A dignified life : A study of social workers interpretation and application of LVM from an age perspective.

The aim of the study has been to investigate if age is impacting the social workers interpretationand application of the Swedish compulsory care legislation for people with substance abuse, Lag(1988:870) om vård av missbrukare i vissa fall [LVM]. This with a specific focus on the elderly,thus clients over 65 years. Moreover it aims to examine whether the Swedish legal principles ofequality and objectivity are complied with in the practice of social work. The study is based oneight qualitative semi-structured interviews with eight social workers, at the time working withhandling of such matters. The theories used in the analysis are social constructivism with theunderlying concepts of age-coding and client construction, as well as ageism. The findings of thestudy show, despite the fact that the social workers clarifies that all people are covered by theLVM-legislation, that younger client groups are given higher priority than the older whenallocating resources based on the law. The reasons were found to be several, but were, amongother things, attributed to the fact that rehabilitation opportunities were seen less for the elderly,that the social indication of the law was seen as more applicable on a young’s life circumstances,as well as ethical doubts about the use of compulsory care occurred to a greater extent regardingthe elderly. The social worker’s interpretations and applications of the law were seen to beinfluenced by social age-constructions that exist in Swedish society. Constructions which, if theyare not noticed and questioned, can imply discriminatory practices towards the elderly, and thusageism-effects.