Finland National OT News

News from Finland, 2018

The legislation and organization of the entire Finnish social care and healthcare are being transformed. At the same time, the entire rehabilitation legislation is getting renewed. At the present moment, this includes over twenty different laws and legislation. This means also that around 220, 000 public healthcare employees need to be converted from the counties to the new regions. The goal of this legislation renewal is to increase clients’ right to choose regardless of their geographical location. The state of the rehabilitation and occupational therapy within the healthcare legislation is the focus of lobbying for the Association of Finnish Occupational Therapists.

At the same time of these national legislation changes the Association of Finnish Occupational Therapists has gone through huge organizational changes which have allowed the Association to change its networking partners and strengthen the possibilities for lobbying for the benefit of occupational therapists. This organizational change came at a very high price for the Association and was completed with the help of volunteer members of its governing body and 2,5 paid employees of the Association. All this work was done while serving the members of the Association at the same time.

Due to this massive amount of work and financial burden the Association has decreased its involvement with the international networks to a bare minimum. The Association will start to rebuild these international relationships as soon as it is possible.

 

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