Hälso- och sjukvårdskuratorn i storstaden - urbanisering, specialisering och komplex samverkan

Abstract

Health social worker as a profession emerged from the urbanization in the early 20th century. Nevertheless, the importance of the urbanization for the profession has not been studied. In this article, we explore how the organizational prerequisites and professional discretion of health social workers is influenced by the urban environment. Individual and focus group interviews collected among health social workers specialised in immigration in habilitation services within the Stockholm Region. Data was analysed using thematic analysis. Four themes were discovered: 1) Social work with urbanisation processes, 2) Globalization and the city, 3) Efficiency and professional discretion, and 4) the Big city's many areas of collaboration. The results indicate that the urban environment can involve both a very limited professional discretion, but also provide conditions for increased professional discretion. This depending on whether steering and formation of assignments and tasks are negotiated on the basis of patients' needs and based on the professions’ own conditions.