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  • 1.
    Gümüscü, Ahmet
    Umeå University, Faculty of Social Sciences, Department of Social Work.
    Socialtjänsten och familjen: socialarbetares konstruktion av familj och insatser i familjerelaterad komplexitet2019Doctoral thesis, comprehensive summary (Other academic)
    Abstract [en]

    The aim of this dissertation is to describe and analyse how social workers in Swedish social services define “family” and handle complexity when they work with families, and especially “families with complex needs” as the target of their interventions. Whereas families with complex needs can be understood to involve one or more family members having two or more simultaneously occurring needs or problems (e.g. mental health issues, addiction, financial problems, dysfunctionality, child abuse, ageing, disabilities, and family violence), complexity in social work extends beyond that which exists in families. Therefore, to broaden our understanding of these complexities in social work, this research sought answers to the following questions:

    • How do social workers define and set boundaries around the concept of “family” when they target their interventions? How do these definitions differ between different sectors of the social services – elderly care, disability care, addiction, child welfare, and financial assistance? (study I)

    • How do social workers involve families and family members in the casework from intake and through the investigation process within different social service sectors? What happens to the conceptualisation of family through an investigation process? (study II)

    • How do social workers in child welfare services describe and manage complexity in their work generally and when they work with families with complex needs? (study III)

    • How then do social workers in different service sectors conceive of and manage complexities in their everyday work, especially when it comes to families with complex needs? (study IV)

    The empirical material in studies I and IV consists of telephone interviews with 60 social workers working in five different sectors in four municipalities. Study II is based on five focus group interviews with social workers working in five different sectors in one larger municipality. Study III is based on focus groups with vignettes with social workers working in child welfare in three municipalities.

    In the first study findings revealed that different mediating mechanisms were adopted by social workers in what can be understood to be a deconstruction of the family. These mechanisms included legislation (as a control mechanism), household composition (boundary mechanism) and service needs (professional mechanism), which were used in various ways and to differing degrees within each sector. The five unique and sector-specific conceptualisations of families are implicated in how interventions are constructed and work processes targeted at individuals and families.

    In the second study findings showed that clienthood and family are interpreted in different ways. The family was brought into or kept out of service provisions in ways that were connected to social workers’ construction of the family either as expert, client or non-client. How social workers understood the role of the family changed during the casework process. In the third study, findings showed that social workers were challenged in their everyday work where they focused on immediate conditions for children while avoiding problems that were less amenable to being solved. Social workers tried to manage complexities related to families by either sorting prioritizing or oscillating between different child welfare orientations. In the fourth study, findings showed that there were different types of reported complex needs: deeprooted needs and broad-based needs. Complex family needs were transformed into complex cases by social workers, based on considerations of family composition, relationships between clients and social workers, and organizational contexts of practice. The boundaries between these three domains were not distinct, and the interconnectivity and complexities occurring in and between them contributed to the production of much of the “wickedness” that exists in social work practice.

    A main conclusion is that the concept of family is understood and targeted differently in different sectors of social work. In some cases, the use of the family concept can be related to the clients' specific needs. Families who social workers meet often have combinations of needs and problems that result in numerous interventions from the social services. When social workers meet these families, they can feel ambiguity and uncertainty because of the complexity of the needs or other complexities. And, in individualised social services, a narrow focus on the needs of individuals can make it difficult to see the situation of the family as a whole. This research highlights the importance of bringing this web of complexities to the forefront of practice.

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  • 2.
    Gümüscü, Ahmet
    et al.
    Umeå University, Faculty of Social Sciences, Department of Social Work.
    Khoo, Evelyn
    Umeå University, Faculty of Social Sciences, Department of Social Work.
    Nygren, Lennart
    Umeå University, Faculty of Social Sciences, Department of Social Work.
    Family as Raw Material – the Deconstructed Family in the Swedish Social Services2014In: Journal of Comparative Social Work, E-ISSN 0809-9936, no 2, p. 1-27Article in journal (Refereed)
    Abstract [en]

    This article focuses on how families are defined and conceptualized by social workers in the Swedish social services. Using a qualitative study design, we carried out telephone interviews with 60 social workers in five major sectors of the social services in two smaller and two larger municipalities. These sectors included elderly care, disability, child welfare, addiction and economic support, with a qualitative content analysis approach used to analyze the data.The results showed that the practices in social service organizations are both individualized and specialized. Social workers primarily focus on the individual as the client when deciding upon interventions, and when asked about how they regard, define and delimit the family in their work, our analysis revealed that different mediating mechanisms were engaged in what can be seen as a deconstruction of the family. These mechanisms included legislation (as a control mechanism), household composition (boundary mechanism) and service needs (professional mechanism), which were used in various ways and to differing degrees within each sector. The resultant five unique and sector-specific conceptualizations of families are implicated in how interventions are constructed and work processes targeted at individuals and families.

