DEBATE, the article was published in Dagens Arena 29/11-2020. Read the article at dagensarena.se here
A functioning student health service is crucial for students to receive support here and now, but also a path to further care. Today, not only are there too few hours and too little knowledge, Student Health's mission is also so unclear that students are torn between general care and Student Health. We can't have it that way, write Linn Svärd and Sofia Holmdahl.
Students today are feeling worse than their peers and the problem of mental ill health is widespread. By law, higher education institutions have a responsibility to ensure that students have access to healthcare, especially preventive healthcare whose purpose is to promote students' physical and mental health. But despite this legal requirement, we see from Stockholm University's student union and the Swedish National Union of Students, which work with issues related to students' living and study situations nationally and locally, that the situation is acute in many places in the country. In Stockholm, the situation is extreme.
In 2020, UKÄ was tasked with reviewing student healthcare. The survey will be published in December. In the assignment, UKÄ will highlight students' access to student healthcare and differences in how student healthcare is organized between higher education institutions. According to the collective experiences of our organizations, however, it is already obvious that the mission of student healthcare needs to be clarified, healthcare needs to be made accessible and, above all, resources are needed to be able to meet the need for support that exists. The investigation must not stop at just a survey, but the situation requires further action from the higher education institutions.
At worst, you could say that it's probably lucky that students don't know about Student Health, because if they did, Student Health would have been even more in trouble than it is today.
Student Health at Stockholm University will be the student health service for ten higher education institutions in Stockholm. It will therefore cover a large part of Stockholm's students – a group that is feeling increasingly worse. This may be due to a lack of context in a new city or that the studies themselves lead to great negative stress. These problems are further exacerbated now that teaching is mainly done digitally. Studies have been conducted at Stockholm University, among others, where it has become clear that students are feeling unwell and lacking a context due to the pandemic. Therefore, it is now more important than ever that students receive information about and have access to Student Health. Despite this, few students are aware that there is a student health service and do not know where to turn.
At best, one could say that it is probably lucky that students do not know about Student Health, because if they did, Student Health would have been even more in trouble than it is today. Currently, there are no appointments to book with Student Health at Stockholm University. Appointments are released once a week, but few students seem to know when. As soon as new appointments become available, they are booked; as a student, you are just lucky if you happen to stumble onto the website just when new free appointments have appeared. The telephone advice that is available is open for one hour a week. It is therefore practically impossible to take advantage of the support Student Health is supposed to offer.
A functioning student health service is crucial for students to receive support here and now, but it is also a path to further care. Today, not only are there too few hours and too little knowledge, Student Health's mission is also so unclear that students are bounced back and forth between general care and Student Health. We can't have it that way.
Students should not become ill from their study situation and therefore we also want to emphasize the importance of preventive work regarding students' work environment in the long term, but now that we are in this situation, we cannot let the issue of support be a matter of chance or luck. Receiving support is a right. We are positive that the government's budget bill includes a special investment in student healthcare, where a reinforcement of 25 million kronor is proposed. But the question is whether the higher education institutions know what to do with the money?
It is time to act now. Today, students' health stands in the way of taking part in a quality education. We cannot afford that and it should not be an acceptable situation. We are eagerly awaiting UKÄ's survey; an important and necessary investigation. But even more, we want to hear what the universities' action plan looks like to actually solve the problem: Is it a better booking system? More staff? Clearer priorities for individual conversations? Regardless, we want an answer now.
Linn Sword
Vice Chairman
Swedish National Union of Students
Sofia Holmdahl
Chairperson
Stockholm University Student Union