Background: Support from staff plays an important role in quality of life for people with intellectual disability. This study focuses on service users' views of Active Support as good support and whether Active Support increases the quality of everyday support in group homes.

Method: Nine service users were interviewed at baseline and at follow-up one year after staff received Active Support training. Thematic analyses were used to develop themes. Results: Three main themes were created: (1) Home is more than just a place, it is a feeling; (2) Good care is caring with accessible communication; and (3) Time is precious. Participants were more satisfied with most of the support at follow-up, particularly choice-making, control in everyday life, relationships, and emotional support.

Conclusions: Active Support corresponds well with service users’ perceptions of good support. In future studies of Active Support service users' voices should be a part of the follow-up.

Socionomers sociala kompetens är viktig i arbetet med arbetslivsinriktad rehabilitering. Det finns dock områden som socionomer kan behöva mer kunskap om i arbetet med personer som befinner sig i sjukskrivning. Detta kapitel behandlar några idéströmningar och begrepp inom fältet och tar avstamp i författarens forskning om den nya yrkesgruppen rehabkoordinatorer och det professionella gränsarbete som pågår mellan rehabkoordinatorer, socionomer och hälso- och sjukvårdskuratorer.

Background:  Active Support is a staff practice that aims to increase engagement of people with intellectual disabilities. This study seeks to: (1) identify the outcomes of staff using Active Support and how these are measured; (2) identify how the views of people with intellectual disabilities have been included in Active Support research.

Method:  A scoping review was conducted of peer-reviewed articles about Active Support published between 2009 and 2023.

Results:  Sixteen articles were identified. Outcomes included engagement, the quality of staff support, choice and challenging behaviour. Structured observations were the most frequently used measurement method. Only two studies explored people with intellectual disabilities' perspectives about Active Support.

Conclusions:  Consistent use of similar measures is a strength of Active Support research. Including perspectives of people with intellectual disabilities may provide insight into dimensions of support not been measured and assist in further developing these measures and Active Support practice.

Background: This study explores how the goals of collaboration in the return-to-work (RTW) process for people with common mental disorders are described by the stakeholders involved, and how they experience stakeholders’ roles and responsibilities in relation to these goals.

Methods: Interviews were conducted with 41 participants from three Swedish regions. Nine of the participants were workers, six employer representatives, four occupational health professionals, four social insurance officers, 18 RTW coordinators and five physicians. Thematic analysis was conducted.

Results: Three main themes and overarching goals when collaborating on RTW were identified. In the first theme, ‘creating an informative environment’, all stakeholders emphasised clear roles and responsibilities. The second theme, ‘striving for consensus in an environment of negotiations’, addressed negotiations about when and how to collaborate, on what and with whom, and reveal different views on stakeholders’ goals, roles and responsibilities in collaboration. The third theme identified goals for ‘creating a supportive environment’ for both workers and other stakeholders. Coordinators are found to have an important role in achieving a supportive environment, and in neutralising power imbalances between workers and their employers and social insurance officers.

Conclusions: Competing goals and priorities were identified as hindering successful collaboration, contributing to a spectrum of complex versus easy RTW collaboration. This study suggests some basic conditions for achieving a collaborative arena that is neutral in terms of power balance, where all stakeholders can share their views.

Return-to-work coordinators (RTWC) support people on sickness absence and is a new healthcare occupation in Sweden. Its practitioners represent a variety of professions, there is no common undergraduate training and vague role and competence descriptions. The aim was to explore differences in training and competence according to original professions (occupational therapists, physiotherapists, counselling, and other professions) and coordinators’ views on which professions they believe provide the best competence for the role. All RTWCs (82) in one region were invited to answer a questionnaire (89% response rate). Mixed-methods analyses were applied. The results showed that counselling professions were more likely than other professional groups to have further training, particularly in conversation methods, and a lower proportion of them stated needing more knowledge about gender equality, social problems, insurance/benefit and conversation methods. The analysis of free-text answers identified three competence areas of importance: advice and guidance, a holistic view, and personality over profession. Occupational therapists and social workers were seen as having the best competence for the coordinating role. The results outline some common values, norms and important competences for RTWCs that could help develop the RTW coordination training and pave the way for RTWCs professionalisation process.

Rehabiliteringskoordinatorer är en ny yrkesroll inom hälso – och sjukvården som stödjer sjukskrivna patienter i rehabiliteringsprocessen. Koordinatorerna saknar dock en tydlig roll – och kompetensbeskrivning, och det faktum att yrkesrollen saknar en gemensam yrkesutbildning och innehas och utvecklas av olika professioner gör den unik. Syftet med studien var att undersöka skillnader i kompetens baserat på rehabiliteringskoordinatorers olika grundprofessioner, samt vilka professioner de menade hade bäst kompetens för att arbeta som rehabiliteringskoordinator. Alla rehabiliteringskoordinatorer i en region bjöds in att svara på en enkät (89% svarsfrekvens). Både kvantitativa och kvalitativa analysmetoder användes. Resultaten visade att kuratorer hade mer vidareutbildning än övriga professioner, särskilt inom samtalsmetoder, och kuratorerna uppgav mindre behov av ytterligare kompetens inom områdena jämställdhet, sociala problem, försäkringar/bidrag och samtalsmetoder. Analysen av fritextsvaren visade att holistisk syn, personlighet framför profession samt rådgivning och vägledning ansågs vara tre viktiga kompetensområden för rehabiliteringskoordinatorer. Arbetsterapeuter och socionomer ansågs ha mest passande kompetens för att arbeta som rehabiliteringskoordinator. Resultaten adresserar några gemensamma grundvärden, normer och viktiga kompetensområden för rehabiliteringskoordinatorer som kan bidra i utvecklingen av utbildning för rehabiliteringskoordinatorer och bana väg för deras professionaliseringsprocess.

