Behaviour towards and treatment of children and adolescents diagnosed with ADHD : In residential care

Title: Behaviour towards and treatment of children and adolescents diagnosed with ADHD: In residential care. This bachelor thesis studies the tension between an institution focused on a form of residential care of children and adolescents, which is called HVB- home and the opportunity to individualize the treatment and behaviour towards the child or adolescent. The study has especially targeted children and adolescents with Attention Deficit/Hyperactivity Disorder (ADHD) living in HVB- homes in Sweden. The thesis has a qualitative study design and uses semi structured interviews. Six employees from HVB- homes working directly with the children answered questions and spoke freely to the authors of the study. Five themes were used to analyse the results. The authors explain the results with Michel Foucault power theories and Erving Goffman's "On the Characteristics of Total Institutions". It was found that the education level of the employees affected the care, treatment and behaviour towards children with ADHD. A majority of the interviewees lack a college degree. Employees with lower formal education expressed those colleagues with informal competence were prone to easier fit in the HVB- home environment. Most of the interviewees expressed frustration over Swedish laws, guidelines and rules which only allow treatment of socially unacceptable behaviour and prohibit care and treatment of diagnoses like ADHD. The majority of the interviewees favoured what's best for the group instead of adapting treatment and behaviour towards the individual.