Jokela shooting investigators say Auvinen did not get adequate treatment

Pekka-Eric Auvinen

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The gunman in the shooting at the Jokela school in late 2007 was marginalised at his school and did not get enough help for his problems, says the report of a board of inquiry into the massacre, which was published on Thursday.
      The board did not find any single cause for the shooting, and lists numerous factors that could each have had an influence on the situation.
     
One of the questions that was investigated was the state of health of the gunman, Pekka-Eric Auvinen.
      About a year and a half before the shooting Auvinen had sought help from school health care services for social anxiety.
      The doctor told him to engage in physical exercise and prescribed him SSRI (selective serotonin reuptake inhibitors) drugs. Auvinen was 16 years old at the time.
      SSRI drugs are not recommended for young people. If they are prescribed to those under legal age, a doctor must follow the patent’s life up close
      Auvinen met with doctors only rarely, and his prescriptions were filled over the telephone.
      As the symptoms continued, Auvinen’s parents tried to get a referral for their son to the youth psychiatry clinic. However, no referral was given; a lack of resources meant that referrals were reserved for those with more serious symptoms.
     
Prescribing SSRI drugs for young people is very common, according to figures put out by the Social Insurance Institution (KELA). Last year doctors wrote about 7,500 prescriptions for those aged 15 to 19.
      There were more than 800 more of them last year than in 2007, and many were not being followed up properly.
      “Unfortunately, I have met young people who have been half a year without follow-up”, says Kari Moilanen, deputy head physician of the Psychiatry Centre of the Helsinki and Uusimaa Hospital District.
     
The law does not specify how often a doctor should meet a patient who takes psycho-pharmaceutical drugs. However, the law does promise good treatment.
      According to the Jokela report, the resources of school health care in many municipalities is clearly below the level recommended by the Ministry of Social Affairs and Health.
     
The board listed 13 recommendations for measures to be taken with which the likelihood of a school attack could be reduced.
      The chairwoman of the committee, Tuulikki Petäjäniemi, sees the measures with which marginalisation could be prevented as the most important.
      According to the report, the marginalisation of Auvinen was of a special nature, manifesting itself mainly as loneliness.
      He had a caring family and he did not use intoxicants, but he had few friends and he was bullied.


Previously in HS International Edition:
  Jokela gunman said he used antidepressants (9.11.2007)
  Auvinen sought to inflict maximum damage in Jokela shootings (18.4.2008)
  Jokela gunman spent months planning massacre (17.4.2008)

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