7.6 Mechanisms of early detection and signposting of young people facing health risks
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Nuorisotutkimusseura ry / Ungdomsforskningssallskapet rf
Finnish Youth Research Society
Kumpulantie 3 A
FI-00520 Helsinki
Tel: +358 44 4165388
E-Mail: office@youthresearch.fi
Website:
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Policy framework
At a legislative level, early detection and signposting mechanisms are grounded in the Child Welfare Act (in Finnish, also available in Swedish) and the Act on Pupil and Student Welfare (in Finnish, also available in Swedish). The Child Welfare Act’s key principles include ‘preventing child and family problems and intervening sufficiently early if problems are found’. According to the Act, municipalities and wellbeing services counties are responsible for organising preventive child welfare to promote the wellbeing of children and youth.
These support measures can be implemented through social and health care services, education, and youth work, and must meet local needs. Preventive measures are also included in the mandatory regional plans for the wellbeing of children and young people, which are reviewed every four years.
The Act on Pupil and Student Welfare includes mechanisms for early detection as a part of its objectives, which focus on preventing issues related to learning, health, and wellbeing, and ensuring timely support measures. The Act on Pupil and Student Welfare regulates the single-structure basic education as well as upper secondary education and vocational upper secondary education. While the implementation of student welfare may vary in educational institutions, education providers are always responsible for organising these services.
In addition, the national curriculum for single-structure basic education provides guidelines for the early detection and signposting of young people facing health risks. According to the national curriculum, teachers are responsible for promoting and monitoring pupils’ wellbeing, supporting and guiding them, and identifying potential difficulties.
A concrete measure for early detection is the comprehensive health examinations (in Finnish) conducted in the first, fifth and eighth grades. These include interviews with parents and a teacher’s assessment of the pupil’s performance, aiming to identify health risks at an early stage.
Stakeholders
In everyday school practices, teachers, school nurses, and school psychologists are the key stakeholders in the early detection and signposting of young people facing health risks. Their cooperation is fundamental. As mentioned above, teachers have an important role in promoting and monitoring pupils’ wellbeing, providing support and guidance, and identifying possible difficulties in daily school life.
Secondly, education providers are required to monitor and evaluate the implementation and effectiveness of pupil and student welfare services in cooperation with the municipal social and health services. They must participate in the assessment carried out by an external evaluator, and the results must be made public.
Thirdly, the National Institute for Health and Welfare and the National Agency for Education follow the realisation and impact of the Pupil and Student Welfare services at the national level.
Guidance to stakeholders
Guidance for early detection and signposting of young people facing health risks is provided by various actors. It can also be mentioned that the prevention of mental health issues is evident in the Mental Health Act (in Finnish, also available in Swedish).
The Finnish National Agency for Education provides materials, training, and tools for professionals and guardians in the field of education. Currently, the Agency is organising a course Wellbeing to Educational Institutions- the basics of student welfare (in Finnish). An example of informative guidance material is the video series Know your responsibility - Recognising and intervening in bullying, harassment, discrimination and violence is every adult's duty. In addition, the Agency provides information, for example, on preventive substance abuse work as a part of collective pupil welfare services (in Finnish). The informative webpage also guides readers to the National Institute for Health and Welfare’s (THL) material for early detection of substance abuse in educational institutions (in Finnish). Materials aiming to support stakeholders are collected on the Finnish National Agency for Education’s webpage Wellbeing (in Finnish). THL’s information and support tools are collected on their webpage Youth Wellbeing (in Finnish).
NGOs produce handbooks and materials and provide training and educational opportunities for stakeholders. For example, MIELI Mental Health Finland offers mental health training for adults working with young people. For more information, see Youth Wiki/Finland: 7.5 Mental health. In addition, the National Institute for Health and Welfare’s (THL) website TEAviisari examines ‘health promotion capacity building in municipalities and wellbeing services counties’, with a special emphasis on both basic education and upper secondary education institutions.
ZekkiPro is an online tool that ‘offers a comprehensive and real- time overview of the wellbeing of your organization’s target groups, enabling informed decisions and meaningful actions’. The service is based on utilising indicators developed by Diaconia University of Applied Sciences. Municipalities and wellbeing services counties have used ZekkiPro to gather information on children and young people’s wellbeing on the local level. For example, the Report on the experiences of wellbeing of residents in the Wellbeing Services County of North Ostrobothnia September-October 2024 (in Finnish) states that ZekkiPro survey was used to collect answers from 25 352 children and young people (7-17-year-old) in 28 municipalities. The survey enabled to gain information on experienced life satisfaction, positive aspects of life, areas of life that require change and differences in wellbeing.
The results showcase that on the local level, 62-84% of children and young people are satisfied with their life. Security, home and family are regarded as positive aspects of life, while challenges in everyday routines, the use of digital media, self-esteem, resilience and wellbeing in schools are mentioned as areas requiring change. The wellbeing of children and young people identifying as girls or non-binary is lower compared to boys. Life satisfaction decreases and gender differences in wellbeing increase in older age groups (10-13 and 14-17-year-olds, compared to 7-9-year-olds).
Target groups
Within educational institutions, efforts are made to recognise potential health risks among students who are absent from school or fail to participate in school health care examinations. The aim is to prevent, for example, social exclusion.
In 2022, the Finnish National Agency for Education reported that the capabilities of schools to intervene in absence from school will be unified and strengthened (in Finnish).
One method to assess a young person’s situation is by contacting their guardians or arranging home visits. Secondly, as mentioned above, the Youth Act (in Finnish, also available in Swedish) requires outreach youth work and education providers to collaborate in certain situations when there may be a threat to a young person’s health and wellbeing. For more information, see Youth Wiki/Finland: 7.4 Healthy lifestyles and healthy nutrition.
Funding
The National Institute for Health and Welfare (THL) and the Finnish National Agency for Education are publicly funded. School health care and other health care services on a municipal level are also funded by the state. However, allocation of funding may vary between the wellbeing services counties.