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This article reports on research on the intervention "contact family", which is used in Swedish social services to help mostly single mothers -with a sparse social network that lacks the ability to provide support -to get relief. 18 client families, their contact families and social workers have been interviewed. The main purpose was to investigate notions (or mental images) of "the family" among these three parties. Which are their notions of a normal, ordinary, and even an ideal family? Such mental images or notions may play a major role when families who are subjected to interventions by social services evaluate themselves or are judged as constituting functioning or malfunctioning systems. The interaction and influence of these notions on shaping the "contact family" intervention were investigated.

I sitt dagliga arbete dokumenterar socialarbetarna inom socialtjänsten en mängd uppgifter om sina klienter och om den hjälp som förmedlas. Dessa data borde vid sidan av intervjuer med klienter och socialarbetare vara viktiga som informationskälla när man som forskare vill studera vad som varit verksamt och vilka effekter förmedlad hjälp haft. I denna artikel diskuterar vi bland annat utifrån erfarenhet från en nyligen genomförd studie svårigheter (men också möjligheter) med aktstudier.

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