Seminar reflections

Jemima Heinonen from the Global Clinic gave a presentation about the paperless healthcare they provide. Global Clinic is run by volunteers, who provide both health and dental care.

Global Clinic is open to everyone, regardless of person's nationality or theirmigration status. Help is given for free, anonymously and in strict confidence.The audience were interested to know the reasons why patients in generalgravitate to the clinic. Audience also wanted Heinonen to explain to them why only about 3% of the patients were seeking help due to psychiatric reasons. According to Heinonen, there are plenty of reasons why patients seeking for psychiatric help cover such a small percentage of the whole patient base. One of the reasons is the fact that in many countries and cultures mental health disorders are a taboo and such problems are not talked about openly. Also, currently Finland does not have a institution or a hospital for these patients. The Global Clinic is looking for cooperation partner which the Clinic could consult in need. An other problem is the language barrier. The clinic is run by volunteers and so is the interpretation. The majority of the patients at the moment are from Romania and Bulgaria. Heinonen says that even though they do often  recognise the patients with psychiatric needs or problems, the treatment of those patients os difficult and it has limits.

The Global Clinic accepts donations from individuals and corporations, but do not receive grants from the state. The clinic has a patient registry, even though it is very primitive and on a slow computer. The patients are not asked about their ethnic background, only the very essentials; e.g, age, gender, diagnosis. The most touching and interesting lecturer of the weekend was Päivi Rissanen. Rissanen has done her doctoral thesis on how the patient him/herself experiences psychiatric illness and the treatment of it. Rissanen told that she herself was 40 times in a psychiatric hospital for treatment. She herself was first diagnosed with a borderline personality disorder andschizophrenia. Later, this diagnosis was discarded and Rissanen was given a new diagnoses: dissociative disorder. 

Rissanen explained how no one wanted to be her personal nurse, because she was considered so difficult for treatment. Eventually she got a new personal nurse, who had not previously taken care of her. Rissanen shared that her rehabilitation started when this new nurse asked her "Päivi, do you want to spend the rest of your life in a hospital?" Rissanen told that her motivation to get better awakened when she felt that her new nurse appreciated her. Rissanen told that finally she was given a change to tell herself how she wanted to be treated and rehabilitated.

Who am I?

My name is and I am Seija Kautto psychiatric nurse. I work in the closed ward that takes care of diseased psychosis patients. The majority of patients also have a substance abuse problem.