‘Sometimes it’s really complicated!’ – clients with complex needs on their encounters with specialised personal social service organisations in Sweden

Abstract

Research in the field of human services has paid limited attention to the consequences of the international development toward organisational specialisation; the consequences for clients have been overlooked in particular. The aim of the article is to describe and analyse the consequences of organizationally specialised personal social services (PSS) in Sweden for clients with complex needs. Findings from a survey and an interview study addressing PSS clients show that clients primarily perceived their encounters with the specialised PSS negatively, and that they experienced several elements of service fragmentation. Implications of the findings are discussed in light of previous research and theory in the area.

Keywords:

• Personal social services
• client perspective
• specialisation
• service fragmentation
• service integration