Mid Sweden University

What visions do social work students on the threshold of professional life have for future social work? This study aimed to investigate the professional preferences and organizational factors that are decisive in the career choices of newly graduated students. The study was conducted through a survey addressed to all social work students who graduated in the spring semester of 2018 from nine Swedish universities. The results show that the students expect a thorough introduction, a reasonable workload, and access to continuous support in their work. Furthermore, they emphasized the importance of professional autonomy and working conditions that enable them to work according to the professional, ethical principles of the profession. Most students wish to begin their professional careers in public practice within social services. However, certain areas of activity within social services appear to remain pass-through professions creating high financial, professional, and human resource costs. About a third of the respondents can imagine doing social work privately or working as a consultant. In conclusion, for employers to be able to recruit and retain competent staff, organizational conditions that enable social workers to conduct value-based professional social work are necessary.

A daily use of Artificial Intelligence (AI) is becoming a fact in many fields today, and two of them are psychology and social work. At the same time as AI systems are used for predicting psychological treatments and for decisions in social welfare, the university has no AI courses for these professions. Moreover, there are several examples in these fields where AI can make unethical decisions that need to be corrected by humans. To better understand the possibilities and challenges of AI in psychology and social work, professional users of AI services need a tailored education on how the underlying technology works. The aim of this paper is to present a project concept for the design and evaluation of a novel course in AI for professional development in psychology and social work. For the design and development of the course the guiding research question should be: What are the strengths and challenges with contemporary AI techniques regarding prediction, adaptivity and decision systems? The suggested AI course should be given as a technology enhanced online training to enable the idea of anytime and anywhere for full-time working participants. Course content and activities are divided into the four separate sections of: 1) An introduction of the AI history is structured around the so called 'Three waves of AI', and with o focus on the current third wave. 2) A section with a focus on AI techniques for prediction and adaptivity. Underlying techniques such as machine learning, neural networks, and deep learning will be conceptually described and discussed, but not on a detailed level. 3) An elaborated discussion on the relevance, usefulness and trust, and the at the difference between AI-based decision systems and AI-based decision support systems. 4) Finally, the fourth section should comprise the ethical aspects of AI, and discuss transparency and Explainable AI. An innovative approach of the project is to use a neuroscientific assessment of the education to understand how the education changes brain function relevant to evaluate AI based decision. This should be complemented with a qualitative evaluation based on semi-structured interviews.

The high-profile case of "Little Heart", a 3-year-old girl who, shortly after being reunited with her biological parents, was found dead in her home, has contributed to strengthening the rights of children placed in foster care in Sweden. However, the stability of children placed in foster care is not a new issue. In the last decade, the number of custody transfers has more than doubled. In this study, critical discourse analysis was used to study which discourses on children's needs and parental rights had guided 89 district court decisions. The results show that custody transfer takes place at a younger age and is still based on an adult perspective, and children's voices and wishes are often overlooked. The dominant discourses in the submissions of the social services, as well as in the district court decisions, are about continuity, connection, and security, concepts and formulations that are replicated from the preparatory work for the legislation. This study demonstrates the need for expertise and reflection in custody investigations into how questions are asked and how the responses are conveyed, as well as the need to intensify and strengthen the work of making children involved and heard in accordance with the aims of the Children's Convention.

Violence in close relationships (VCR) is a major social problem, and calculations indicate that every third woman globally has been subjected to VCR at some point in her life. Given the extent of the problem, it is likely that many social workers will meet victims of violence in their daily work. Their knowledge on VCR are therefore of great importance. The aim of this study was to examine the professional knowledge on VCR among social workers in the Swedish social services. The results are based on a survey answered by 153 social workers in three Swedish municipalities. The results revealed that in social workers’ acquisition of knowledge, they value professional experience and education the most. Around 70 percent stated that they lack knowledge on several topics related to VCR, such as the special needs of targeted groups. In order for social workers to maintain a high professionalism in their work with VCR educational efforts are required, it is also necessary to provide time and conditions for supervision and critical reflection in ongoing work. An important area for future research is to examine how social work education addresses these issues, the conditions for continuing education and training in the social service. 

Despite a growing transgender aging population with differing needs and care preferences, professional knowledge on gender identity and expression is still limited. This study examines Swedish social workers’ knowledge, experiences, and prerequisites for working with older transgender adults in municipal social services. The study is based on qualitative semi-structured interviews with 16 social workers and the collected data were analysed using the content analysis method. The analysis is presented through three themes: Heteronormative Discourse, Causes and Consequences of Invisibility, and Terminology and Pronouns. The results indicate that the challenges in social work with older transgender adults are related to invisible needs, a lack of knowledge, and social services organizations that do not prioritize issues related to gender identity and expression. Implications for social work are suggested including a need for an increased reflective practice and a norm-critical approach, in order to grasp the older transgender individual’s specific experiences and needs, beyond stereotypical ideas and thoughts on sexual orientation. However, to be able to develop this reflective practice, institutional and organizational conditions for increased knowledge are required as well as an historical understanding of exclusion and a deeper attention to the meaning of equal treatment. Regarding future research it is suggested to examine the relevance and possible value of LGBTQ-certification.

Violence against women does not exist in a vacuum, it is a multi-layered problem affecting many areas of society. The violence is situated in a context where different discourses express society’s view of the problem. During the past decade, work with domestic violence has intensified in Sweden, using an action plan adopted by the Swedish government 2007 as starting point. The plan is called: “Action plan for combating men’s violence against women, violence and oppression in the name of honour and violence in same-sex relationships” (Skr 2007/08:39). In the action plan, the government highlights groups of women that could be particularly vulnerable when it comes to violence in close relationships; disabled women, elderly women, women with substance abuse and addiction problems, women with a foreign background and victims of honour related violence and repression.  However, many researchers point out that dividing people into categories can lead to stigmatization and discrimination, as categories are rarely value-neutral. In this study, I carried out a critical discourse analysis of five different policy documents based on this action plan. The purpose of the documents is to increase the Swedish social services’ knowledge about violence against women, and the purpose of analysing these documents was to examine the framing of violence and abused women from an intersectional perspective.

This paper explores whether, and if so how, long-term illness affects and changes personal social relations and how these transformations are related to diagnosis, length of the sick leave, age and gender. It is based on qualitative in-depth interviews (N = 10) and a broader representative survey among long-term ill people (n = 319). The results reveal that illness affects the social relationships in both positive and negative directions. On the one hand, the proximity and mobilization of support from family and friends increases during the period of illness and new relationships are included in the networks. On the other hand, the distance within some relationships increases, and some disappear or become less support-rewarding. While the need for social relationships seems, for the majority, to be essential and constant, the results show that the circle of close personal relationships is shifting and that emotional intensity and reciprocal exchange vary.

In this chapter, we discuss how new forms of intimate relationships among older adults, exemplified by living-apart-together relationships (LAT) relationships, challenge family obligations, especially under Swedish conditions and its welfare state arrangement of eldercare. By analyzing motives and social constructions of LAT relationships, the overall aim is to explore how expectations of informal caring affect intimacy and obligations in older adults’ LAT relations. Consistent with our aim we give particular emphasis to strategies involved when partners are dealing with expectations of care and support.