People faced issues like money problems, unemployment fears and a general feeling that help is not available, the organisation says.
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File photo. Image: Juuso Stoor / Yle
Mieli, Mental Health Finland, says that its crisis support services received an increasing number of serious calls for help over the summer.
In particular, the number of people dealing with financial difficulties have increased at both its telephone helpline and in-person appointments.
Mieli says people have been burdened with issues like financial difficulties, unemployment fears, and a general feeling that help is not available.
The organisation also heard from people about not having enough money to eat and those considering self-harm.
This is according to statistics from Mieli’s crisis help line and its crisis centre barometer, which was carried out during June and July. More than 100 crisis workers and their managers responded to the survey.
The barometer found three out of four crisis centre professionals saying the wellbeing of people seeking crisis support had deteriorated over the past year. The proportion of professionals sharing this view has increased considerably over the past two years, according to Mieli.
There has also been an increase in people feeling insecure, and a sense that society no longer supports those in more vulnerable positions as much as in the past.
It says young people cited fears about the future, and that many elderly people feel they are a burden on society rather than an asset.
People also feel that access to public services is increasingly difficult. According to Mieli, a new phenomenon is that concern now also extends to charities’ ability to offer help.
Nearly 170,000 calls were made to Mieli’s crisis helpline during the first half of the year, of which close to 59,000 were answered.
It says that donation-supported crisis workers helped to raise the line’s response rate to 40 percent.
Mieli closed down its telephone crisis help line in English last March, but said at the time it would offer other types of services in English.