Children Helsinki set up its own unit for children with mental disorders: “When a child comes here, they have already tried whatever”

The city opened a place in Pasila that supports young children with anxiety and ADHD, for example.

This the time of the world is shown in some children in Helsinki as fear, sleepless nights and crying. Going to school or even going out may seem overwhelming.

Or the bad feeling erupts as behavioral disturbances, rage, and violent outbursts of emotion.

There have always been all of these symptoms, but there has been too little help for children and their families for years. Now the situation is changing.

There is a new unit in the city of Helsinki on Ratapihantiie in Pasila, which is planned to help about a thousand children a year with psychiatric and neuropsychiatric difficulties. Help can be obtained, for example, for mental health issues such as anxiety or developmental challenges (e.g. adhd). Officially, the name of the place is Children’s Special Receptions.

Here, in the corridors of a newly partially furnished office, hopes dwell.

Chief Physician Sari Korpirinne in her office.

Mixed psychiatric services for children and young people in the metropolitan area have been severely congested for a long time.

In the case of Helsinki residents under the age of 13, one reason is that the city transferred all child psychiatry requiring special medical care to the Helsinki and Uusimaa Hospital District (Hus) in 2008.

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A situation arose in which some of the children were not taken properly by anyone.

Husin should focus on those who need the most demanding care. Some children do not need the most rigorous help, but still more than a school or counseling psychologist can provide. For children, this has led to unreasonably long waiting times and balloting back and forth.

In 2018, the waiting times were so hopeless that the cities ’own inspection boards ordered politicians to do something about it.

It was decided to take a number of measures, of which the new unit is one of the most significant. Special receptions for children help in intermediate difficulties, which already somewhat hinder a child’s ability to attend school and live a normal life, for example. The unit will not replace any existing service.

Employees the new unit has forty: child psychiatrists, psychologists, nurses, social workers, occupational therapists, speech therapists, neuropsychologists, and pediatric neurologists.

The end of the list is not the most typical combination in such a unit. This means that in addition to children’s mental health, Pasila can help with various neuropsychiatric, developmental difficulties. There are many orders for this in Helsinki.

Another specialty is that the group has been able to be hired quite painlessly, even though there is a nationwide shortage of child psychiatrists, for example.

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“People who really want to develop services and do things in a new way have applied here,” says the chief doctor. Sari Korpirinne.

You can move around in the occupational therapist’s room.

New the unit examines, cares for and rehabilitates. With children, much of this happens in a group or with a family.

The distress of your own child is also heavy for the parent. Ordinary good constitution for working with a child is not enough if the child’s behavior is particularly challenging.

“Special parenting is needed in special difficulties. Parents are often really busy, ”says Korpirinne.

There are a lot of difficult words in his speech, such as interprofessional or networking. In the case of children, for example, they mean that things do not really change if the adults who are important in the child’s life do not work closely together.

At the expert meeting, Sanna Ronkainen (left), Sara Salomon, Maarit Pekari, Sari Korpirinne and Mia Koskinen.

For treatment the new unit is not accessible directly but through a referral from a doctor or by contacting another professional such as a psychologist. However, access to treatment has been made as easy as possible.

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The new unit has already managed to relieve the worst congestion at Hus. Families do not have to think about where the child’s things belong. Hus ’nearest child psychiatry unit is an elevator ride away, and staff are very flexible in which place to take action.

“We’re not just sending elsewhere but thinking about how things could be resolved together,” says the ward nurse Sanna Ronkainen.

A big part of the new unit’s work is also sharing its own expertise with others. Specialists in special clinics consult other professionals in, for example, family centers, counseling centers, health centers and school pupil care.

In basic services, closer to the ordinary everyday life of children, there are still problems, for example, because half of the positions of school doctors in Helsinki are unfilled. On the other hand, Korpirinne says that the expertise and dedication of professionals working in basic services will be reflected in the new unit.

“Often when a child comes here, schools have already tried whatever ways to help the child. We can look for more of them. ”

As a new opening, the unit is sending experienced nurses to schools to think together with the teacher and pupil care about how to support a child’s learning.

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