ABSTRACT
This chapter explains the work we as social workers have been doing with families since the beginning of the 1980s. In 1982 a new law, called the Social Services Act, came into effect in Sweden. This Act specifies that when working with people, professionals must keep the whole picture in mind. If the parents had problems of their own in the form of economic problems, unemployment, substance abuse, and at the same time had children in day care or school, they could have up to 17 different civil servants and public officials involved in how they conducted their lives. The groups formed at the seminar continued to meet once a month to discuss developments in their residential area and to find quicker ways to help children and families who were having difficulties. The field assistants kept their own supervisors informed. But we were also able to submit joint proposals regarding issues pertinent to Ostberga.
