Many students have to rely on the healthcare services provided by the wellbeing services county, either instead of FSHS or to supplement its services. According to the latest Finnish Student Health and Wellbeing Survey (KOTT), only about half of higher education students use FSHS as their primary healthcare provider. Almost half of the respondents also felt that the general health services they had received from FSHS weren’t sufficient for their needs. Regarding mental health services this figure reached over 60 percent.
The wellbeing services county must ensure students’ healthcare even at times when FSHS’s resources run out. We cannot end up in a situation where healthcare providers direct students back and forth and a student in need of care falls through their safety net. Especially considering nearly a third of all higher education students still report experiencing significant psychological distress.
“The division of responsibilities regarding student healthcare should be clear to both the wellbeing services county and FSHS, as well as to students. The wellbeing services county can’t automatically direct students to FSHS – especially if treatment queues at FSHS are unsustainably long,” states Sanni Koivisto, JYY’s board member responsible for social affairs.
Students’ distress is ramped up by continuous cuts to their income. Meanwhile, the healthcare services county of Central Finland has increased their customer fees in January of 2025. Public healthcare customer fees should never reach a rate where they become a barrier for seeking treatment.
“Living on the poverty line and counting pennies is a strain on one’s wellbeing as is,” Koivisto remarks, “not to mention a situation where someone would have to pick between a warm meal and a doctor’s visit.”
The Student Union of the University of Jyväskylä demands that higher education students won’t be forgotten in the wellbeing services county. Making students bounce between healthcare providers has to end, and public healthcare customer fees must not be increased anymore.
Sanni Koivisto
Board Member for Social Affairs
sanni.koivisto@jyy.fi