Authors

• Finnish Institute for Health and Welfare

Keywords

drug abuse, health services, social problems, social services, substance use

Abstract

The survey charted substance use related cases in social and health services on the second Tuesday of October in 2019. Professionals in social and health services recorded information on every client or patient who used the services on that day while intoxicated or because of some harm, such as an injury, relating to substance use, or were assessed by an employee to be a substance abuser. In 2019, information was collected from prisons and community sanctions offices in addition to social welfare and health care facilities.

First, the client's intoxication was surveyed. If the client visited outpatient care, whether they had made an appointment before coming to the facility was charted. For inpatient care clients, the length of their continuous treatment at the time of data collection was charted. The daily use of products containing nicotine (e.g. cigarettes, snuff) and the substances the client had used in the past 12 months (e.g. alcohol, cannabis, cocaine) were examined. The client's simultaneous polydrug use (the simultaneous or concurrent use of two or more substances within a short time period) and whether they had ever during their life injected drugs were also surveyed.

Next, the client's primary reason for using social and health services (e.g. injury, withdrawal symptoms, substance abuse problems) and the services provided to the client (e.g. helping with life management problems, intervention, detoxication) were surveyed. The occurrence of threatening or violent behaviour by the client in the facility was also examined, and mental health problems unrelated to substance use as well as gambling problems were charted.

Background variables included, among others, the collection mode of the questionnaire, location and region (NUTS3) of the facility as well as type and sector of the facility and the language primarily used in the facility. Additionally, background variables included the client's gender, country of birth, location and region (NUTS3) of residence, marital status, age group, economic activity and occupational status, housing tenure and whether they had children under 18 years of age. Finally, information on whether the questionnaire was filled out in a Criminal Sanctions Agency facility or in a social welfare or health care facility was included.