Almost 100,000 more calls were made to Mielinterveyssuomi’s MIELI crisis line than the previous year
The crises of recent years and difficulties in getting adequate support from social and health services increase the number of calls to the crisis hotline. The number of callers under the age of 30 has almost doubled in three years.
MIELI Mental Health Finland’s Crisis Hotline received a record number of 400,400 call attempts in 2022, which is almost 100,000 more than the previous year.
“Russia’s war of aggression, the coronavirus pandemic and other ongoing crises are taking a toll on people. Low-threshold services, such as the Crisis Hotline, now fill the service gap of public services. People living in Finland should invest more in the psychological resources”, says Sanna VesikansaMIELI Mielenterveys Finland’s crisis operations manager.
The most common reason for calling the emergency hotline is mental health, especially anxiety. As in the previous year, the second most common reason for calling was related to relationships. In particular, there have been fewer calls related to broken relationships than in 2021. In turn, the number of calls related to intergenerational challenges has increased.
Financial challenges have been more common in men’s crisis phone calls. A third of those who called the crisis hotline are men, but last year 43 percent of those who called about financial challenges were men. Addiction is talked about more by men than by women. In addition, the number of calls related to coping difficulties and everyday exhaustion increased last year.
More and more young people are calling the crisis hotline
In particular, the number of young adults calling the crisis line has been steadily increasing for several years. Since 2019, the number of callers under the age of 30 has increased by 88%, i.e. almost doubled. Young people most often call because of anxiety, suicidal thoughts or relationship problems.
Suicidal thoughts are clearly more common among women aged 18–29 than among other groups. All in all, the Crisis Hotline receives an average of 16-17 calls per day related to suicidal thoughts, three of which are high-risk, meaning the caller has a suicide plan or has recently attempted suicide. Almost every third emergency call related to suicidal thoughts comes from women under 30 years old.
“The threshold of young people, especially young women, to recognize a difficult life situation and seek help for themselves has decreased. People have started to address shortcomings and problems and seek change better than before”, says Susanna Winterdirector of telephone and online crisis work.
“The crisis phone is like an antenna, because the calls reflect what Finns have in mind,” adds Winter.
Mielenterveys MIELI’s Finnish-language helpline is available 24/7 at 09 2525 0111. The crisis line offers conversation support in six languages. For example, Ukrainian refugees can call 09 2525 0114 and get support in their native language on weekdays 20 hours a week.
HT
Source: Mental health MIND