Mobila Socialarbetare – Vilka arbetsmoment kan stödjas av mobil IT?

Abstract

In our day and age, most places of work have become increasingly computerised in order to make task-performance more efficient. Within social work, however, where focus is on human interaction and communication, computerised task-performance efficiency is difficult. In addition, high demands on documentation and confidentiality respectively increase the computerised workload. Consequently, situations where relationship building and human interaction are crucial are easily neglected. This thesis describes the process of developing a handheld computer aid for mobile social workers in their fieldwork. Three different organisations where social work is conducted were observed by means of ethnographical field studies in order to better understand work organisation and tasks. To obtain design implications for a user-friendly handheld computer-aid, the observations were subsequently structured and analysed. Design, implementation and evaluation were performed for one of the studied social work organisations and are presented herein. The main objective with this thesis is to see whether social workers can benefit from mobile information technology (IT) in their fieldwork, i.e. mobile social work. This study shows that whereas certain aspects most definitely can be supported by IT, thus increasing efficiency, other aspects that involve relationship building and self-development respectively, are more difficult to support. Although a handheld computer-aid may be a helpful tool in optimizing conditions necessary between social worker and client for “the meaningful conversation”, a face-to-face dialogue still remains the ultimate tool in social work.