Our outpatient services for people with intellectual disability (ID) consist of a clinic specializing in the medical aspects of ID as well as a team of consultants who assist other healthcare units and can also assess and treat patients in their day-to-day living environments. 

Understanding the medical aspects of IDare important when planning intensive medical rehabilitation.

Consulting psychiatrists in intellectual disability represent the tertiary level of specialized medical care, which is provided at outpatient clinics and in hospitals. Our psychiatrists mostly assess and treat people with ID on an outpatient basis in their home towns. We have a team of consultants who can be brought in to provide expert assistance to primary healthcare and specialized medical care providers. Our consultants also advise other highly specialized medical care professionals.

Our psychiatric inpatient care units for people with intellectual disability are units for demanding multiprofessional support as defined in the Disability Services Act (Vammaispalvelulaki). At our inpatient care units, we provide psychiatric treatment and examination periods for people with intellectual disability, as well as involuntary special care defined in the Special Care Act (Erityishuoltolaki)

Patients are referred to our inpatient units by their physician as planned.

You may be admitted to our unit if you have an intellectual disability or similar difficult developmental disturbance of functional capacity, and for which it is not possible to find examination or treatment methods in outpatient care.

We provide multiprofessional care. Various professionals participate in your care during an inpatient period: practical nurses and registered nurses, a physician, psychologist, social worker, occupational therapist, and if needed, an autism rehabilitation instructor, AAC instructor, physiotherapist, and speech therapist.

Our psychiatric inpatient care units for adults with intellectual disability are in Hämeenlinna, Kerava, and Lahti. Hämeenlinna also has a unit for adolescents, and Lahti has a unit for children and adolescents. Adults may also be treated at our hybrid unit in Kerava.

Insomnia is an ordinary problem in people.

Criteria

• long-term experience of a gender identity conflict, causing suffering and need for treatment
• acute psychiatric conditions and substance abuse problems are in a stable treatment balance
• psychiatric and neuropsychiatric conditions that threaten functional capacity have been diagnosed appropriately and within the scope of rehabilitation

Referral instructions

• basic information: age, education, occupation, work and livelihood, housing and social network
• medical history: psychiatric and somatic conditions, treatments, and psychotherapy.
• current psychiatric and somatic health, functional capacity, and substance abuse
• how long has the experience of transgender or other gender identity conflict lasted
• wishes and expectations regarding diagnosis and potential treatments
  
  NOTE! The referral must include the patient’s current, verified telephone number as well as previous psychiatric documents and neuropsychological/psychological examinations. The patient must have a municipality of residence in Finland. The referral of Åland patients must include a payment commitment.

One of the key tasks of the service system for forensic psychiatry is to provide psychiatric assessments as directed by the courts. Psychiatric assessments are needed to assess the criminal liability of a person accused or suspected of having committed an offence. Criminal liability is a key concept in the penal code and forensic psychiatry which almost all judicial practices around the world recognize as a condition for punishability.

Criminal liability is affected by a person's ability to understand the true nature, illegality, and consequences of the act under indictment, and the ability to control his or her own conduct. Liability can be reduced by some psychiatric and neurological diseases, as well as intellectual disability.

The psychiatric assessment is conducted by a working group consisting of a psychiatrist, psychologist, neuropsychologist, social worker, occupational therapist, and nursing staff. The assessment will take about two months. Almost all psychiatric assessments are conducted on a hospital ward.

We conduct psychiatric assessments in our HUS enhanced inpatient care and forensic psychiatry unit.