Hevur heilsufrøðitænastan
legitimitet sum alment tilboð?

Samandráttur úr MA ritgerðini hjá Annemi L. Joensen December 2010.

Summary
The focus of my dissertation is on how Faroese mothers experience the newborn children’s service, which is a public service provided to them after giving birth. The responsibility of the newborn children’s service is divided between medical practitioners and the government organisation Gigni. The main aim of my dissertation is to uncover and explore the experiences mothers have with the public service Gigni provides. Gigni is a part of Nærverkið, and its service was created in conjunction with general health services and other socio-political services which citizens have access to, if needed.

The main aim of the service Gigni provides, is to ensure that children receive the best possible start to their lives and benefit from a safe and healthy environment throughout their child and teenage years. The service places special emphasis on raising awareness and empowering parents in bringing up their children. There is a strong political will to support it, which is evident by the legislation within the child service area.

The empirical data collected for this dissertation has been through questionnaires. 391 mothers, who had given birth between 1st April to 30th September 2008, were asked to participate by answering the questions. I used two different methods to analyse the data. The first method was a frequency analysis and the second was a cross analysis of the questions.

The aim of the dissertation is limited to theoretically analyse Gigni’s legitimacy as a service provider, especially their relationship with mothers. The questionnaire asked if they found the service; 1) accessible and 2) to serve its aim (which is to ensure a safe and healthy environment throughout children’s lives).

The result shows that the majority of mothers believe that the service is accessible, it meets its aim and it does not affect the help received from family members. The mothers on the other hand believe that the service lacks accessibility for fathers, as health visits and other services, all occur while the fathers are at work. The mothers are very content with the various social gatherings, the service provides, especially the mother and child groups.

Beinta í Jákupsstovu was the first to conduct a study of the previous Heilsufrøðiskipanini (now Gigni) in 1993. Noteworthy aspects are; in 1993 Heilsufrøðiskipanin had only existed for 10 years, and, since then the Faroese society has changed. One main aspect of this study is to compare it with the 1993 study, in order to evaluate if the past seventeen years have changed the mothers’ experiences of Gigni.

In comparison to the study conducted in 1993, it shows that the mothers’ experiences of the service today are very similar or have improved to the experiences in 1993. One significant exception is that the mothers feel that social networking is more difficult today than in 1993, as there are less options today than then.

Overall, considering the chosen research method and theories, the data has proven to give valuable insights into the chosen areas of focus.