{"title":"Starting up user-focused monitoring projects: trust and conflicting expectations in user involvement practices","authors":"Hilda Näslund, Katarina Grim, Urban Markström","doi":"10.1080/2156857x.2023.2274562","DOIUrl":"https://doi.org/10.1080/2156857x.2023.2274562","url":null,"abstract":"User-focused monitoring (UFM) is an emerging method for user involvement and quality development in the Swedish mental health sector. It involves people with lived experience conducting a systematized evaluation of a mental health service or support programme. The aim of this study is to analyse motives and central concerns when initiating a UFM project. Five UFM projects in Sweden were sampled, 16 semi-structured interviews were performed with user monitors and commissioners and analysed using conventional content analysis. Our results showcase a range of motives for conducting UFM, illustrate the centrality of trust in the relationships of the UFM practice and the varying degrees of user autonomy in UFM projects. We further discuss our results in relation to epistemic trust and organizational learning theories. Accountability processes are discussed as important for securing continuous trust between the stakeholders. Furthermore, trust is required for UFM being applied to engage in continuous learning and review of organizational norms and goals together with service users.","PeriodicalId":473070,"journal":{"name":"Nordic Social Work Research","volume":"47 6","pages":"0"},"PeriodicalIF":0.0,"publicationDate":"2023-10-30","publicationTypes":"Journal Article","fieldsOfStudy":null,"isOpenAccess":false,"openAccessPdf":"","citationCount":null,"resultStr":null,"platform":"Semanticscholar","paperid":"136022706","PeriodicalName":null,"FirstCategoryId":null,"ListUrlMain":null,"RegionNum":0,"RegionCategory":"","ArticlePicture":[],"TitleCN":null,"AbstractTextCN":null,"PMCID":"","EPubDate":null,"PubModel":null,"JCR":null,"JCRName":null,"Score":null,"Total":0}
{"title":"Designing and developing interprofessional education – an example involving social work and interpreting students in Sweden","authors":"Helena Bani-Shoraka","doi":"10.1080/2156857x.2023.2269953","DOIUrl":"https://doi.org/10.1080/2156857x.2023.2269953","url":null,"abstract":"This paper contributes to the research field of interprofessional education by reporting on an ongoing collaboration between a Social Work Study Programme and two Public Service Interpreting programs located at three universities in Sweden. The article explores the question of what is required to establish a sustainable curriculum for interprofessional education to prepare social work and interpreting students to manage interpreter-mediated social work encounters. Based on experiences made from six IPE sessions over the past three years, two important perspectives are identified and discussed. Firstly, is the pedagogical perspective, where the IPE seen as a situated learning activity, offering a learning space in which awareness of communicative skills such as the organization of turns and division of labour in interpreter-mediated social work encounters are made visible, practiced and reflected upon. The communicative skills relate both to professional and interprofessional expectations and duties of these groups of students. Secondly, is the organizational perspective, where the IPE is regarded as an example of educational collaboration. At a general overall level, the crucial aspects identified for establishing a sustainable IPE are the actual needs-basis, persistence over time and small-scaleness of the development process. The online format, close collaboration between the interpreting programs and the specific IPE team are other crucial aspects identified in the organization of this collaborative venture. The feedback from students have so far been very positive and with an IPE in place, there are now good opportunities to develop these training sessions in different directions and systematically assess the IPE.","PeriodicalId":473070,"journal":{"name":"Nordic Social Work Research","volume":"17 1","pages":"0"},"PeriodicalIF":0.0,"publicationDate":"2023-10-02","publicationTypes":"Journal Article","fieldsOfStudy":null,"isOpenAccess":false,"openAccessPdf":"","citationCount":null,"resultStr":null,"platform":"Semanticscholar","paperid":"135901779","PeriodicalName":null,"FirstCategoryId":null,"ListUrlMain":null,"RegionNum":0,"RegionCategory":"","ArticlePicture":[],"TitleCN":null,"AbstractTextCN":null,"PMCID":"","EPubDate":null,"PubModel":null,"JCR":null,"JCRName":null,"Score":null,"Total":0}
