Social workers' opportunities to work with safer sex

• Published in: European journal of social work Vol. 22; no. 1; pp. 82 - 94
• Main Authors: Hall, Ida Elisabet, Plantin, Lars, Holmström, Charlotta
• Format: Journal Article
• Language: English
• Published: Oxford Routledge 02.01.2019; Taylor & Francis Ltd
• Subjects: Adolescents; At risk populations; Möjligheter; Opportunities; Organization theory; Outreach programs; personal; personnel; Polls & surveys; Response rates; Safe sexual practices; safer sex; sexualitet; sexuality; social work; Social workers; socialt arbete; säkrare sex; Workplaces; Young adults
• DOI: 10.1080/13691457.2017.1357019
• ISSN: 1369-1457; 1468-2664

The purpose of this study is to increase knowledge about social workers' opportunities to work with safer sex among at-risk adolescents and young adults. To investigate this issue, a survey has been sent to outreach work and non-institutional offices whose work focuses on alcohol and drugs to some extent. The survey was sent to 89 workplaces distributed throughout 33 municipalities in the region of Skåne in southern Sweden. Altogether 229 responses were collected, a response rate of 60.1%. The study shows that social workers have limited opportunities to work with safer sex issues and that the organizational resources to support this work are weak. Michael Lipsky's theory of street-level bureaucrats was applied to the data, with the analysis indicating that knowledge and organizational resources are key to enabling work with safer sex. It is also important that the personnel are interested in the subject and that they feel comfortable working with safer sex. The factors found to have the strongest direct effect on the personnel's work with safer sex are: having the possibility to set aside time to work with safer sex, experiencing that safer sex is discussed at the workplace and being personally interested in the subject.