What does a county council do?

Let’s get to know the county council from the basics which means the health and social services reform. This reform together with regional government reform means that health and social services are being reformed so that the responsibility of health care services is moved from municipalities to new well-being services counties. This reform has been in the making since 2005 and the schedule has famously been late a lot. Now that the reform is happening the results mean that health and social services will be organized on “wider shoulders” and in that way the users of these services are in a more equal position. The well-being services counties will be in charge of their region’s health, social and rescue services.

The well-being services counties need an administrative body to work and this is why with county election forms a county council. The county council has the highest authority in their well-being services county and is responsible for its actions and economy. The county council’s term is for four years and in each county council 59-89 representatives are selected depending on the county’s population. In the county election can run for a candidate if the next steps are being filled:

• You are a resident of the well-being services county
• You have a right to vote so you are over 18 years old
• You are not legally incompetent so you make your own decisions about your legal actions

As a student it is worth a while to vote because it’s important that our voices are heard in the county council. Youth mental health services have been a visible theme in the past few years and especially now during the pandemic. At this point accessibility of mental health services is not adequate almost anywhere and this is a significant shortcoming which needs to be heard in the county council. Even though the FSHS is mostly responsible for UAS students’ health care, students sometimes need the services from the well-being services county such as special health care services.

The role of the county council will probably take its form after the actions have started but at this point it’s known that the councils will decide about its well-being services county’s budget, service network and strategies. The councils will decide for example about the locations of health care centres, the arranging of mental health services and how much there is going to be remote services. If you want students to be taken into consideration in arranging the health and social services, you should vote at the county election!

Text:

Stella Palassalo, Chairperson of the Board, JAMKO
Nikolas Bursiewicz, Trusteeship advisor, Laureamko