HS analysis Earlier age groups looked past the painful feelings, but young people are pushing for a mental welfare state in Finland

When HS’s the regional election exam of political youth organizations asked whether a therapy guarantee should be implemented in Finland, everyone’s hands went up.

Read more: “Not cuddles but money, thank you” – Leaders of political youth organizations send greetings to government to tackle mental health problems

The youth of all parliamentary parties are therefore in favor of Finland having the right to access mental health services from health care in practice, if they are needed.

This is not the case now: lack of resources can, at worst, offer compassion and a ‘package of benzos’, as one young person In an interview with HS, the matter was raised.

Read more: The help for those who attempted suicide was a “package of benzos” with which the young person tried to kill himself again – this is what the mental health crisis looks like in the eyes of young people

Because political youth will soon become hard-working, the level of services is expected to change – there is such a broad consensus on that. In HS’s youth exam on Thursday, parties were quite different on whether spending should be cut sharply (Coalition Party) or wealth taxed (Left Alliance), but there were mainly differences in tone in terms of mental health.

Even the necessary billion-dollar cuts spoke to the Coalition Matias Pajula demanded a “therapy guarantee now”. Prime Minister’s Party SDP Pinja Perholehto noted that the problems had not been addressed early enough, but argued that the government had nevertheless given the money in supplementary budgets. Downtown Hanna Markkanen and basic Finns Miko Bergbom require support for signs of problems already for children and problem families.

Green youth Brigita Krasniqi it seemed to sum up the ideas of the whole line when the presidents were asked to send greetings to the Prime Minister Sanna Marinin (sd) to the government.

“Sanna is so good that thank you, not money, but money,” Krasniqi said.

“Speeches are not enough,” said Markkanen of the Center for Finance.

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The rise of mental health to the center of the political agenda has been rapid.

Mental health the rise to the center of the political agenda has been rapid, and has only really finally taken place in recent years.

This is surprising, as anxiety and mental health problems are not really new in Finland. In the past, there was a lot of talk about suicides, for example. Treatment for depression has since improved and fortunately the number of suicides has decreased. So the problems have been known, but less has been said about them – until we have been deep.

This is also reflected in what the Finnish welfare state looks like. It provides excellent specialist care, affordable basic services, and thin or non-existent basic mental health services.

Past generations have taken care of what they have been able to talk about.

Now it seems that young people are breaking this pattern. Young Finns do not want to suffer alone. In the HS exam, Pajula of the Coalition Youth spoke about the ongoing “change in the culture of conversation” – that people are talking more openly about their feelings.

It is a bit of a social change like the Equal Marriage Act in the 2010s: when the former taboo breaks, the change is ultimately rapid. After change, mental health is no longer a thing to talk about in a crisis. It’s a constantly present condition that can be monitored and treated – a bit like blood pressure.

If the welfare state wants to retain its legitimacy in the eyes of young people, it will be difficult for policymakers to ignore such a demand for better consideration of mental health.

Like in politics often, it is mainly a question of where the limit is drawn in terms of resources and services available. Now the therapy guarantee has been provided by individual prosperous municipalities, such as Helsinki, which forms its own welfare area, where the warranty is due next year.

There is also much more to the promises of the parties: Christian youth Annika Lyytikäinen for example, the panel suggested mental health checks for young people alongside school health checks. The demand for such services is high and they also come at a price.

If other new areas of well-being are investing in mental health, will they have to reduce the number of care for the elderly or the number of health centers, for example? Or are young people prepared to tighten taxes to improve mental health care?

There was no consensus among young people in the HS exam either. Left Liban Sheikh talked about wealth tax refunds and “social investment”. Bergbom, a basic Finn, wanted to shift the focus from helping Finns to “mental health problems”. Rkp: n Frida Sigfrids raised the issue of the comprehensive social security reform and the move to Liikike Nytin Joel Kettula sought a solution to the equation of changing activity to “proactive”.

Even price tags exists. The Joint Mental Health Pool of 34 non-governmental organizations, which promotes the therapy guarantee as a citizens’ initiative, has reduced the price of its own guarantee version to approximately EUR 35 million per year. The proposal would speed up access to, for example, short-term therapy, but would not cover, for example, new inspections or other services.

The government has responded to the need for an extended care guarantee with the proposal, which went for a round of opinions in November. It would also shorten the time limit for access to treatment to a week for mental illnesses. In the opinion of the mental health pool however, the proposal is incomplete as it does not cover the actual therapy.

Thing so it is progressing, but at least the mental revolution cannot yet be talked about.

When you listened to the HS panel, this is hardly enough for the rising generation. However, they still have a lot of work to do in how they ultimately intend to put the mental welfare state into practice.