Two Worlds

I spent last weekend at Diaconia University's seminar 'MENTAL HEALTH AND WELLBEING – FOCUS ON HOMELESS AND UNDERPRIVILEGED POPULATIONS'. I don't think I heard anything really surprising during the lectures, but I learned some interesting facts about the two really different worlds that exists side by side. The one we live our everyday life with a lot of privileges we mostly take for granted. But there's also another world right besides us and among us. A world filled with people with no money, no jobs, no social safety net, no place to live, no necessary documents, nothing. And it's easy to think those people are all substance abusers but that's not nearly always the case. Sakari Kainulainen defines poverty to be not only lack of money, but also lack of interaction, possibilities to act and knowledge on services. And even though we have an exemplary(-ish) welfare state with all the services and actions and early interventions, we still manage to leave about 20 % of population to the marginal. And it turns out that the worst enemy of a happy human being is loneliness.

From where we stand it still seems like all the poor or excluded people are alcoholics or drug abusers. But in fact, according to Sakari Kainulainen, only about one third of the people who often feels themselves lonely use alcohol or drugs to make the feelings go away. On the other hand, most of the lonely people don't live on the street and the people living on the street might be the ones we notice. And when one is lonely and also don't have a place to spend the nights I don't wonder they become an addicts. I have never spend a night outside in the winter (except for camping) but I bet it gets easier if you're drunk.

Then from a slightly different subject; during the weekend I had the chance to visit Helsinki Deaconess Institute's Lehmustupa, which provides round-the-clock supported housing mainly for people with substance abuse, mental health problems and difficulties in social relationships. They operate under the 'Housing First' principle, where housing is viewed as a basic right. That means that the residents don't have to solve their other problems first, so they can for example live there while still doing drugs. This was an eye opening experience that every adolescent or young adult recreational drug user should visit.

These thought were mostly inspired by a lecture of Sakari Kainulainen at Diaconia University of Applied Scienses on April 23.

Who am I?

Author: Jarno Saarinen
Age: 34
Institution: Diaconia University of Applied Sciences
Field of Study: Social Services
Level of Study: Master's Program
Place of Study: Helsinki
Country: Finland