement of different policy areas in responses to youth unemployment.

Over the past decades, Europe has seen increasing interest in and pressure to coordinate social policy. Studies on the coordination of social policies have found that institutional settings affect coordination patterns when comparing different welfare state ideal-types. Adding to this body of research, this paper compares two countries with diverging authority to regulate social policy areas; Sweden representing a unitary decentralized state and the UK representing a regionalized state. With labour market programs for youth serving as a case, the purpose of this paper is to compare the development of inter- and intra-policy coordination over a period of 10 years, analysing the impact of regulatory authority. Policy documents which set the regulatory frame of the programs are analysed from the perspectives of instruments, and territorial levels of regulatory authority and how these connect to coordination patterns. The results show that levels of discretion and processes of decentralization and fragmentation of regulatory authority impact on coordination patterns, where inter- and intra-coordination develops under different circumstances.

Social investment in Europe has primarily been measured by studying expenditure data from specific categories of social policy. This article argues that we need a more nuanced way of studying the presence of social investment, and develops a tool for measuring the ideational content of social investment in policy regulations. By operationalising three key policy dimensions of social investment; time, distribution and policy coherence, varying approaches of social investment are discerned, landing in the development of three ideal types: a strict social investment, a targeted social investment and a reactive social investment. To demonstrate its application, the social investment ideal-types are applied to cases of policies for unemployed youth in different European countries. The operationalisation and ideal types presented in this article provide a structure and nuance to the understanding and measuring of social investment, aiding in the further debate on its pros, cons and presence in European social policy.

Youth unemployment is a global issue, with supranational actors calling for policy responses, including early interventions such as outreach. This article examines how EU member states have translated the EU youth guarantee (YG) recommendation, focusing on early interventions in the form of outreach. Combining quantitative content analysis with corpus linguistics, we examined the YG implementation plans of 19 EU member states having differing institutional conditions, comparing if and how they have incorporated outreach in their policy agenda. Overall we found very little outreach in the YG-plans. In the outreach described, guidance and information on education and labour market efforts dominate, whereas social work and local level community work is largely absent. We found type of outreach to be related to institutional conditions. Our results also imply that getting member states to commit to early interventions such as outreach requires that the EU stress this issue with greater emphasis.

In the context of the treatment of perpetrators of violence, psychodynamic discourse has often focused on individual aggression and other related emotions and mental phenomena, such as anger, rage, cruelty, sadism and brutality. Psychodynamic theory has been less explicit, however, about how to address an individual’s actual violent acts within the psychotherapeutic setting. This article aims to address this gap. It illustrates how psychoanalytic theory – most notably through Winnicott, Fonagy and Glasser – can be used to inform thinking about, and interventions with, men who use violence against their children and partners, using a clinical case that describes psychotherapeutic work with a perpetrator of domestic violence. The article concludes that the psychotherapist’s countertransference is an important tool in working with men who use violence, and highlights the importance of the therapist’s capacity for impulse regulation, emotional understanding, and handling of his or her own aggression.

Secure units for adolescents are emotion-filled places. This paper examines how secure unit staff are socialized to match emotions to violent situations in a dynamic social context according to different feeling rules. The analysis applies theories about emotional culture as well as feeling rules. The article builds on 53 semi-structural interviews with staff at three secure units for detained boys and girls run by the Swedish National Board of Institutional Care. The findings illustrate different ways in which staff adjust their feelings in violent situations by both breaking and following rules. Results are discussed with respect to three themes: (1) emotional adjustments tuned to co-workers; (2) emotional adjustments tuned to self; and (3) emotional adjustments tuned to youth behaviour. The results show the importance of taking emotions seriously in daily work, as this makes it possible to visualize how staff emotionally socialize into their organization. Due to a lack of education and professional identity among staff, the socialization process is highly relevant, as it is primarily perceptions of youth and co-workers that control and develop feeling rules for staff.

