The future of social service work with substance use (FUSS): clients, trajectories, organisations and collaboration in a changing treatment system

Research questions: The Swedish treatment system for substance use is facing change.

A national commission suggests that the responsibility for providing psychosocial treatment ought to be moved from the social services to healthcare.

Despite consensus in the field about the need for effective interventions and accessibility, we lack up-to-date knowledge about the social services’ and other important actors’ work with people who seek help. The Swedish treatment system appears as a black box.

The programme will answer the following research questions: Who are the clients, what interventions are used, how do these interventions work, what happens over time, and how do different actors collaborate?

Answer to these questions will provide central and usable knowledge about a transitioning field of practice.Data and method: The research is multidisciplinary and targets Stockholm as a case.

Quantitative data is gathered on 1000 clients during a four-year period, and we conduct interviews with service users, providers, and other important actors.

A mixed methods approach is used to identify characteristics among clients and interventions, facilitate understandings of treatment system features, and create practice-relevant developmental projects.Relevance and utilisation: To improve practice, knowledge is crucial about clients’ needs and treatment trajectories, the form and content of interventions, and collaboration (social services, healthcare, correctional services, compulsory treatment, civil society etc.).

The programme targets many aspects that are of key importance in the field, such as user influence, coherent treatment trajectories, improvement, accessibility, complex problems and service monitoring.

It contributes to developmental work through continous co-production with practice.Plan for programme realisation: The programme has been planned in collaboration with scholars, social services, healthcare, authorities, organisations and user groups, in order to produce practice-relevant research that can develop the treatment system.

A reference group with representatives from these stakeholders has been appointed to follow the execution of the programme. The funding will cover salaries, data collection, collaboration and results dissemination.

It will be conducted through research duties and through recurrent workshops where new research problems are developed, and where findings are interpreted and disseminated in collaboration with social work practice.