Autism inom frivården - En kvalitativ studie om frivårdsinspektörers tillvägagångssätt

Autism spectrum disorder (ASD) is a neuropsychiatric condition containing a large spectrum of developmental disorders. The diagnosed condition is increasing among people today. With this in mind, there is also a growing need for competence and experience with services and organizations providing care for this target group. The aim of this study was therefore to examine what competence and experiences that probation inspectors have, concerning adult clients with autism spectrum disorder in the probation,- and supervision service. The main focus of this study was more specifically to survey what Tools, education and experiences probation inspectors’ have, which can facilitate their contacts and counselling of adult clients with ASD. The study has a qualitative approach to create an in-depth view of these factors. The field study is based on interviews with seven probation inspectors, representing different probation, - and supervision offices in Sweden. All of the interviews were done seperately except one. Two of the interviews were done in person and the remaining four over the phone, where one of the interviews over the phone had two probation inspectors simultaneously. From the result of the study, three main themes were coded: education, tools and diagnosis. In order to test these findings, a salutogenesis analysis was made. The study showed that even though probation inspectors have a considerable amount of tools, knowledge and experience regarding clients with ASD, still more is needed. To further research this area and reach a more comprehensive conclusion, one needs to look towards studying the co-operation of the different social organization services. This could in turn, help in mapping what knowledge and experience the social service organizations have for handling this target group