THANKS meeting in Linköping 15 May 2014

Research and Development Centre in Care and Social work Cooperation between nine municipalities and the university in the county of Östergötland A link between research and praxis Support and promote practice based R & D projects Fundings from the municipalities about 3.5 million Skr / year plus external project funds About 100 R & D projects during 2000 – 2014, 80 R & D and 15 working paper

Social work with families and children – Current R & D projects First line support to children with psychological problems (National project) Parenting young children – testing an evidence based model for parents with intellectual handicaps (National R & D project) Strengthen the Children’s perspective within the care of parents with alcohol and drug problems (National R & D project) Development of evaluation system for young people placed on treatment centers (National R & D project) Families in social services. Cooperation processes between school and social support regarding “drop outs” from the elementary school Implementing of the BBIC system in the care of disabled children

Families in social service A research and developement project in three parts, about children, youths and their parents in Östergötland

Interactive research What does it take to carry out interactive research Trust Equal relations Time and resources External support Cooperation between the researchsociety and the social workers. Knowledge interesting and useful for both researchers and practical social work.

The organization of the Swedish project 6 participating cities: Linköping, Motala, Mjölby, Kinda, Ydre, Åtvidaberg The project team: 8 co-researchers, 2 researchers from the University of Linköping, 1 coordinator/co researcher and a project leader The project is in progress The project is financed by the Research and Development Centre (FoU centrum), the participating municipalities, Centre of strategic municipality studies (CKS), the budget is about euro The board and the reference group from the, participating municipalities, CKS, Nordlandsforskning and the Research and Development Centre Close cooperation with Nordlandsforskning, Norway and the participating municipalities in Norway.

The aim of the study To develope knoweldge about the families with children and young people who have contact with the social service To gain knowledge about how the help and treatment we provide for these families works for them To contribute with knowledge in purpose of develope treatment and methods for social work To develop and try out an interactive model för knowledge exchange between research and pratice

Part one 202 families, with children age 0-18 One intervju/Survey with one parent from each family (80 question) One survey with the responsibel socialworker (20 questions)

Results from part one: High unemploymentfigures (51%) Lower educationlevel Most children live with a single mother (43%),few lived with both of their parents It is more common for a child to be placed in foster home placement or treatment facility then with a single father Most families rent their own apartment

Half of the families did contact social services on their own, the rest was referrals More than half of the parents agree that their children needs help A third of the children do not have god relations to one or both parents 25 % of the children was diagnosed with at psychiatric disorder (ADHD, depression, auitsm…) these children all showed great signs of maladaptment in all other areas The majority of the parents like their role and think that they are handling their children well

The parents state unemployment, depression, conflict in their families and concerns for their children when asked about their stresslevels The children from low income families are more likely to be placed in a foster home/family, the ones with higher income are often home /out of patient treatment There is no correlation between the child's and the parents stress levels The parent with low incomes states higher level of stress, that's the only significant factor

Part Two From the first selection we focus on the 30 families who state the highest stresslevels for themself and their children and conduct interwiews with the parents according to four themes: Growing up, Work, Moving, Family and friends network

Part two interwiews with children, the age of 8-18, according to the four themes: My family, My friends, Leisure time and My school Focus goups with socialworkers

Familypatterns: 1. Parents who themself has experienced neglect or abuse in their childhood 2. Parents where the family conflict leads them to the social service 3. Parents who use to have a drug or alcohol problems 4. Families who experience problem during their children's early teen 5. Families with children who has a disability problem

Wich familys states that they have good experinces from social services? Families that have two parents Families where both the parents or one of them have a job The higher income families Families with children who has a diagnosed disorder Families with teenagers

Which families state that they have negative experinces from social services? Families where the parents lack employment Single mother families Families with low income Families with little or non private network That means families with a complex social situation/problems

Part three Working side by side with the municipalites developing new projects and methods based on our results and the municipalities needs of improvment

Social development projects – a new funding form in Sweden Social investment fund at municipality level (budget surplus) Prevention of future social problems Preventing future costs Careful economic analysis of costs at the individual level Payback model over five years Cross sector initiatives A well defined target group

The development project – design (1) Objective; Develop, test and evaluate a multi agency support model for families with complex social problems. Target group; Families with complex problems e.g. unemployment, school problems, neuropsyciatric diagnosis, health problems, lack of economical and social resources, risk for placement of the children. (30 families in the project over three years). Main actors; Elementary school, social services, family support team, adult educational system/job center, local health system. The actors and the support will be coordinated by a new function – a case manager

The development project – design (2) Support; The support will focus on - The school situation for the children - The every day life for the families - Tailor made support programmes for educational/work for the parents - Better coordination between the different support actors and the families.

Thank you! If you want to contacts us: Mats Ericsson, Manager R & D centre R&D Centre Hanna Leinhard, project coordinator Families in social service