Adult social work in digital media environment / Mental Health support (Theme 4)

 Mental Health support in adult social work - digital media perspective 

People's well-being has been a big question mark in Finland lately. Welfare services are being cut more and more. Many are worried about mental health support services and about their future. 

Mental health work uses a wide range of client working methods. They vary according to client's needs and situation. The aim is to support client in their mental health and life management. Some examples of working with clients in mental health work: 

- conversational and psychotherapeutic methods

-support person work 

-occupational therapy

-psychiatric nursing

   -> Client work in mental health work is often multi-stage and multi-professional

Mental health chats: 

There is some mental health support online in Finland that can be used to support people's well-being. Chats are super popular nowadays and they are very easy to contact also. The only problem is that when they are popular, there is also big queues. Examples of the chats are MIELI ry -chat, Valoa -chat and Sekaisin -chat. MIELY ry also offer crisis telephone. I think the reason why these online mental health support services are popular and busy is that public health care can not really offer quick support to mental health problems and private health care services are quite expensive. 

Links to chats: 

https://sekasin.fi/  &  https://mieli.fi/tukea-ja-apua/chattaa-tai-kirjoita/  &  https://mtkl.fi/tarvitsen-tukea/valoa-chat/ 

About Varha (The wellbeing services county of Southwest Finland) 

Varha website gives information about where to find mental health services and also other important information. Website is easy to use and follow and you can also find contact information on the website. 

Link to Varha website: 

https://www.varha.fi/fi/palvelut/mielenterveys-ja-paihdepalvelut/aikuisten-mielenterveys-ja-paihdepalvelut

Adult social work can be carried out like this: 

- as data banks and resources: in digital media different platforms that gives information about mental health support services and what kind of support can be given when supporting mental health. 

- online courses and education: in adult social work it could be very informative to organize online courses that handle mental health and financial advise. In this way people can get information, guidance and support to their situation. 

- apps and digital tools: apps can be used to follow health and they can give some exercises and support to everyday life. 

Digital media offers many possibilities to carry out adult social work. Digital media is a good tool to improve accessibility to customers. It is also important to make sure all the tools that customer uses are safe to use and customer-oriented. 

- Jessica Lahtinen