This dissertation is a case study in two parts, which describes how ideas about open-care treatment of youth aged 13-20 years are interpreted and concretized in a local context. The study, i.a., aims at creating deeper knowledge about target group, content of treatment, and reported results concerning a form of treatment in social care which has hitherto been sparsely researched in Sweden. The results of the interview study demonstrate that the driving forces for developing local forms of open care treatments have first and foremost been to offer better care and to improve the professionalism of the social worker. Studies of the social welfare documents of 97 young people reveal that most of these youngsters are in bad need of treatment and that they have experiences of various kinds of treatment before the present efforts. The study also demonstrates that the efforts are rarely evaluated and lack systematic documentation. Finally, the study reveals that more than 60 per cent of the youth get some sort of continuous support by the social welfare system after the open-care treatment has come to an end. The results from both parts of the study are analysed by means of neo- institutional theory. According to this theory the local open-care treatment consists of an indistinct target group, family-oriented methods, and activities that have been legitimised by strong proponents, good timing, professional development, and by representing important political values.

In conclusion, the author argues that open care treatment shows signs of a beginning institutionalisation, a taken-for-granted-ness, which he thinks is risky, as we still do not know if open-care treatment is more favourable to the young people than different kinds of 24-hour care. In addition, the author holds, that the future role of the social worker should include knowledge that decreases unfounded taken-for-granted ideas.