{"title":"Language Discordant Social Work in a Multilingual World: The Space Between,Buzungu, Hilde Fiva. (2023). <i> <b>Language Discordant Social Work in a Multilingual World: The Space Between,</b> </i> London, Routledge, ISBN 9781032394596","authors":"Kristina Gustafsson","doi":"10.1080/2156857x.2023.2273104","DOIUrl":"https://doi.org/10.1080/2156857x.2023.2273104","url":null,"abstract":"","PeriodicalId":473070,"journal":{"name":"Nordic Social Work Research","volume":"156 1","pages":"0"},"PeriodicalIF":0.0,"publicationDate":"2023-10-02","publicationTypes":"Journal Article","fieldsOfStudy":null,"isOpenAccess":false,"openAccessPdf":"","citationCount":null,"resultStr":null,"platform":"Semanticscholar","paperid":"135902044","PeriodicalName":null,"FirstCategoryId":null,"ListUrlMain":null,"RegionNum":0,"RegionCategory":"","ArticlePicture":[],"TitleCN":null,"AbstractTextCN":null,"PMCID":"","EPubDate":null,"PubModel":null,"JCR":null,"JCRName":null,"Score":null,"Total":0}
Kristina Gustafsson, Linnéa Åberg, Sabine Gruber, Eva Norström
{"title":"Social work in a multilingual world","authors":"Kristina Gustafsson, Linnéa Åberg, Sabine Gruber, Eva Norström","doi":"10.1080/2156857x.2023.2274217","DOIUrl":"https://doi.org/10.1080/2156857x.2023.2274217","url":null,"abstract":"","PeriodicalId":473070,"journal":{"name":"Nordic Social Work Research","volume":"16 1","pages":"0"},"PeriodicalIF":0.0,"publicationDate":"2023-10-02","publicationTypes":"Journal Article","fieldsOfStudy":null,"isOpenAccess":false,"openAccessPdf":"","citationCount":null,"resultStr":null,"platform":"Semanticscholar","paperid":"135949552","PeriodicalName":null,"FirstCategoryId":null,"ListUrlMain":null,"RegionNum":0,"RegionCategory":"","ArticlePicture":[],"TitleCN":null,"AbstractTextCN":null,"PMCID":"","EPubDate":null,"PubModel":null,"JCR":null,"JCRName":null,"Score":null,"Total":0}
Anna Olaison, Annika Taghizadeh Larsson, Johannes H Österholm
{"title":"Making an (in)appropriate client: Social workers’ use of storylines in gatekeeping processes in the context of collegial case conferences","authors":"Anna Olaison, Annika Taghizadeh Larsson, Johannes H Österholm","doi":"10.1080/2156857x.2023.2263020","DOIUrl":"https://doi.org/10.1080/2156857x.2023.2263020","url":null,"abstract":"Research has explored how social workers in team constellations perform assessments of the needs of clients in case conferences. However, the process in which gatekeeping is applied in the categorization of clients as inappropriate receivers of support in collegial discussions has received less attention. This article presents findings from a case study of a complex case where a 64-year-old person with dementia was assessed by two teams of social workers handling the same case under two different forms of legislation (elder care and disability services). The data consist of recordings of two case conferences in one Swedish social work agency. The conferences were analysed using positioning theory. The findings suggest that the conferences contained different storylines where the social workers categorized the client as an inappropriate receiver of support. Furthermore, the discourses for gatekeeping differed depending on how the social workers positioned the client in the different storylines in the case conferences. The study shows that institutional and professional responsibilities are central to the assessments that the social workers perform, and that there is a risk that the client will be subject to gatekeeping when the case is handled on an ambiguous legal basis in different legislations, which may result in the client falling between two stools. The findings suggest that research needs to explore, in a more systematic manner, how social workers’ gatekeeping practices are performed in collegial team discussions.","PeriodicalId":473070,"journal":{"name":"Nordic Social Work Research","volume":"53 1","pages":"0"},"PeriodicalIF":0.0,"publicationDate":"2023-09-26","publicationTypes":"Journal Article","fieldsOfStudy":null,"isOpenAccess":false,"openAccessPdf":"","citationCount":null,"resultStr":null,"platform":"Semanticscholar","paperid":"134957826","PeriodicalName":null,"FirstCategoryId":null,"ListUrlMain":null,"RegionNum":0,"RegionCategory":"","ArticlePicture":[],"TitleCN":null,"AbstractTextCN":null,"PMCID":"","EPubDate":null,"PubModel":null,"JCR":null,"JCRName":null,"Score":null,"Total":0}
Mira Aurora Marlow, Hulda Mjøll Gunnarsdottir, Ingunn Studsrød