The Swedish National Board of Institutional Care (SiS) has reported a rise in violent incidents between staff and youth placed in secure units. This paper explores how secure unit staff narratively position themselves and youth when speaking about violence, and how staff describe the emotional impact violence has on them. The paper takes two theoretical starting points. First is the concept of emotional labour, including feeling rules, emphasizing that staff work with the emotions of others whilst also being expected to control their own. Second is the idea that the interaction among staff shapes various social representations and positionings. Five focus groups were conducted with staff (n = 27) who worked with both boys and girls at three different secure units in Sweden. The empirical data was first processed through narrative analysis and then by an interaction analysis. The results, presented as four excerpts within four themes, reveal collegial processes of narrative helping that steer group members to find emotional positions when talking about experienced violence, i.e., to find appropriate feeling rules. Furthermore, despite counter-narratives expressed by participants in the focus group, a representation of youth as violent persists. Finally, emotional labour seems to involve working with one’s own feelings and controlling the emotions of youth, not the opposite. The results suggest how important it is for staff to recognize youth from different templates and that violence can take various forms, and furthermore, that it is essential to make the emotion of fear visible in this context.

The aim of this dissertation is to describe how staff working at secure units define violence, the ways in which they say violence affects them emotionally, and the ways they emotionally handle violence. The secure units (särskilda ungdomshem) are managed by the Swedish National Board of Institutional care (Statens Institutionsstyrlese, SiS). The daily work of staff members is often described in terms of various dilemmas, challenges and tensions. Staff work in a context where they are at the intersection between care and punishment. How they respond to these dilemmas, challenges and tensions can affect how they handle violence. The organization (i.e. the institution) requires staff to induce or suppress emotions in order to sustain outward attitudes that produce a proper state of mind. Therefore, secure units are defined as an emotional place for both youth and staff.

The dissertation consists of four articles that explore different forms and directions of violence in the daily work of staff, and the ways that staff describe the impact of violence on their professional and private lives. The empirical data consist of 53 individual staff interviews (articles 1–3) and five focus groups with 27 staff members (article 4). Three overarching theoretical concepts are deployed: emotional work, narrative and violence.

The main findings from these papers can be summarized as follows: Staff talked about the extent and forms of violence that characterize their everyday work (articles 1 and 4), mostly in the form of stories where they described being exposed to both psychological and material violence. The frequency of this violence ranged from occasional to daily. Staff also talked about how they emotionally handled both perceived and acted-out violence, and how such violence can affect their professional role (articles 2 and 3). A common strategy seems to be role-taking. That is, staff members think they are exposed to violence in their role as “staff”, not as private individuals. This paves the way for the normalization of violence as a strategy for dealing with everyday professional life. Furthermore, staff attribute violence to youth in an explicit way. This means that staff members find it difficult to reflect on their own responsibility and the fact that they are, in fact, co-creators of most incidents of violence.

The overall results of the four papers are additionally organized around three themes: (1) the position of the young person: perpetrator, (2) working with violence in a caring context and (3) prohibited workplace emotions. Traces of these themes can be found in all four articles and they are clearly linked to the dissertation’s theoretical concepts. In conclusion, it is possible to describe these three themes as an expression of organizational shortcomings in which the staff are trapped.

Secure units for adolescents are emotion-filled places for various reasons, yet previous studies have shown that fear seems to be an emotion which is difficult to deal with in these workplaces. This paper examines how secure unit staff describe their workday, focusing on fear. The analysis applies theories about emotional work as well as the concept of fear. The article builds on 53 semi-structured interviews with staff at three secure units for detained boys and girls run by the Swedish National Board of Institutional Care. The findings illustrate different ways in which staff handle emotions, such as fear, at these institutions. Results are discussed with respect to five themes: (a) the importance of control; (b) safety: not a regular workplace; (c) not my anxiety, but the young person’s; (d) security: standing safe with co-workers; and (e) the ambiguous fear. The results show the importance of taking emotions seriously in daily work, as this renders visible how staff emotionally socialize into their organization. Due to a lack of education and professional identity among staff, the socialization process is highly relevant, as it is primarily perceptions of youth and co-workers that control and develop professionalization for staff.

