Helsinki day 2: THL registers, infectious diseases and care of homeless people.

In our second and last day in Helsinki, we attended a lecture in the THL about the Finnish research registers and informatical systems; then we had another lecture about the THL infectious
diseases surveillance registry and finally we went to the Helsinki city service center for
homeless people.
In the first place we could see the very well organized (and at the same time very complex and intrincate) database system, that contains information related with identification of the citizens, social and health system, among others. There are three points I would like to highlight: The first, is that information is decentralized and databases reside in different places, and nobody have access to everything at the same time, which improves security; the second point, is that researchers have access to all the information and, at the same time, there is a very strict control with the aim of protecting the identity of particular persons; and the third one, is about the high confidence people have in their authorities, and in the government in general. Information of good quality is the key for making research in public health and for designing and monitoring health interventions. This is one of the strengths of the Finnish System, and also of the Chilean one, compared with other Latin-American countries.
Also, we went to a lecture about control of infectious diseases. Very good hygienic conditions explain the low prevalence of many food transmitted diseases. Control of the Health Authority and reporting from the centers in the periphery are also very good.

Finally, we went to the center for homeless people. Here, I could notice that people who were in that situation, usually shared three interrelated problems: alcoholism, unemplyment and lack of social relationships. In Finland any person can apply for municipal social support, including a place to live and a stipend. Thus, the causes of this are not only economical and maybe are far more complex, maybe of psychological origin. On the other hand, in Chile, the problem is related with extreme material poverty and lack of opportunities, in a society characterized by huge inequities of many different kinds.