Technology to Support Children\u27s Social Care: Opportunities and Challenges

The potential for information and communication technology (ICT) to support the delivery of social services, and the possible benefits afforded, have been acknowledged in numerous studies. The many obstacles to the adoption and integration of ICT into social services have also been documented. This paper provides a summary of those issues as the backdrop to the description of a study conducted to understand the adoption of a specific technology (OmMej) in the context of children’s social care in Sweden. This study looks at the perceived benefits provided through the use of OmMej, particularly in terms of the opportunity for children to have a voice in their care and the impact on this technology on social work practice. The study also identifies barriers to the successful deployment of the tool, and some lessons learned that can inform other implementation efforts. drawing to explore international student experience in Scotland. Historically rich pictures are difficult to interpret and are often used to gain a holistic understanding of a system of concern and thus are disregarded in terms of providing in-depth qualitative data. We will explore the use of inter-coder content analysis to gain a deep understanding of group thinking. In the context of this study, using content analysis, our findings revealed a detailed understanding of Scottish culture and traditions from the perspective of international students. We determine that visuals have a vast capacity to communicate, irrespective of possible language, culture and education barriers, and thus offer unique insight into a complex system of stakeholder understanding

Attityder till tvåspråkighet

Jag har i den här uppsatsen gjort en kontrastiv undersökning av tre tyskars attityder till tvåspråkighet. Utifrån min frågeställning har jag utgått ifrån huruvida tvåspråkighet har medfört en ökad lingvistisk medvetenhet samt hur informanternas positiva och negativa attityder ter sig till detta. Jag har även snuddat vid begreppet kultur och hur informanterna upplever att ”leva i två kulturer”. De tre tyskor som figurerar i denna undersökning har alla kommit till Sverige på ett sätt som de upplever som positivt. Detta har inneburit att deras attityder till tvåspråkighetsbegreppet alltid varit bra. Mitt undersökningsmaterial samlades in med hjälp av intervju som metod. Resultatet visar, precis som tidigare forskare kommit fram till, att tvåspråkighet i viss mån medför en ökad lingvistisk medvetenhet. I mitt fall föll det sig så att de tre informanterna studerar till språklärare, vilket jag tror är en bidragande faktor till den språkliga medvetenheten. Informanterna har också en mycket positiv attityd till tvåspråkighet. De enstaka gånger det känts negativt att vara tvåspråkig är enligt informanterna när det växlat ihop de tyska orden med de svenska, s.k. negativ transfer. Den stora skillnaden i medvetenhetsgraden hos de tre informanterna är att de bott olika lång tid i Sverige. Två utav dem som bott här i ca två respektive elva år ser svenskan som ett sätt att överleva och chansen till kommunikation. Den tredje informanten som däremot har bott här sedan barnsben ser tvåspråkigheten som en självklarhet, vilket i sin tur har gett henne en stor potential att utveckla sin kreativitet och lyhördhet för en lingvistik medvetenhet. Vad gäller kultur har ingen utav informanterna svårt att anpassa sig till det svenska livet, då de menar att tysk och svensk kultur står väldigt nära varandra. Ett fåtal negativa kulturkrockar kom upp under intervjuerna, men precis som forskningen menar frågar sig även mina informanter hur en människa kan säga sig tillhöra en kultur

