En studie om de professionellas upplevelser av makt i arbetet med våldsutsatta kvinnor på ett skyddat boende

Sammanfattning: Domestic violence is an increasingly common problem in our society. In 2012 there were 28,400 cases reported of assault against women over 18 and almost half of these women reported having been abused by a loved one. In support of these women there is sheltered accommodation around the country, about half of Sweden's municipalities have a shelter for women and these are conducted both municipal and non-profit. In our study we interviewed staff in one shelter to examine their perceptions of power in the work with the women who live there. To conduct the study we had a group interview where staff had an opportunity to talk together about their work. During the discussion in the group interview, we found the subject “power between the professional and client” interesting and chose to use this topic to analyse. The one on one in depth interviews that followed‏, related to their experiences of power, was our starting point in our final work. The individual interviews involved two staff that participated in the group interview and two staff that did not participate in the group interview. Although one cannot draw general conclusions from our study, we found that all of the professionals still have an insight into how the professionals understand their role on the basis of one aspect of power. All respondents were able to see that one can use power as something positive in the work with the women by using their knowledge they have as professionals. One of the interviewees found it difficult to relate to the word power because she associated the word with something negative. All who participated in the interviews agreed that the power is most obvious in the work when it came to the rules of the house. They did not wish that women would have the impression that the staff were someone who exercised power over them, but instead were there to help them by using their power they have in their professional capacity.