Frida Berglund och Anna Karlsson - Regionförbundet Uppsala län

Abstract
The intention of this study is to contribute to quality enhancement regarding needs
assessment and shaping of decisions of the social service called living support (i.e.
boendestöd) according to the law of social service. The aim of this study is to review
the process of needs assessment concerning living support. Based on this review we
want to give suggestions to possible improvements. Our suggestions must be
compatible with demands and requirements from the lawmaker, the individual, the
social service/the municipality and the process officer. Today, decision of living
support is time limited, usually to a year, without the individual actually having
applied for it. This leads to a lack of legal security, personal security and continuity
for the individual. In this study, we have tried to locate the reasons for why the
decisions are constructed in this way by using a hermeneutical method.
Our study shows no support for perfunctory time limiting of decisions according to
the law. In some cases where there can be forecasted that the need changes over time,
it can though be motivated. The target group for living support often have prolonged
impairments and needs of support highly estimated to last more than a year.
According to municipal guidelines, reviewed by us, living support is an inset to be
time limited. The process officers we have asked in 80 per cent of all cases time limits
the decisions up to one year. The main reason for this is that the process officers
regard time limiting as making follow-ups of the decisions easier.
The result of our study points to a number of measures for increasing the quality of
needs assessment and decisions of living support. These measures have implications
for the municipality, the social services and the process officers with the purpose of
creating a more legally secure and evidence based process of needs assessment.
Key words: time limited decisions, living support, process of needs assessment,
forming of decision, rule of law, social psychiatry
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