News in English

Mental health services crowded

Forty percent more people use mental health services this year at Tampere FSHS than the year before. The queues for the services are now - and especially during the winter months - several months long.

"In April and March, approximately 150 clients were queuing for their first visit to mental health services. The queue to a psychologist was two months long. Now, the queues are approximately one and a half months long, according to psychiatrist Pauli Tossavainen at FSHS.

The main reason for the long queues is increasing demand of mental health services. While five years ago the number of customers was 1000, it is now 1400. The number of staff at FSHS has grown very little in relation to the increase in the number of customers.

"We have had to shorten treatment times. Nevertheless, we can now direct more people to psychotherapy compensated by Kela", says Tossavainen.

The demand for mental health services has clearly increased in the whole country. Approximately 13 percent of university students queue for mental health services during their studies.
"However, only a small portion of the people in the queue is urgently in need of help. The queues are not fateful for the majority of people. The people who need emergency and crisis help are directed to city services", explains Tossavainen.

The reasons for the bigger numbers in customers are both an increase in problems and a lower threshold for seeking help. There are crowds for mental health services particularly in the winter, when it is dark and students are under a lot of stress.

The queues will probably grow next winter, too. However, the situation might get slightly better since FSHS has received more funds for buying services.

"Students can affect the queues themselves by using the appointments they have made or by cancelling appointments when they canÂ’t make it", reminds Tossavainen.

Wanted: boring non-smoker tenant

Sites that offer free space for advertising accommodation host heated conversations in the spring. Dozens of ads are posted by eager people offering flats or seeking them. Everybody is looking for the perfect summer flat or a reliable, harmless summer tenant.

Some students find summer work in a new city and find themselves in the role of a landlord for the first time. It is handy to have your old flat waiting for you in the fall, but few people are willing to pay double rent during the summer. According to Niina Kiviaho, Tamy Secretary for Social Welfare Affairs, the Student Union housing services are very popular in the spring time.

"People offer a lot of short-term accommodation, and not only for university students."

The Act on Residential Leases stipulates that tenants have the right to lease their flats for a maximum of two years at a time, if it is necessary for them to stay somewhere else for study, work or other adequate reasons. Landlords must be given a written notice of the matter at least a month before the new tenant moves in.

Often people find flats through their friends and sometimes even through Facebook. Most companies are reliable tenants: for example, summer theatres often seek flats for their actors in the spring.

Nevertheless, summer leases have their problems. Pia Ylimäki from Toas says that people sometimes take summer leasing too lightly.

"Many do not consider a summer lease a proper rental agreement", says Ylimäki.

It is easy to pass on a Toas flat for the summer. You have to find the tenant yourself, but Toas provides ready-to-sign contracts. Toas needs a copy of the contract.

Atalpa expansion due to start in June

The Atalpa expansion works will begin in June with the piling work. Since the main entrance is situated in the construction area, a new entrance will be arranged through a computer class room in the west wing of the building. Approximately twenty parking spaces will no longer be in use due to the construction works.

The expansion will not affect Atalpa opening hours this year because the painting and renovation of the old part of the building will be done during the normal summer break.

In the summer 2009, Atalpa will be closed longer than usual in the summer, when for example the washing areas in the old building are renovated. The renovation works will cost approximately 3.5 million euros and are expected to be finished by fall 2009. The Atalpa fee will rise by five euros next fall, and the effects of the renovation can be seen on the price in 2009, when the Atalpa sticker will cost 60 to 65 euros instead of the current 40 euros.

Academic employment rates are rising

The job market status of University of Tampere graduates has improved. According to a questionnaire sent to the graduates from year 2006 by the University of Tampere Career Services, the percentage of unemployed job seekers was the lowest in five years. The respondents had also found work that corresponded to their education more than before.

According to Jukka Mäkinen, Development Manager at Career Services, the improvement was still fairly minor. In some fields, employment rates had even gone down.

"The situation is not improving in giant leaps, even though the economical situation has been excellent for the past two or three years", says Mäkinen.

"The job market is still not taking in all the work force coming from universities".

A child supplement for the study grant

The study grant might get a child raise. The plan is to raise the study grant, study loan state guarantees and the income limits for the study grant for students who have families. Stefan Wallin, the minister in charge for the study grant, has established a working group to look into the matter.

“The changes might cost approximately twenty million euros per year and they could be implemented within two to three years", estimates Carl Haglund, special assistant to Stefan Wallin.

The working group will negotiate together with the Ministry of Education, Kela and student organisations. The working group should leave a motion to Wallin, the Minister for Culture and Sport, in April 2009. Child supplements in the study grant were abolished during the recession.

SYL: the government promotes unequal universities

On the 11th April, the Cabinet Committee on Economic Policy decided that a university aiming to become a foundation must collect 25 million euros per one thousand students in private capital.

"University co-operation on regional level as well as the social fields of study will suffer greatly due to this strategy", says Tuomas Telkkä, president of SYL.

The state pays foundation universities extra funding worth two and a half times the amount of money gathered from private sources. These universities must be governed by a foundation where private sponsors have representatives.

"Does the state intend to eliminate the power of decision of universities?" Telkkä asks.

Translations: Reija Kontio