Students’ Wappupotti raised more than 22 000 € for the Finnish Association for Mental Health

In early April, AYY’s Freshman Committee started the Wappupotti appeal in connection with the Fuksipeijaiset opening. The original goal was to raise a pot of 500 euros but, with this sum being collected in minutes, the goal was increased to 10 000 euros. During the one-month appeal, the pot eventually climbed to more than 22 000 euros. The purpose of the appeal was to evoke discussion and to shatter the taboo surrounding mental health issues. This is an important topic and one that also concerns the Aalto community, as according to an FSHS health survey, every third student shows symptoms of mental health issues. What is the Finnish Association for Mental Health, and what kind of work will the Wappupotti funds go towards?

The world’s oldest mental health organisation

The Finnish Association for Mental Health is the oldest mental health organisation in the world. It is a national organisation working to promote mental health and providing help in crisis situations. “It is characteristic of and particularly important to us to live and change along with the world and to think about what is important right now,” says the Executive Director of the Finnish Association for Mental Health Sari Aalto-Matturi.

The work of the Association for Mental Health includes, among other things, different types of training work. Mental health first aid training, for example, is offered widely to both private persons and professionals. The Finnish Association for Mental Health also runs the Crisis Helpline that answers around 53 000 phone calls annually, as well as the Sekaisin [Messed up] chat aimed at under-29-year-olds, where around 15 000 conversations are had each year.  “We do preventative work in schools and educational institutes as well. One of our main tasks is to increase awareness of mental health issues and to make talking about them more commonplace,” Aalto-Matturi says.

According to Aalto-Matturi, every other Finn experiences a mental disorder of some kind in their lifetime. Yet talking about this continues to be difficult. “We would hope for mental health issues to be noticed and recognised better. It would also be important that in the working life, people with burnout or depression, for example, would receive neutral and objective treatment. It is not fair that someone who has fallen ill has to fear stigmatisation because of their illness.”

Sleep, eat and cherish your social relationships

When asked how everyone can and should look after their own mental health, the Executive Director of the Finnish Association for Mental Health Sari Aalto-Matturi lists sufficient and regular sleep, eating and exercise without hesitation. “It is also important to take care of social relationships and to do things that make you happy. These are all pretty simple things!”

The Association for Mental Health is very flattered about the raised pot.  “We are extremely thankful to Teekkaris for the Wappupotti right now. The result is just amazing, and it seems that they have considered this an especially important matter. At the same time, the pot has strengthened our communications among students. This makes us happy, as we acknowledge young adults as one of our main target groups.

Support for students’ mental health issues

According to the FSHS, mental health issues are some of the most common health issues among students in higher education. Mental health can be put to the test because of difficulties related to studying or presented by life. There are lots of services available to students to support their mental wellbeing. You can find links to these below.

•  Nyyti ry’s Mielellä on väliä! [Mood matters!] blog, featuring entries on wellbeingrelated current topics, points of view and conversation openers https://www.nyyti.fi/en/blogi/
• In the opento-all MentalHub, you can find information, self-help programmes, guides and symptom navigators as well as look for various services https://www.mielenterveystalo.fi/pages/default.aspx (in Finnish)
• You can read about the mental health services offered by the FSHS at https://www.yths.fi/en/services/mental_health

The Finnish Student Health Service 2016: https://www.yths.fi/filebank/4310-KOTT_englanti_2016.pdf