Hellre frihet än formalisering : En kvalitativ studie om kuratorers arbete på ungdomsmottagning medungdomars psykiska ohälsa

Sammanfattning: This qualitative interview-based study has been carried out with five counselors fromdifferent youth centres in Stockholm County. The aim of this study is to investigate theinfluences on counselors’ work and their working conditions when dealing with mental healthproblems. The results show that both internal and external organisational factors play a role ininfluencing their work. Counselors describe their work as involving a broad scope of action,often tailored to the individual and youth centres are low-threshold organisations open to all,irrespective of their needs. Counselors consider external organisational conditions to play themost negative role in their work concerning mental health and in this regard point to both thepsychiatric and the student health services. Pressure and strain within these two services hasled to youth centre counselors taking in young people with more difficult and specialisedmental health problems than they had previously dealt with. Using Lipsky’s theory of “streetlevelbureaucracy,” we discuss how certain solutions to these problems may in turn threatenthe ideal conditions for the youth centre organisation. Solutions such as bureaucraticstandardisation could restrict the extent of counselors’ scope of action and their ability toengage patients on an individual level.