FINLAND
Lonely children turn to helpline for advice and company
Last year saw a jump in the number of primary school-aged children calling the child and youth helpline of the Mannerheim League for Child Welfare (MLL). According to the League, the rise reflects the fact that more children between the ages of seven and thirteen are being left alone at home during the evening.
The MLL argues that childrens loneliness is often not given much attention, since the children themselves may conceal their anxieties from busy parents. Many children will cope on their own because they have to. A childs fears, lack of friends and problems with bullying can easily go unnoticed by adults, says psychologist Marie Rautava, Director of Programmes and Projects at the MLL.
Last year staff at the MLLs child and youth helpline fielded over 64,400 calls and around 2,600 e-mails, some 70 per cent of which were placed or sent by primary school-aged children. Around a quarter of callers were directed to follow-up discussions with either parents or trained social workers. The helpline was nevertheless unable to deal with with more than one-thirteenth of the number of calls actually received.
Discussion topics
Subject matter ranged from how callers spent their day to
broader issues that were worrying them. Girls were more likely to ask
about school matters and relationships with their friends, while boys
tended to want to talk about sex and puberty-related changes.
Often callers simply wanted advice on how to spend their time. MLL employees regularly found themselves offering recipes and discussing climate change. And between four and five per cent of callers wish to discuss bullying, reports Anne Ryhnen, head of the MLLs child and youth helpline.
Emails tended to deal with weightier concerns such as depression, self-harm, anxiety and alcohol abuse, all of which were less likely to come up in calls. Ryhnen puts this done to the greater anonymity of emailing. 60 per cent of email correspondents were directed to follow-up discussions.
Jussi Lankinen, Matthew Parry and Lehtikuva – Marja Airio
2 April 2009
