Comparison of care for the mentally disabled in the six largest cities

The number of clients, services and costs of social services for persons with intellectual disabilities in the six largest cities in Finland in 2004–2016.

The dataset has been combined with the comparison of services for people with disabilities since 2017.

Examination of the number of clients, services and costs of services for persons with intellectual disabilities in the six largest cities is mainly limited to services under the Act on Special Care for Persons with Intellectual Disabilities (519/1977) and their costs. The Act on Special Care for Persons with Intellectual Disabilities lays down provisions on providing special care to persons whose development or mental ability is hindered or disordered due to an inborn illness or disability or an illness or disability suffered during adolescence and who cannot get the services they need on the basis of other legislation. Persons with intellectual disabilities can receive priority services under, for example, the Social Welfare Act (710/1982), the Act on Disability Services and Assistance (380/1987), the Child Day Care Act (36/1973) and the Health Care Act (1326/2010).

In Turku, some of the services for persons with intellectual disabilities are organised in accordance with the Social Welfare Act, which is why services in accordance with the Social Welfare Act are included in the Turku data. In addition, short-term care for persons with intellectual disabilities related to leave days in the support for informal care is included in its entirety in the data of Helsinki, Espoo and Turku, as its costs are included in the costs of services for persons with intellectual disabilities (see the Act on Support for Informal Care 937/2005). The Tampere data includes short-term care in an institution for persons with intellectual disabilities related to leave days in the support for informal care, as its costs are included in the costs of services for persons with intellectual disabilities.

Municipalities organise special services for persons with intellectual disabilities themselves or buy them from joint municipal authorities, other municipalities or private service providers. When collecting data on the activities and costs of services for persons with intellectual disabilities in the Six Cities, only the clients who are residents of each municipality and whose services are the responsibility of the municipality in question are taken into account. On the basis of the amendments to the Municipality of Residence Act (201/1994) and the Social Welfare Act that entered into force on 1 January 2011, the number of persons who moved to or from a municipality during the year was not significant.

The Six Cities comprise the six largest cities in Finland by population. In the order of population, the Six Cities are Helsinki, Espoo, Tampere, Vantaa, Turku and Oulu. The Kuusikko working groups compare the health and social services and early childhood education services in the cities. The data on customer numbers, services, personnel and costs are mainly compiled from the municipalities’ own information systems and financial statements. Experts from the cities agree on the most uniform definitions for data collection and implement the data collection in practice.