Discretion in social work : A qualitative study on social work with pregnant women with alcohol or substance abuse

The aim of this study was to understand what meaning the discretion of swedish social workers has for how support is given to pregnant women with alcohol or substance abuse. Initially in the work with this study we searched for previous research about social workers professional experiences in contact with pregnant women with alcohol and/or substance abuse. The previous research that we present in this study describe the subject from different point of views such as custodial care, working methods, cooperation and discretion. We also learned the theoretical meaning of discretion. To achieve the aim we also did our own research on how professional social workers work with these women by completing qualitative interviews with seven different social workers with varied professional roles. Our choice of interviewing seven professionals within social work was based on the aim to understand the meaning of their discretion in cases with the defined target group. Based on the answer of our respondents we identified four themes; pregnancy as a motivation factor, impact of the pregnancy on professional work, cooperation and interpretation of laws. We analyzed these themes against previous research, our theoretical take-off and our aim and issues. The main conclusion of our research was that social workers discretion while working with support for substance abusing pregnant women can be defined as wide, and with that comes both advantages and disadvantages. A wide discretion leaves room for individual-based judgements and support, but it also brings high demands for social workers to make fair and valid decisions