Health and social services struggle to identify clients’ financial distress

The panel emphasised the challenges of health and social services in identifying clients’ financial distress. According to the panellists, the difficulty of identification is affected by short client relationships and large client numbers.

“We do a lot of service needs assessment. Sometimes it may be that the client relationship lasts a very long time before the client dares to mention their financial challenges. Bringing it up is very challenging,” says Thijs Verbrugghe, Service Manager for Employment-promoting Services at the Western Uusimaa Wellbeing Services County. 

Health and social services personnel are also not always able to identify the impact of long-term financial difficulties on mental health symptoms. In addition, long-term mental health problems can worsen the household’s financial situation. The theme of the day strongly reflected the ‘chicken or the egg’ effect; the causal links can go either way.  

The panel discussed the Government’s cuts in social security benefits, which caused great concern about financial distress and a consequent increase in the need for services in Western Uusimaa.

According to the panellists, the client fees for health and social services discriminate between clients and should be harmonised.  Clients should be more clearly informed about the possibilities for payment discounts, so that high client fees do not prevent people from using necessary services. 

“The aim is that, when it comes to health services, people are in an equal position regardless of the wellbeing services county they live in,” says Mia Laiho, Chair of the Regional Government of the wellbeing services county.

The panellists also highlighted the CSO sector as a resource for the health and social services of the wellbeing services county.

“Civil society organisations do much more than just distribute food aid. They provide a community, peer support, language training for immigrants and employment pathways. We have great rehabilitation stories thanks to CSOs,” says Tapio Nieminen, Director of Adult Social Services.  

The audience was interested in what preventive work is in concrete terms. The panellists highlighted healthy lifestyles, affordable alternatives in physical activities, low-threshold assistance, quality education, maternity and child health services, good social relationships, healthy and safe living environments, national policies and legislation.

“Experts by experience and clients’ loved ones should be engaged in the development and planning of health and social services, so that the services genuinely correspond to the needs of various clients groups,” says Markus Myllyniemi, Member of the Regional Government of the Western Uusimaa Wellbeing Services County. 

Finally, the panellists summed up the most useful results of the seminar. Multi-professional cooperation was seen as a necessary way to make services work and to take into account clients with low income or mental health problems. This is why it is a good idea to continue to intensify cooperation between different operators.  

In addition to experts from the wellbeing services county, the panellists included Johanna Laaksonen, Vice President of the Kirkkonummen Seudun mielenterveysyhdistys Kisu ry mental health association, and Anne Alakiuttu, Family Work Coordinator at FinFami Uusimaa.  

The seminar was organised jointly by the Western Uusimaa Wellbeing Services County, the Municipality of Kirkkonummi, the Kirkkonummen Seudun mielenterveysyhdistys Kisu ry mental health association, the Psykosociala förbundet association of mental health experts and the Uusimaa branch of the Finnish Central Association of Families of People with Mental Illness (FinFami).