Rättssäkerhet och tvångsvård : En rättssociologisk studie

Compulsory treatment and care is regulated by the Care of Alcoholics and Drug abusers Act (Lag (1988:870) om vård av missbrukare i vissa fall, LVM). The regulation's main purpose is to motivate persons with addictive problems to voluntarily participate in the treatment of their problems. The compulsory care shall continue for a maximum period of six months in special treatment centres (the so-called LVM-homes), in which the treatment-staff have been given special powers to not only impose reasonable and rigorous restrictions on the freedom of movement and the integrity of the inmates, (cf. 31- 36 § § LVM), but also, make other important decisions with respect to the integrity and the personal circumstances of the inmates during and after the period of the compulsory care. This dissertation has an overall aim to study how legal security is apprehended and expressed in the decision-making processes of the LVM-homes and the author takes, as an initial point of departure, research results in jurisprudence pertaining to the concept of legal security and its different definitions. Through this starting point, it is possible to perceive the traditional meaning of the concept, as to how such traditional perceptions can be progressively developed from specific needs and prerequisites descending from an organisational sector. In this case the National Board of Institutional Care, (Statens institutionsstyrelse, SiS). This new definition of legal security is an agglomeration that comprises different jurisprudential considerations as well as the more specialized information extracted from representatives of the concerned system and their expressed opinions on legal security. It takes formal as well as material considerations. Subsequently, the constructed concept became the research tool that was used during the empirical studies phase of this dissertation, whereupon it became possible to study how legal security is maintained for the inmates of the LVM-homes. The idea being also that the staff members who perform the practical care and treatment assignments would find such a concept sustainable and through which they will hopefully find ways to uphold legal security in their daily activities. In order to collect material which can complement each other during the result-compilation phase, several methods were used in three different partial studies. In the first partial study relevant legal security policy documents produced by the SiS central organization as well as the local regulations produced by different LVM-homes were studied. The second partial study consists of a questionnaire-survey of some selected staff-members from LVM-homes. The last empirical study consists of interviews with two different groups of staff-members. The results show a relatively fractured picture with respect to the maintenance of legal security values in the LVM-homes. A majority of the respondents are of the opinion that the individual-oriented aspects of integrity and proportion must always be taken into account before and during the decision-making process, at the same time as the decision-makers re-create more of such rules, which in practice appear to have extensive difficulties of being maintained and handle such aspects or adjustments in a much secure way

Socialtjänsten och de papperslösa

This article outlines public Social Services’ encounters with irregular migrants in Sweden from the perspectives of institutional and front-line staff (or streetlevel bureaucrats). Staff and executive considerations are influenced by a de jure exclusion of irregular migrants, a part of the control of migration. Staff faces contradictory demands concerning international and national regulations, which leads to legal ambiguities open to discretionary powers and sometimes even arbitrariness. The aim is to explore the handling of such cases, experiences and considerations focusing cited values when enacting discretion and to discuss implications of the unclear legal situation. The material derives from two web-based questionnaires (national and local) and interviews with front-line staff handling cases concerning irregular migrants. A tentative analysis confirms that the public Social Services encounter irregular migrants and that handling differs greatly. It proposes that different approaches, a lack of guidelines and the contradictory legal framework endanger the rule of law. Differing and ambivalent fundamental values appear to be involved when enacting discretion: some related to social work and others to controlled migration. The controlled migration values cited by some respondents consisted of more and better border- control and better cooperation with the Immigration Services. The invoked social work values imply a conception of a right to social services and the control of migration as independent processes and jurisdiction related to human rights, essentially the crc, applicable beyond the nationally framed legal status and not subordinated to policies of migration

The Rule of Law and Compulsory Psychiatric Care

So far hardly any Swedish scientific projects have dealt with the rule of law in the area of health and medical care. Legal research concerning the area focuses on different aspects of patient rights, but not on the rule of law itself. The rule of law is a central requirement for theadministrative regulation and a decisive aspect of quality within the services of the public sector (Marcusson 2010). It is often perceived as a "silent" prerequisite and taken for granted among patients as well as among health care professionals. This has, in turn, led to a lack of analysis and research regarding the implementation of the rule of law, within the health care sector. The aim of our study is to investigate the rule of law as a central objective in compulsory psychiatric care. The overall aim is to include the rule of law as a necessary aspect of quality and find ways to operationalize the concept. The rule of law has special relevance in these situations, as the patient here finds him/herself in a particularly vulnerable situation, dependent on the care provider and subject to means that affect his or her integrity. Different versions of involuntary measures and the formal, as well as the substantial side of the rule of law are taken into account. Special attention is given to the fact that care is increasingly provided in collaboration with different care providers, and the possible implications this has for patients

Förvaltningsrätt : en introduktion för professionsutbildningar

En introduktion till utbildningar för myndighetsorganisationer som behandlar och ger service till människor i sitt arbete