Thoughts on the seminar presentations

The seminar day's subject was very interesting. Performers were chosen well and they were a pleasure to listen to. Seminar was well organized and despite the fact that my own language skills are not that good, I think I managed to understand the lectures just fine. During the two days we also got an excellent opportunity to network with Norwegian students.


Päivi Rissanen's report on her own work and her own experience as a mental health rehabilitee was very admirable presentation, what perseverance and courage she has! Achievement writing a dissertation is stunning. Research data on the patient's experience is particularly important and, fortunately, it is also on this day is to be used in the development of mental health and substance abuse services. Päivi Rissanen brought a fine presentation to the importance of confidential interaction between the patient and the medical staff. In her case one person said relevant words to her over several years of illness and rehabilitation, although she had met with a number of operators during this period. Päivi Rissanen`s network map presented a lot of different health care operators during her rehabilitation process. It was very illustrative and it describes very well the service fragmentation. Hopefully, in the future of social and health services structure changes will help patients to get better services relevant to their needs.


Despite the fact that I live and work in the metropolitan area, I had not heard of the activities Global Clinic to promote undocumented migrants health. It was very eye-opening and thought-provoking presentation on the subject, which I do not see in my own everyday life. On Sunday we continued our discussion with Norwegian students about the health care services for undocumented migrants. In Norway the responsibility of the Church is to organize the services for undocumented migrants and the society participates in the financing of the operation, while in Finland, society is not involved in the organization or financing of services at all. I wish that I could for my part to affect change in attitudes.



Who am I?


Author: Satu Ek
Field of Study: Promotion on health and wellbeing at risk of exclusion
Level of Study: Master`s Degree programme
Place of Study: Diaconia University of Applied Sciences (Diak)
Country: Finland

In Every Society – We Need Each Other

I participated to this very interesting intensive course in Helsinki.  First day started with a morning coffee and music by Ganthy band. After that we had three lessons of poverty in welfare state. Afternoon we had a study tour and I got to know more about Global clinic. That was very interesting and everything was new for me. They are helping undocumented migrants.

Most interesting speaker at first day was Päivi Rissanen. She told as her own story, when she was ill for seven years. She had over 40 inpatient treatment on the mental hospitals. She was chronic ward as hopeless and a difficult case. Over 300 nurses took care of her and how this one nurse asked her "Do you what to stay here in hospital rest of your life Päivi?" and how that changed her life. She found an own way to rehabilitate. Now she has written a book and is telling her story to professions. She wants to tell professionals that discussion, connection between two real persons, trust, mutual respect, concern and understanding are the most important things in human interaction and helping people.

I started the Sunday enjoying morning devotion and silent moment at chapel. After that we did mostly group works. That was very interesting and a little bit exiting too. Day ended with summery and a little feedback for what we had learned at this intensive weekend.

This weekend I learned the importance of human interaction. That is the most important thing for us professionals, how to get people from shadow to light!

 Who am I?

My name is Johanna Jokinen and I am studying Applied Sciences in Helsinki as master's degree programs, named the promotion of health and wellbeing at risk of exclusion. I will graduate December of this year, 2016.

Interaction - the medicine for the poverty

One big reason for the poverty in welfare state is the lack of interaction, says Sakari Kainulainen based on his research. That said aloud awakens me to realize even deeper how important interaction between people is. I started to value my own work with young people even more after hearing this since I'm organizing the peer groups for lonely youngsters. And since I hear  foreign youngsters being even in bigger risk to exlude, I would love to start working more with them too. People just need people.

Kainulainen talks about loneliness how serious problem it is in our society. For example drinking, eating, drugs, internet, porno is often used to get rid of the feelings of loneliness. Money is not the answer but connections between people are. Poor and rich can be as happy, says Kainulainen. Already Aristotele said that without friends no one would want to live, even if he had all other goods. People are important!

The role of the social workers is to awaken our customers to think about their own lives, says Sakari Kainulainen. Also Päivi Rissanen said how the turning point in her life was when the worker saw her as a person, not as a patient.  Dreams started to take role in her life. She also mentioned peer support being an important part of her rehabilitation. I want to be the social worker who can see and hear the people who need my help. Empowering them is my goal.

Also when visiting Lehmuskoti, what is the last place to live for drug users, we hear how good the community and togetherness is for the customers' rehabilitation. They believe in "housing first" idea in Lehmuskoti but as soon as the person lives in Lehmuskoti they start building trust with him or her. The worker says how the trust is often very difficult to build but once you get it it's very rewarding. So empowering our customers starts by building trust, we know that, but I can only imagine how difficult it is in Lehmuskoti. What I was easily able to sense is that especially those people have been lonely in their lives and I am so happy seeing this type of place where they are so well taken care of. Enormous amount of respect for the workers!

Our group work with Norwegian students about asylym seekers and how could they adapt better in Scandinavian countries brought us to think about how important it is that people do co-operate in every level. We ended up to discuss how interaction is the answer to reduce the fear what both asylym seekers and residents often feel and what is often the cause of the problems. Interesting is that also in our final group work we found out that the connection between people was the most important thing in one of the studies what compared two different type of therapy orientations, not what exact type of therapy person gets. So interaction between people is the answer!

Who am I?

Anne Elojärvi

Student of Diakonia University of Applied Sciences

Master's Program in Social Services