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  • 3.
    Gümüscü, Ahmet
    et al.
    Umeå University, Faculty of Social Sciences, Department of Social Work.
    Nygren, Lennart
    Umeå University, Faculty of Social Sciences, Department of Social Work.
    Khoo, Evelyn
    Umeå University, Faculty of Social Sciences, Department of Social Work.
    Bringing the Family Back in: On Role Assignment and Clientification in the Swedish Social Services2015In: Social Sciences, ISSN 2076-0760, Vol. 4, no 1, p. 117-133Article in journal (Refereed)
    Abstract [en]

    In Sweden, municipal social services provide help and support for vulnerable people with a variety of needs. Although the family has long been understood to be a focus of social work interventions, it is unclear how it is brought into the casework process in the highly individualised and specialised municipal social services. Therefore, in this study we investigated processes of client-making and role assignment in five service sectors: social assistance, child welfare, substance abuse, disability, and elderly care. We carried out focus group interviews with social workers in each of these sectors in a mid-sized community in central Sweden. Findings showed that clienthood and the family are interpreted in different ways. The family is brought into or kept out of service provisions in ways that are connected to social workers’ construction of the family either as expert, client or non-client. However, the role of the family may also change during the casework process. Findings are examined in relation to theories of the welfare state and implications for family-focused practice are discussed.

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  • 4.
    Gümüscü, Ahmet
    et al.
    Umeå University, Faculty of Social Sciences, Department of Social Work.
    Nygren, Lennart
    Umeå University, Faculty of Social Sciences, Department of Social Work.
    Khoo, Evelyn
    Umeå University, Faculty of Social Sciences, Department of Social Work.
    Social work and the management of complexity in Swedish child welfare services2020In: Nordic Social Work Research, ISSN 2156-857X, E-ISSN 2156-8588, Vol. 10, no 3, p. 257-269Article in journal (Refereed)
    Abstract [en]

    This paper elucidates how Swedish child welfare social workers manage complexity co-occuring in the families with which they work and the organisational contexts of practice. Focus groups were held with social workers in three municipalities in Sweden who described work processes generally and in response to a fictitious vignette. The vignette was constructed as a complex family situation to explore how social workers approach complexity when faced with a family with complex needs. Findings showed that social workers are challenged in their everyday work where they are aware of the many needs in a family. They focus on immediate conditions for children while recognising that some problems are less amenable to being solved. However they try to manage complexities related to families as well as the structural conditions of work by sorting, prioritising and oscillating between a child focus and a family service orientation. This paper serves as a necessary reminder of the complexity of social work in the broader area of child welfare and raises further questions about the use of comparative typologies to explain social work practices.

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  • 5.
    Khoo, Evelyn
    et al.
    Department of Social Work, University of Gothenburg, Sweden.
    Nygren, Lennart
    Umeå University, Faculty of Social Sciences, Department of Social Work.
    Gümüscü, Ahmet
    Umeå University, Faculty of Social Sciences, Department of Social Work.
    From Needs to Relationships to Organisations: Transactional Complexity in Social Work in the Swedish Social Services2020In: British Journal of Social Work, ISSN 0045-3102, E-ISSN 1468-263X, Vol. 50, no 7, p. 2098-2115Article in journal (Refereed)
    Abstract [en]

    This article explores how Swedish social workers in different sectors of the social services understand complexity in relation to the needs found in ‘family’ and in social work practice. This study is based on interviews with sixty social workers in five service sectors: child welfare, elderly care, disability care, substance abuse and social assistance. The social workers’ reports of understanding and dealing with families with complex needs reveal distinctions between deeply rooted and broadly based needs. Complex family needs are transformed into complex cases based on family composition, relationships between clients and social workers and organisational context. Complexity theory, and in particular the term transactional complexity, is applied to describe the interactive relationship in and between complex needs, relational complexity and organisational complexity. The boundaries between these three domains are not distinct, and the interconnectivity and complexities occurring in and between them contribute to the production of much of the ‘wickedness’ that exists in social work practice. Social workers may gain from this knowledge in order to unravel the often intangible complexity that commonly appears in social work with families.

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  • 6.
    Nygren, Lennart
    et al.
    Umeå University, Faculty of Social Sciences, Department of Social Work.
    Gümüscü, Ahmet
    Umeå University, Faculty of Social Sciences, Department of Social Work.
    Khoo, Evelyn
    Umeå University, Faculty of Social Sciences, Department of Social Work.
    Understanding and supporting families with complex needs in Sweden: A review of research and policy2013Report (Other academic)
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