Nya perspektiv men inarbetad praxis en studie av utvecklingsstördas delaktighet och självbestämmande

Sammanfattning: Using the SFU project as a starting point, this study explores the conditions for increased participation and self-determination for people with developmental disabilities who live in group homes. The study was carried out in one municipality in a sparsely populated area in northern Sweden. Two qualitative methods were combined. Eight of the staff and three relatives were interviewed and fieldwork was performed in a group home for people with developmental disabilities before and after the project. The fieldwork provided a view of the everyday meetings and the social interaction in the given context and even provided knowledge of the possibilities for the service users to participate thereby increasing their self-determination. The interviews were intended to uncover deeper answers to the following research questions: What does participation and self-determination mean for the staff and the relatives of the service user? How does the municipality work to realize these goals and how do they succeed? Is there any opposition to work towards realizing these goals? If there are, what are the most important? The predominant impression was that the staff was very insecure about the content of the concepts participation and self-determination and the importance for the service user to exercise these possibilities. After the project was finished, some respondents noted that they had started a "user council" in one of the group homes. Another change was that the "climate" at the group home had become more open after all of the staff had received education, the main intervention in the project. A paradox was that the informants meant that it is important that the service user is allowed to participate and exercise selfdetermination; however, it is the staff who mainly make the decisions and the staff believed that they respected the users more. In addition, the staff are afraid the service user will begin to have too much control if they are allowed to decide about some questions and the staff believed that the service users do not participate and make decisions because a lack of self-confidence. The most important obstructions that inhibited self-determination were the character of the organization, the social situation, and the communication. Obstructions included the organization's lack of management and support and disruption about the needs of a plan and a structure of the work. There was a strong collective praxis in the organisation that work should avoid routines and that the routines are difficult to change because they provide safety. This could be one of the reasons that the education, which was the main intervention of the project, did not provide the impact that was intended. The goal of the project was to increase the service users' possibilities to practice self-determination and to encourage them to demand more complicated challenges than offered by the education. One way to reach the goals can be to encourage cooperation with the relatives and support and raise the enthusiasm for several of the staffto develop ways to work so they take care of and respect the choices that the service users make. When this happens, the service user will experience more self-determination and independence.