User involvement within addiction treatment : A qualitative study of socialworkers perceptions and experiences

User involvement is generally regarded as something positive within social work, and is something social authorities in Sweden (as in many other countries) propagates for. This study aims to highlight social workers perceptions and experiences of user involvement within the specific context addiction treatment. A context where users individual status has proved needed to be strengthened. Five social workers, all working within Swedens national government-funded social service agency, are given a voice on the subject. By using semi-structured interviews, the results show how broad and ambiguous the concept of user involve-ment is, when the respondents is asked to define it. This found is supported by earlier studies results, in which researchers also declare the concept unclear. This studys result includes se-veral examples of what the social workers comprehend the involvement consists of in their daily work. The conditions for user involvement to take place in this study’s specifik practice, shows to be closely associated with factors such as the bureaucratic regime, organizational framework agreements and with assessments of the client in question knows its own good (on the basis that drugs affect the human cognitive system in different ways)