A rise of violent incidents at secure units for adolescents has been reported by the Swedish National Board of Institutional Care. Meanwhile, research aiming to understand how staff manage violence seems to be lacking. By examining an in-depth narrative by one staff member, “Meral”, this study aims to understand, on the one hand, how staff describe the violence they encounter in light of the context and situation, and on the other, how they describe their handling of violence from outside the immediate environment. Drawing on Georgakopoulou and Bamberg, identities are understood to be produced and performed within personal narratives from different positions in relation to one’s surroundings. The study shows how Meral’s professional identity is shaped and affected by violence. Of essential importance is the way Meral presents herself to herself: as “not afraid.” A narrative interpretation is that fear does not fit within the framework of the professional identity for staff. A key element of placing essential responsibility on staff to manage violence is keeping lines of communication open, which could be made clearer in policy documents, training and supervision. Therefore, studies like this one could result in the development of communication strategies for staff. This is important because emotional rules can generate emotional cultures that in the long run can be destructive for both staff and young people. Only when the emotional rules are identified can staff develop strategies for dealing with the violent incidents that are part of their professional life in a qualified way.

During the 2000s, the National Board of Institutional Care (SiS) has reported an increase in violent incidents between staff and young people. This article focuses the staffs´ professional everyday life, especially descriptions of how they handle violence in their professional everyday life and what directions the violence takes. The staffs´ everyday work is often depicted on the basis of various dilemmas and tensions, which can affect how they maneuver in terms of how they deal with, and are affected by, violence during their professional working day. The purpose of this article is to illustrate how staff describe the violence they encounter in terms of form, direction and extent, including their own handling of the violence. The theoretical starting point regarding violence is taken from a relational perspective where context, situation, form and intention are important for how violence is understood. The staff’s work is understood with the help of both Hochschild’s and Bolton’s descriptions of emotional work, where emphasis is placed on the development that Bolton pointed out regarding the importance of colleagues regarding feeling-rules. Fifty-three semi-structured interviews were conducted with staff at three different secure units for adolescents in Sweden. The material was organized through a thematic analysis, yielding four themes placed under two headings; ‘A violent scene? A matter of definition’ and ‘Handling violence: strategies employed’. The results show how staff describe youth as the violent party and how they suppress their own emotions. Additionally, staff articulated their own use of violence toward youth and their emotional stance, describing an interpersonal shield that protected them from violence. The results underline the importance of raising questions about the nature of violence in secure units for adolescents and how staff handle such violence in their everyday work.

Institutionsvård för barn och ungdomar (kollektiv vård och behandling dygnet runt) är en ofta ifrågasatt insats. Att föra samman barn med stora behov är förenat med risker och det finns ont om forskningsstudier som tydligt kan visa institutionsvårdens nytta för barns utveckling. Vårdformen präglas återkommande av skandaler och i Sverige rapporterades nyligen om våld och övergrepp vid Statens Institutionsstyrelses (SiS) särskilda ungdomshem. EU (Europeiska unionen) förordar “avinstitutionalisering” som överordnat mål och många länder, inklusive Sverige, prioriterar vård i familjehem framför institutioner. Samtidigt har institutionsvård en befäst position inom samhällsvård världen över. I Sverige är omkring vart fjärde barn i samhällsvård placerad vid ett HVB- eller SiS-hem. Svensk institutionsvård (SiS-hemmen undantagna) utförs på en löst sammanhållen marknad där vårdutbudet till stor del bestäms av privata aktörer.

I antologin Revitalizing residential care for children and youth. Cross-national trends and challenges (Oxford University Press, 2023) diskuteras institutionsvård i sexton västländer (inklusive Argentina). Boken gör nedslag i så skilda länder som USA, Spanien, Israel, Finland och Tyskland (dessvärre ingår inte Sverige i antologin). Syftet med boken är att ge en bild av hur institutionsvård används i olika länder, men även att identifiera framgångsrika praktiker.

One premise for the organisation of residential care for youthis that staff are expected to relate to each young personindividually, but also to the group of young people as a whole.The relational interplay between staff and placed youths insecure unit care is fundamentally based on asymmetry, withinteractions taking place in a context of confinement. The aimhere is to explore how staff working in secure institutionalcare for youths in Sweden understand and describe theirrelationships with youth in terms that extend beyondprofessionalism, and especially their use of the familymetaphor. Fifty-three interviews with staff were analysed in atwo-step qualitative analysis, which generated three themesthat highlighted staff narratives focusing on descriptions ofparenting, sibling relationships, and closeness without usingthe family metaphor. One conclusion is that despite an overallshift away from the family metaphor, in the direction offraming residential care in professional terms, the familyconcept seems to sit quite well even in an environment withambitions to provide professional care. The family metaphormay not be the cornerstone of care, but it is eminentlypresent.