{"title":"“No one saw us, and no one did anything” – young women with a history in out-of-home care narrate management of (in)visibility and intersecting identities","authors":"Mira Aurora Marlow, Hulda Mjøll Gunnarsdottir, Ingunn Studsrød","doi":"10.1080/2156857x.2023.2255870","DOIUrl":"https://doi.org/10.1080/2156857x.2023.2255870","url":null,"abstract":"Dominating narratives about young women in out-of-home care typically depict them as ‘troublemakers’, ‘victims’ or ‘damaged’. Such narratives undermine the importance of understanding how these young women manage difficult life circumstances and intersecting identities. This paper explores how young women with a history in out-of-home care manage their personal stories and identities. By applying an intersectional perspective, we explore the complexity of these young women’s identities. This study draws data from eight narrative interviews with five young women with challenging personal stories. A feminist listening guide was adopted for the analysis. Our analysis identified the management of intersecting identities, (in)visibility and agency in participants’ stories. Based on the analysis, we recommend an intersectional perspective in social work practice.","PeriodicalId":473070,"journal":{"name":"Nordic Social Work Research","volume":"36 1","pages":"0"},"PeriodicalIF":0.0,"publicationDate":"2023-09-26","publicationTypes":"Journal Article","fieldsOfStudy":null,"isOpenAccess":false,"openAccessPdf":"","citationCount":null,"resultStr":null,"platform":"Semanticscholar","paperid":"134886654","PeriodicalName":null,"FirstCategoryId":null,"ListUrlMain":null,"RegionNum":0,"RegionCategory":"","ArticlePicture":[],"TitleCN":null,"AbstractTextCN":null,"PMCID":"","EPubDate":null,"PubModel":null,"JCR":null,"JCRName":null,"Score":null,"Total":0}
{"title":"Three strategies of user participation. Interest organisation representatives’ views on how they make an impact on service development","authors":"Jan Marius Gathen, Tor Slettebø, Erik Skjeggestad","doi":"10.1080/2156857x.2023.2256742","DOIUrl":"https://doi.org/10.1080/2156857x.2023.2256742","url":null,"abstract":"This paper explores user participation in interest organizations that represent people in vulnerable life situations and addresses the following research question: How do interest organizations seek to influence public actors, and what are the perceived impacts? Data collection was conducted through qualitative semi-structured interviews. We interviewed 14 representatives from 8 different interest organizations in Norway. Limitations included the fact that there were few informants from each organization and only three with personal service user experience. In the thematic analysis, we developed three themes related to how the informants described their organizations’ dealings with services, municipalities, politicians and other public actors. The cooperative strategy refers to participation as an arena for collaboration and partnership in which they assumedly would share interests and goals. The oppositional strategy shows how the informants would use open conflict and confrontation as tools for influence, often through the media and complaint systems. The third strategy, negotiation, illustrates how organizations would manoeuvre between being critical and constructive while maintaining relationships with public actors. Interest organizations seem to manoeuvre between these strategies, but they may prefer different strategies depending on their goals and relationships with public actors. Even though all could contribute to service development, the informants expressed that it was easiest to identify impacts from cooperative and oppositional strategies. To improve user participation by interest organizations, increased attention should be given to the interaction and power dynamics among the stakeholders. Moreover, increased attention should be given to the impact of these processes.","PeriodicalId":473070,"journal":{"name":"Nordic Social Work Research","volume":"19 1","pages":"0"},"PeriodicalIF":0.0,"publicationDate":"2023-09-25","publicationTypes":"Journal Article","fieldsOfStudy":null,"isOpenAccess":false,"openAccessPdf":"","citationCount":null,"resultStr":null,"platform":"Semanticscholar","paperid":"135859645","PeriodicalName":null,"FirstCategoryId":null,"ListUrlMain":null,"RegionNum":0,"RegionCategory":"","ArticlePicture":[],"TitleCN":null,"AbstractTextCN":null,"PMCID":"","EPubDate":null,"PubModel":null,"JCR":null,"JCRName":null,"Score":null,"Total":0}
