A therapy guarantee, intended to ensure speedy access to mental health services within primary care for those under 23, will take effect on 1 May 2025. The new requirements will also apply to services provided by the Finnish Student Health Service (FSHS). There are some 300,000 higher education students entitled to FSHS services, and 25% of them are under the age of 23.
The goal of the therapy guarantee is to ensure early low-threshold help for mental health problems. For young people aged under 23, brief psychotherapy and psychological interaction-based psychosocial therapy within primary care must start within 28 days after need for treatment was assessed.
Demand for mental health services remains high among higher education students. The most common reasons for seeking mental health services from the FSHS are anxiety and depression.
Treatment is provided based on symptoms
The FSHS has made preparations to meet the therapy guarantee requirements for mental health services. To ensure that the FSHS’s treatment resources can provide not only the services required by the therapy guarantee legislation, but also all the other services the FSHS is obliged to provide, treatment will be made to correspond to the level of the symptoms as closely as possible. The most suitable treatment option will be decided by a healthcare professional when the student first contacts the FSHS or at an appointment.
“When they are able to function fairly well, it is probably not necessary to refer clients aged 18 to 22 to services mentioned in the therapy guarantee right away. In these cases, treatment forms such online therapy, treatment groups or guided self-care are often enough. The therapy guarantee should be kept in mind when symptoms are mild to moderate”, says FSHS Medical Director Teija Kulmala.
Staff to receive further training
One of the challenges associated with organising treatment to meet the therapy guarantee requirements is that in preparing the legislation and determining the treatment forms in it, the legislators did not consider the additional expertise these treatment forms would require from healthcare staff. The therapy guarantee concerns psychotherapist-provided brief psychotherapy and other specific-form psychosocial therapies.
“The therapy guarantee legislation was prepared quickly, so we’re in the process of training more staff to be able to provide the treatment forms included in the therapy guarantee. For the FSHS, the special position of those under 23 years means that we need to increase the resources earmarked to their care”, Kulmala says and adds:
“We agree that children and young people deserve special protection and support, but on the other hand, looking at it from the perspective of our clients, the specific age limit of 23 years is not justified. The FSHS’s basic duty is to guarantee adequate services for all students in higher education and to support their well-being, health and ability to learn throughout their studies.”
It is also the FSHS’s view that students’ problems aren’t as much age-based as they are connected to certain stressful situations. The demand for mental health services isn’t highest in younger higher education students – statistics on visits to the FSHS show that in addition to when they first start their studies, students most often need help toward the end of their studies when it’s time to write a thesis.
Further information for the media: FSHS Medical Director Teija Kulmala, tel. 041 731 9420, teija.kulmala(at)yths.fi. For interview requests you can also contact viestinta(at)yths.fi