Var går gränsen och vem får bestämma vad? : En studie om hemtjänstpersonals tolkning och hantering av situationer med och kring omsorgstagares alkoholbruk.

Sammanfattning: The purpose of this study is to increase the understanding for how home care services interpret and handle situations with and around caretakers alcohol use. Interviews have been conducted with two managers and six basic staff in two different home care service-groups. The interviews were individual with the managers and in group form with the staff. The interviews have been analyzed using Hasenfeld’s theory on Human Service Organizations and moral practice together with Beronius’ interpretation of disciplinary exercise of power. Our result showed that the handling of caretakers alcohol use differed both within and between the home care service-groups and there was a lack of guidelines on how to deal with this. Consequently it seemed to be a lot of individual assessments carried out by the staff, which sometimes led to a moral practice. Another important result was the fact that the interviewees quickly became very fixed on abuse and addiction, even though the interviews had focus on alcohol use in general. It is obvious that when a substance abuse problem exists, difficulties arise in home care services work.