{"title":"Community work or neighbourhood revitalization: a study of the cooperation between school, social services, and housing companies","authors":"Johannes Lunneblad","doi":"10.1080/2156857x.2023.2254773","DOIUrl":"https://doi.org/10.1080/2156857x.2023.2254773","url":null,"abstract":"In several European cities, the residential areas built during the record years of the 1960s and 70s are now associated with decline, unemployment, and social unrest. To remedy this situation, schools, social services, and housing companies are collaborating with initiatives aimed at children and youth in these areas. The purpose of this study is to describe the conditions for the social efforts being made. The study is based on 17 semi-structured interviews with employees in schools, social services, and housing companies. The results show how the initiatives that are implemented become conditioned by the housing companies’ financial interests.","PeriodicalId":473070,"journal":{"name":"Nordic Social Work Research","volume":"34 1","pages":"0"},"PeriodicalIF":0.0,"publicationDate":"2023-09-15","publicationTypes":"Journal Article","fieldsOfStudy":null,"isOpenAccess":false,"openAccessPdf":"","citationCount":null,"resultStr":null,"platform":"Semanticscholar","paperid":"135436439","PeriodicalName":null,"FirstCategoryId":null,"ListUrlMain":null,"RegionNum":0,"RegionCategory":"","ArticlePicture":[],"TitleCN":null,"AbstractTextCN":null,"PMCID":"","EPubDate":null,"PubModel":null,"JCR":null,"JCRName":null,"Score":null,"Total":0}
{"title":"Voluntary and Public Sector Collaboration in Scandinavia – New Approaches to Co-Production","authors":"Niina Rantamäki","doi":"10.1080/2156857x.2023.2258142","DOIUrl":"https://doi.org/10.1080/2156857x.2023.2258142","url":null,"abstract":"Click to increase image sizeClick to decrease image size Disclosure statementNo potential conflict of interest was reported by the author.","PeriodicalId":473070,"journal":{"name":"Nordic Social Work Research","volume":"23 1","pages":"0"},"PeriodicalIF":0.0,"publicationDate":"2023-09-12","publicationTypes":"Journal Article","fieldsOfStudy":null,"isOpenAccess":false,"openAccessPdf":"","citationCount":null,"resultStr":null,"platform":"Semanticscholar","paperid":"135826301","PeriodicalName":null,"FirstCategoryId":null,"ListUrlMain":null,"RegionNum":0,"RegionCategory":"","ArticlePicture":[],"TitleCN":null,"AbstractTextCN":null,"PMCID":"","EPubDate":null,"PubModel":null,"JCR":null,"JCRName":null,"Score":null,"Total":0}
{"title":"Social workers as targets for integration","authors":"Kristina Gustafsson, Eva Norström, Linnéa Åberg","doi":"10.1080/2156857x.2023.2256737","DOIUrl":"https://doi.org/10.1080/2156857x.2023.2256737","url":null,"abstract":"The aim of this article is to write against normative discourses and interpretations of ‘integration’ by nominating social workers and social work as the main subject of ‘integration’ and find ways to overcome exclusionary and discriminating social work practices. To do that, we use material collected when observing public service interpreters giving lectures to social workers about their experiences from encounters in social work settings. In a critical analysis, we found two ‘integration’ problems, that is, certain problems that social workers have in making themselves accessible and where they risk reinforcing exclusion and discrimination. One problem is ‘the failure of handling perceptions that social services take children’. The other is ‘the failures of (re)producing bureaucratically driven social assistance’. These problems might lead to exclusionary practices towards migrant families, often with disastrous outcomes. The analysis shows that these problems appear due to social workers’ lack of institutional self-awareness, language competencies, and emphatic ability. To overcome these shortcomings, the interpreters emphasized the impact of encounters that social workers were already involved in during their everyday work. The interpreters recognize that social services are unknown to most families who are newly arrived in Sweden and point out the importance of making more efforts to be clear, rephrasing questions, explaining, avoiding abbreviations, and becoming proactive in dialogue outside of the offices, i.e. recognizing that social work is language work.","PeriodicalId":473070,"journal":{"name":"Nordic Social Work Research","volume":"51 1","pages":"0"},"PeriodicalIF":0.0,"publicationDate":"2023-09-12","publicationTypes":"Journal Article","fieldsOfStudy":null,"isOpenAccess":false,"openAccessPdf":"","citationCount":null,"resultStr":null,"platform":"Semanticscholar","paperid":"135886132","PeriodicalName":null,"FirstCategoryId":null,"ListUrlMain":null,"RegionNum":0,"RegionCategory":"","ArticlePicture":[],"TitleCN":null,"AbstractTextCN":null,"PMCID":"","EPubDate":null,"PubModel":null,"JCR":null,"JCRName":null,"Score":null,"Total":0}