”Att kunna säga att det här är min expertis. Jag kan detta. Det här kan inte ni.” - En kvalitativ intervjustudie med kuratorer och övrig vårdpersonal på LARO-mottagningar om deras uppfattningar av kuratorns roll och det kurativa arbetet.

Sammanfattning: The purpose of the study is to study the self-image of OST (opioid substitution therapy) -counselor’s and perception of their work in relation to how the healthcare professionals perceives the counselor’s role, in order to contribute to increased understanding of possible knowledge gaps and difficulties which may limit the counselors ability to perform her job or hence the use of her competence to the fullest within the treatment program. The study is based on a qualitative approach as I have collected data through eight semi-structured interviews with both counselor’s and other healthcare professionals from four different drug-assisted opioid treatment clinics in Skåne. The results reveals that there is ambiguity in whether the counselors and the healthcare professionals perceive her role as clear or not as the counselor’s areas of responsibility are described as broad and varied and since her work often borders the healthcare professionals duties and vice versa. Based on the empirical evidence, it appears that there are two parallel professional perceptions as the OST curator's flexible role and the loose framework for the curative work are both perceived as a strength but also a weakness. The counselor’s flexibility and high level of accessibility were considered to strengthen the interprofessional team collaboration and to generate better treatment results. At the same time, it was clear that the counselor’s flexibility and high degree of accessibility entail difficulties for the other healthcare professionals in defining the counselor’s areas of responsibility and describing what the counselor’s actual jurisdictional work includes. The results also describes the challenges the counselor encounters as a sole profession in a medical context and that the loose framework places high demands on the individual counselor to be able to delimit herself in relation to how much she can step out of her role and to constantly remind herself of the psychosocial, legal and social perspective.