The power to choose clients : A study about the imbalance of power regarding the collaboration around children with mental illness from the perspective of school counsellors and social service workers

The purpose of this study was to examine the school counsellors and social service workers experience of how the child psychiatry manage their authority in the collaboration concerning children with mental health problems. The study was conducted using qualitative interviews with school counsellors, social service workers and one former employee of the Swedish child psychiatric care. Our results are divided into two themes: Collaboration and distribution of responsibility and Children who fall between the cracks. Examples of groups of children who according to our study are at risk of falling between the cracks are those who apart from mental issues have substance abuse issues or social issues, those whose parents are in a child custody dispute, children who are acting out and children with self-harm issues. The study also reveals that it's easier for children whose parents are active and knowledgeable to get help from the child psychiatric care and that it's a requirement for both parents and children to be highly motivated.There are established social hierarchs between agencies who partake in collaboration regarding children with mental illness. The child psychiatry have a higher status than the social services and the school and therefore greater power to steer the collaboration in a way that benefits the organisations own interests. The structure of the Swedish child psychiatric care is founded in a way that benefits the sorting of clients through the requirement of diagnoses and the will to sort out the psychic problems from the social.Our conclusions with the study is the way that children with mental illness are categorized and where the child is referred is mainly because of a broad conception that Abbott (1981) could describe where the mental issues are considered as "pure" and the social issues are considered "impure"