Background: Having a chronic disease such as multiple sclerosis (MS) may pose challenges for affected individuals in their work life. Given its progressive nature and wide range of symptoms, living with MS requires ongoing adaptation. In addition to work accommodations and support, individuals may develop their own strategies to manage their condition at work.

Objectives: To explore experiences of people with MS (PwMS) in managing MS in the workplace, focusing on strategies they employ to facilitate their work livesand challenges they navigate.

Methods: Semi-structured individual interviews were held with 16 working PwMS in Sweden. Interviews were analyzed using reflexive thematic analysis. 

Results: Three main themes were identified that highlight strategies for managing MS. The theme “Adapting to MS”, included statements on how self-reflection led to strategies more aligned with health needs and understanding the best practices and pitfalls of managing a chronic disease. “Taking responsibility int he workplace” described the participants’ commitment to protect their health at work, and efforts made to create an environment more conducive to MS, and last, “Approaching sustainability” included reports on making sustainable choices in relation to work life.

Conclusion: This study provides insights into the experiences of those living and working with MS. The results demonstrate the active agency in managing their condition. PwMS employed various strategies; concentrating on adapting to MS mentally and practically, taking an active stance for their health, and making choices based not only on their current health status but also on potential future circumstances.

This article directs attention to theory in academic writing. The empirical material analysed consists of 52 Swedish doctoral dissertations on social work in healthcare, published between 2008 and 2019. The aim of the study is to describe and suggest a framework for analysing the use of theories in research work. The results suggest that the field is characterised by an intersection of sciences, mirrored by two overarching ways of understanding theory. One approach, less frequently drawn upon, is analysed as influenced by the health sciences, understanding theory as a means of predicting outcomes by using different variables, without defining them within a broader theoretical framework. Theorising is here analysed as the enabling of predicting outcomes, by generalisations. The more common approach to theory is analysed as influenced by the social sciences, understanding theory as a way of understanding society and social relations, explicitly defining and referencing the concepts used. Within this second approach, theorising is done differently and, drawing on Wolcott´s descriptions of ways of doing analysis in ethnography, we propose three ways of understanding this theorising, conceptualised as Description, Analyses and Interpretation. In the article we outline how different understandings of theory and theorising allow for different kinds of knowledge to be gained. The framework presented can be useful for students and researchers when planning research and writing academic texts, clarifying different ways of understanding theory and the potential use of variables and theoretical concepts: from aim, to analysis and implications.

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.

Introduction: Having a chronic disease such as multiple sclerosis (MS) may pose challenges for affected individuals in their working life. Given its progressive nature and wide range of symptoms, living with MS requires ongoing adaptation, adding an extra layer of complexity in balancing professional responsibilities. In addition to work accommodations and support, individuals may develop their own strategies to manage their condition at work.

Objectives/Aims: To explore the experiences of people with MS (PwMS) in managing MS in the workplace, focusing on the strategies they employ to facilitate their work lives and the challenges they navigate.

Methods: Semi-structured individual interviews were held with 16 working PwMS in Sweden. Interviews were analysed using reflexive thematic analysis.

Results: Three main themes were identified that highlight strategies for managing MS. The first theme, ‘Adapting to MS’, included statements on how critical self-reflection led to strategies more aligned with health needs and understanding the best practices and pitfalls of managing a chronic disease. The second, ‘Taking responsibility in the workplace’, described the participants’ commitment to protecting their health at work, and the efforts made to create an environment more conducive to their condition. Finally, ‘Approaching sustainability’ included reports on making sustainable choices in relation to their work life, both in the short and long term.

Conclusion: This study provides insights into the experiences of those living and working with MS. The results demonstrate the active agency in managing their condition. The PwMS employed various strategies, concentrating on adapting to MS mentally and practically, taking an active stance for their health, and making choices based not only on their current health status but also on potential future circumstances.

Disclosure of interest: JD has previously been partly funded by unrestricted research grants from Biogen and Celgene/BMS. AM has previously been partly funded by unrestricted research grants from Biogen and Celgene/BMS. KAM has received speaker honoraria from Biogen and Sanofi-Aventis. EF has previously been partly funded by an unrestricted research grant from Biogen, and has received unrestricted research grants from Celgene as well as speaker fees from Merck and Sanofi. AWL: nothing to disclose. VS: nothing to disclose. 

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: This study investigates factors associated with receiving return-to-work (RTW) coordination within primary healthcare and the association between received RTW coordination and the amount of sickness absence (SA) days.

Methods: This register study included 13019 people who had SA at some time between March 2019 and February 2020 and visited a primary healthcare clinic that employed a RTW coordinator. Logistic regressions were used to investigate received RTW coordination. Negative binomial regressions were used to analyse the amount of SA days in the ten-month follow-up period.

Results: Associations were found between receiving RTW coordination and being a woman, being 30–49 years old, and having higher educational attainment, more healthcare contacts, more SA days, and a musculoskeletal or mental diagnosis. In the following ten-month period, mean SA were 71.3 days among people receiving RTW coordination and 76.1 days for those who had not. However, the adjusted analyses did not show association between RTW coordination in primary healthcare and the amount of SA days in the following ten-month period.

Conclusion: RTW coordination seems to be directed towards some groups of people with a higher risk of long-term SA, but not all, which raises the question of whether or not more people on SA would have benefited from RTW coordination as well. This would likely mean that more finely calibrated ways of identifying people at risk of long-term SA are needed. The reduction in SA days for those who had received RTW coordination needs to be confirmed in further studies.

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.