KELA AND OMAKANTA
KELA’S pages are very familiar to me through my work, as I work with young people and young adults who need support due to everyday life, studies, mental health or other factors. The most common Kelan benefits that young people are entitled to are:
• Youth rehabilitation grant
• Study support if you are not entitled to young people’s rehabilitation support
• Housing allowance
• Disability benefits (long-term illness that reduces functional capacity is also a factor that may entitle you to disability benefits)
• Travel allowance and meal allowances
Personally, in my own life, I use Kela’s child benefits for my own children, and I have also become familiar with the university student’s health care fee, which entitles me to use health care services at a tuition fee that Kela has determined.
I didn’t need to get a European healthcare card, because I already have it. It is free for Finnish citizens.
OMAKANTA is also familiar to me in my personal use, but also for my work. You must log in to your account with online banking credentials. In your database, you can see your treatment plans, visit texts, diagnoses, medicines and prescriptions, and you can, for example, renew prescriptions. The blood test results are also visible in the account. There is also access to the information of a minor child if the guardian has the right to look at and manage the social and health care affairs of the child under 18 years of age.
When I logged into the KEVA website, my pension statement was not available. I can’t say the reason for this, because I have already been working for 18 years in paid work in Finland. I asked Keva about it.
My mother-in-law has just retired, and she is having trouble with her pension, because her pension is significantly lower than her income. Therefore, setting up your own retirement savings account is certainly wise. I’m looking forward to seeing what the retirement age will change, because the age on the meter is now 36 years.
DIGITAL STORES
I personally don’t use Amazon-style sites, but I use Trivago and Booking’s sites for travel. Trivago’s sites for foreign trips and Booking’s site for domestic travel. I personally prefer that someone else compares the best options for me in terms of price-quality ratio. I have also never been disappointed with the promised room, even abroad. Reliability is good, because Customer Reviews are public, which is of great importance from the point of view of reliability.
APPLICATION FOR YOUR INDUSTRY – CHILLAA APP
I work in a foster care unit as a supervisor with children and young people under the age of 18 who cannot live at home. In addition, before working in foster care, I have worked in the field of child and youth psychiatry. One of the challenges encountered in the field of child protection and psychiatry is the increase in anxiety among children and young people. Children and young people have challenges going to school, traveling on public buses, and experiencing bullying and loneliness.
One important application that helps a child or young person is the Chillaa application designed by a mental health center, which helps and supports young people in relieving anxiety, tension and social fears. The application is mainly designed for middle school students, but in my own work I have also used it with secondary school students.
The Chillaa application has also developed over the years from the point of view of data security, and today the application can be protected with a pin code
The application always goes with the mobile phone and is therefore a very relevant application. The application is also completely free for its users. This way, from a professional’s point of view, the application also provides good tips and methods for your own work to support children and young people. It is great to get to know the application together with a child or young person, which also increases the time spent together and the mood of doing things together.
Children and young people’s own experiences of the application:
“I used the app in the middle of gym class when I was anxious and wanted to change my thinking in a more positive direction.” — Girl, 8th grade, Vantaa
“I had difficult exams coming up, which I was really nervous about, so I wanted help and gained self-confidence (I got a 10 for it), there was also a performance that I got a kick out of.”— Boy, 8th grade, Vantaa
The application has been developed in cooperation with young people, HUS’s Youth mental health center and Lääkäriseura Duodecim. The application was designed and implemented by Adventure Club. Check out more: https://www.chillaa.io/
DIGITALIZATION AND THE DIGITAL GAP
1. I would first highlight the children and young people who do not use digital services, where, for example, the chillaa application helps. In my own work, I have seen how loneliness increases anxiety, and listening to music from Spotify, or listening to Chilla api in a moment of worry with headphones gives another thought, which can reduce the feeling of being outside and the start of anxiety / panic. You can also build your own playlists in the Chillaa app.
2. Omakanta gives individuals access to their own health and social care records, which increases understanding of their own care and can bring significance to the continuity of care. You can check the treatment and follow-up plan from Omakanta, if something left you wondering at reception, or the healthcare professional didn’t remember to tell you everything. Access to your own information also reduces congestion in healthcare, when the so-called unnecessary contact with healthcare can be reduced with the use of the deductible. You can renew prescriptions, look at treatment plans, follow-up treatment plans or check blood test results in your own account.
BLOGS I VISITED AND COMMENTED ON:
SELF-ASSESSMENT
Familiarizing myself with Kela’s benefits and subsidies during the assignment brought back to the surface the idea that we in Finland aim to support especially students and young people well. For example, the youth rehabilitation grant is a big source of income for young people who face challenges on the threshold of the transition to studies and working life. I think it is an important consideration when working with children and young people. We don’t stir up the negative aspects of the issue but remember to give a positive vision and image of society. However, in several countries, things are not as good as we have in Finland, and we can be happy about that.
There is always a lot of criticism in the media and in society in general, how the government cuts from students, families with children, the needy and the elderly, but it should be remembered that society here in Finland takes care of the sick, the elderly and students as much as possible. It’s quite true that I don’t always understand why the cuts aren’t aimed more at people who work and earn good money. However, it is necessary to remember the positive aspects in which matters we get help from Kela when it is possible to get it when we need it, for example, when we become disabled, sick or our income decreases.
Omakanta reminded me from a professional point of view how important it is to always remember, when recording customer or patient information in customer information systems, that the visit texts are also entered into the customer or patient’s own database with your own name. It is also most important to remember this when the customer is a minor child, whose guardian may have the right and access to the child’s personal information.
I also visited a site that had a digital skill wheel, and it told me how I have a lot of digital skills but also a lot to learn from a digital perspective. Unfortunately, I belong to that nation that perhaps trusts too blindly that I do not have or may have digital leaks of my own data. However, I always remember to be very careful when handling patient and customer information. In the future, we have to remember that there are always hackers and criminals who profit from or do data protection leaks or other harmful things with people’s personal information to annoy them. Here I will have to be even more precise in the future myself.
I learned the most in this assignment by also reading other people’s blogs and assignments, because the fact that I familiarize myself with things I already know doesn’t give as much as it gives you the opportunity to look at the perspective of other students and familiarize yourself with other people’s thoughts through the assignments. He himself is easily blinded by the things he knows, and it is always rewarding to read other people’s perspectives on things. I took over the tasks myself, also familiarizing myself with my own personal point of view, but also with the work point of view, which is a lot of my own personality.