Diakonens roll - Att arbeta med existentiell hälsa ur ett diakonalt perspektiv

Deacons within the Church of Sweden are in modern days representants from the Christian practise but also a significant partner to face existential needs within the Swedish welfare system. The aim of this thesis was therefore to analyze how deacons within The Church of Sweden view and resonate about their role in meeting possibilities and difficulties when facing existential needs in their form of social work. The study was done with a qualitative method in which semi-structured interviews were conducted with seven deacons and one deacon assistant. To analyze the material, Anthony Giddens theory about modernity was applied to illustrate how the structure of society have impact on the modern human.The main conclusion from this study indicates a parallel view on how the deacons perceive both opportunities and difficulties when facing existential needs. In one way the deacons highlight their possibilities to create more personal relations to people due to the flexibility deaconal work is based on, unlike professionals within the public welfare. The deacons also believed that their own beliefs were important to convey trust in today's society. But at the same time the deacons experienced difficulties to show their availability for a bigger group of people and professionals.