The City of Helsinki must acknowledge the promotion of mental health as an important objective that should be reflected in the city’s operations in a cross-sectoral manner. Mental health effects must be taken into account in decision-making processes, especially those concerning students. This can be done by adopting mental health impact assessments on different levels of the decision-making structures.

The right of those suffering from mental health challenges to receive sufficient care must be reinforced by increasing resources for personnel and care in both basic and specialised health care. The number of doctors specialising in psychiatry in basic health care must be increased. Patients’ access to specialised health care must be made easier and the number of places for treatment increased. The availability of psychologist services for young people must be increased by increasing the number of psychologists at each level of education.

The availability of functional low-threshold services for young people must be ensured by adopting a therapy guarantee and reinforcing operating models that have already been proven to work, such as Mieppi. Young people should be taught mental health skills, and enforced personnel ratios that account for mental wellbeing should be created for student health care and health care provided in educational institutions. The city should further ensure sufficient resources for exchange students’ health care. Multilingualism must be taken into account in the services of the City of Helsinki.

A total of 500 new student apartments must be attained in Helsinki every year. The number of student apartments as well as their location must be taken into account in planning and plot conveyance. In addition to this, the student apartments must be constructed near campuses and good public transport connections whenever possible.

To reach the ambitious production goal for student apartments, we need efficient construction above all. This can be achieved by simplifying planning and abandoning unnecessary requirements such as the norm on parking spaces and the requirement for business premises, especially when constructing student apartments. High-rise construction should also be the goal in Helsinki so as to utilise the limited space more efficiently. The Student Union demands that during the next council term, the council boosts apartment construction, especially by making concessions to unnecessary planning requirements, and support entities operating for the public good to ensure they have decent opportunities to produce and maintain student apartments. In addition to this, we want social and affordable apartment production to be secured

Public transport should be an affordable and easily accessible mode of transport for students. The student discount in HSL’s transport must be restored to 50%, and the discount must also apply to single tickets. HSL’s student discounts must continue to cover all students who have registered for attendance.

Investments must be made in rail traffic connections in particular. The development of the Science Tram and the City Rail Loop must be actively pursued. The city must strive to increase the use of environmentally friendly rail traffic in particular. As one way of promoting this, the Student Union proposes the implementation of congestion charges, which should be supported by making significant simultaneous investments in a park-and-ride system. The City Centre campus of the University of Helsinki must be made car-free, and cycling must be promoted in campus areas and between campuses.