Background The COVID-19 pandemic led to vast changes in working life and conditions in which we work. Thesechanges may affect people with multiple sclerosis (PwMS) differently. We aimed to describe the working situation ofPwMS during the COVID-19 pandemic and the pandemic’s impact on their working lives.

Methods All individuals aged 20–50 listed in the Swedish Multiple Sclerosis Registry were invited to participate inan online survey in 2021. Closed and open-ended responses linked to individual-level register data were used in this exploratory mixed-methods study. Differences in the proportions reporting specific impacts were assessed with chisquare tests by sex, MS severity, education, and profession. The open-ended answers were analysed through contentanalysis.

Results Over 8500 PwMS were invited (52% response rate). We included the 3887 respondents who answered questions about the impact of the pandemic on working life. Most (93.7%) reported being in paid work. An impactof the ongoing pandemic to one’s daily occupation was reported by 26.2%, with different characteristics observedacross the impacts. Four categories of type of answers were identified from the open-ended answers: Direct impacton one’s occupation, Disclosing or concealing MS in the workplace, Worry and uncertainty, and Broader impact to lifesituation.

Conclusions PwMS navigated the pandemic by interrupting as well as continuing their working lives. Many PwMSreported that the pandemic did not affect their work situation. However, the reported impacts differed among theparticipants and a sense of uncertainty and worry was often underlying their statements. Lessons from the pandemicmay support future work participation.Keywords SARS-CoV-2, Containment measures, W

Health social work is often described as a blurred profession, as a work area based on an interdisciplinary field of science with an unclear knowledge foundation of its own. This study describes and analyses the knowledge production in Swedish doctoral dissertations in health social work, authored by social workers, from 2008 to 2019, and focuses on the differences between dissertations published by faculties of health and those in the social sciences. Descriptive statistical and content analysis was carried out on the 52 dissertations identified. Dissertations in the health sciences were often about specific patient groups within adult somatic care. They predominantly used mixed methods and psychological and psychosocial theories and models. Dissertations in the social sciences more often concerned adults in psychiatric or addiction care and the organization of social work. A majority used qualitative research methods, organization and profession theories, as well as interactionist and critical theories. The differences are discussed as being associated with different research ideals and traditions in the scientific disciplines. The findings raise questions about the core components of health social work and how a knowledge foundation and its development can enhance the professional development of social workers and their contribution to healthcare and patients.

Purpose: Return-to-work coordinators (RTWCs) give people on sick leave individualized support and coordinate between different stakeholders, including physicians.  The aim of this study was to explore physicians’ experience of RTWCs and investigate factors that influence how much physicians collaborate with RTWCs, or refer patients to them, in primary, orthopaedic, and psychiatric care clinics.

Materials and methods: Of the 1229 physicians responding to a questionnaire, 629 physicians who had access to a RTWC in their clinic answered to questions about collaborating with RTWCs.

Results: Among physicians who had access to a RTWC, 29.0% collaborated with a RTWC at least once a week. Physicians with a more favourable experience of RtWcs reported more frequent collaboration (adjusted OR 2.92, 95% CI 2.06–4.15). Physicians also collaborated more often with RTWCs if they reported to often deal with problematic sick-leave cases, patients with multiple diagnoses affecting work ability, and conflicts with patients over sickness certification.

Conclusions: Physicians who had more problematic sick-leave cases to handle and a favourable experience of RTWCs, also reported collaborating more often with RTWCs. The results indicate that RTWCs’ facilitation of contacts with RtW stakeholders and improvements in the sickness certification process may be of importance for physicians.

PURPOSE: In recent decades, many countries have implemented return-to-work coordinators to combat high rates of sickness absence and insufficient collaboration in the return-to-work process. The coordinators should improve communication and collaboration between stakeholders in the return-to-work process for people on sickness absence. How they perform their daily work remains unexplored, and we know little about to what extent they collaborate and perform other work tasks to support people on sickness absence. This study examines which work models return-to-work coordinators use in primary healthcare, psychiatry and orthopaedics in Sweden. METHODS: A questionnaire was sent to all 82 coordinators in one region (89% response rate) with questions about the selection of patients, individual patient support, healthcare collaboration, and external collaboration. Random forest classification analysis was used to identify the models. RESULTS: Three work models were identified. In model A, coordinators were more likely to select certain groups of patients, spend more time in telephone than in face-to-face meetings, and collaborate fairly much. In Model B there was less patient selection and much collaboration and face-to-face meetings. Model C involved little patient selection, much telephone contact and very little collaboration. Model A was more common in primary healthcare, model C in orthopaedics, while model B was distributed equally between primary healthcare and psychiatry. CONCLUSION: The work models correspond differently to the coordinator's assignments of supporting patients and collaborating with healthcare and other stakeholders. The differences lie in how much they actively select patients, how much they collaborate, and with whom. Their different distribution across clinical contexts indicates that organisational demands influence how work models evolve in practice.