Seamless and consistent counselling and guidance for older people in Western Uusimaa

Advice and customer guidance for older people form a service entity that enables residents to obtain information on any questions they may have and seek services. We want to harmonise, clarify and improve these services in the future wellbeing services county.  

“Our objective is to have competent counselling and guidance available to all local residents to support good old age and living at home. To this end, we are going to build clear and consistent channels for contacting professionals and seeking services,” says Project Manager Teemu Tupala. 

This means, for example, that advice, support and assistance will in the future be centralised in one place in contrast to the current situation, where municipalities in Western Uusimaa have several different helpline numbers for older people. We also want to enable various forms of communication. 

In wellbeing services county counselling, clients’ calls will be answered by social welfare and health care professionals. In the advisory service that will start next year, we will offer advice to older people and their family members and loved ones and seek solutions to everyday issues together with customers. This will promote the wellbeing of older people and their ability to cope at home.  

Consider the following example: An elderly person with issues with physical activity calls the service. An expert in the advisory service listens to the caller’s concerns and maps their situation, possible underlying issues and various solutions. Suitable solutions may include e.g. aids or assistance from their close social network. If the professional and the customer jointly find that the problem cannot be resolved in this way, the counselling service professional may direct the client to service needs assessment immediately on the basis of initial contact. From there, they are directed to public services, if the conditions are met. 

“Service needs assessments will be conducted close to the customer. Our customer advisors make home visits and determine the customer's functional capacity and life situation from many perspectives. The aim is to find out what kind of support and assistance the customer needs to cope with everyday life,” Tupala clarifies. 

At present, different practices are used in assessing service needs in different municipalities. We want to harmonise the service needs assessment process so that all elderly people in the Western Uusimaa Wellbeing Services County receive equal services when the wellbeing area starts operating at the beginning of 2023.  

“Western Uusimaa municipalities have for a long time been involved in developing counselling services and customer counselling services for older people. The objective is to utilise the best practices and experiences in the region from elsewhere in Finland and create the best possible model for the wellbeing services county,” says Teemu Tupala. 

As of 2023, the Western Uusimaa Wellbeing Services County will be in charge of providing social welfare and health services, rescue services and curator and psychologist services for student welfare.