OLKA Service Channels
Oiva Information Service
OLKA provides information about the services provided by non-profit organizations and hospitals. Organizations and hospital units organize theme days at OLKA service desks to talk about what they do and what support is available.
OLKA service desks also have brochures that can be browsed or taken home. Theme day programs are published on the local OLKA Facebook pages, and the programs are also sent to wards.
OLKA provides peer support for hospital patients and their near ones. Peer support helps patients adapt to their disease and improves self-care. Information about peer support is available through Terveyskylä’s Vertaistalo.fi service (available only in Finnish). The website also hosts the Etsi vertaistukea (Peer Support Finder, available only in Finnish) search engine that helps people find an organization that offers the peer support they need.
OLKA coordinates volunteer activities in the participating hospitals. Hospital volunteers
operate in the hospital’s public areas, wards, waiting rooms, or patient rooms.
Volunteers of the TOIVO support service work in more demanding roles, such as peer support persons and hospice support persons, while volunteers of the Voluntary ILONA Service work as lobby assistants, lend a listening ear to others, and play with children on pediatric wards.
Volunteers are easy to spot by the green vest with the words Vapaaehtoinen-Frivillig on the back.
Would You Like to Volunteer with OLKA?
The Toivo Support Service and the Voluntary Ilona Service
Helmi Developer Service
The Helmi developer service provides information and support to hospital professionals. People working in the developer service have first-hand experience of becoming ill or disabled or they have witnessed their loved one become ill or invalid, and they have been trained for their role.
Developer tasks include personal experience speeches, working group memberships, and experience-based consultations to increase professionals’ understanding of their patient’s situation. People working in the developer service are bound by confidentiality.
HELMI developer services have been developed in cooperation with the Kokemustoimintaverkosto (Lived Experience Network, available only in Finnish) of the nationwide OLKA network and organizations. Helmi developer services were piloted in three hospitals (Satasairaala, Kuopio University Hospital, Oulu University Hospital) in the fall 2020.
