One in five conscripts drops out at Santahamina Guard Jaeger Regiment

Defence Forces look to closer cooperation with mental health professionals

print this

One in five national servicemen who commenced their compulsory military service at Helsinki’s Santahamina Guard Jaeger Regiment in July has since dropped out. The figure is twice the national average.
      The draftees carrying out their armed service in Santahamina originate from the capital area.
      At the Defence Forces, the poor condition and progress of the national servicemen from Helsinki has been noted before. A couple of years ago, out of Santahamina’s roughly one thousand conscripts nearly 300 dropped out.
      Chiefly the reasons for this are health-related.
      “In urban areas there are more unfit people than in the countryside, where distances are longer and less fast food is available”, says Defence Staff spokesman Eero Karhuvaara.
     
The average height of a conscript has not really changed in the last fifteen years.
      The average weight, in turn, has increased from 70.8 kilograms in 1993 to 77 kg.
      “Here in the South we have the most fast food restaurants combined with unsatisfactory pastime opportunities. When was the last time one was able to ski or ice-skate here?” Karhuvaara ponders the situation of the city dwellers.
      Karhuvaara also sees the conscripts’ poor level of fitness as a public health risk.
      “You don’t have to be a superman to make it through the army. If already at the age of 20 a young man is in such poor shape, how can he later manage in working life?”
      Discontinuing one’s military service because of drug abuse has become less frequent in the current decade. According to Karhuvaara the reason for this is the tighter screening in the conscription phase. In the army, drug habits are monitored through spot checks.
     
In addition to Santahamina, the young men from the capital area can carry out their military service for example in the Karelia Brigade, Pori Brigade, Riihimäki Signal Regiment, and the Gulf of Finland Naval Command in Upinniemi.
      Also in Riihimäki the percentage of drop-outs has risen in the last couple of years from 10% to 13 or 14%
      Defence Command recruitment officer Commander-Captain Jyrki Kivelä warns against branding certain garrisons based on the figures for one age-cohort of recruits.
      The drop-out percentages vary from one year to the next, he says.
      Nationwide, however, the number of those discontinuing their national service has nearly doubled in the last ten years. Of the July conscripts, so far 11.3 per cent have already dropped out.
     
Often conscripts also quit their service because of mental problems.
      “In the capital area there is less peer support than in smaller places. Even guys from the same building do not necessarily know each other”, Kivelä summarises. In the conscription check-up minor mental problems often go unnoticed.
      “If a man has not dealt with a lot of people before and has not had many restrictions to his life, entering into the army will mark a significant change. Not everyone can cope with this.”
     
Kivelä wishes for tighter co-operation between the army and the mental health professionals.
      “It does not serve anybody’s interest if people come here to experiment whether they will get by or not.”
      In addition to preventive measures Kivelä also recommends staying physically fit. “When blood circulates in the toes and fingers, it circulates in the head as well.”


Previously in HS International Edition:
  Finnish military fights flabby conscripts with low-calorie diets (21.4.2008)
  Minister of Defence Häkämies: Swedish motion to give up compulsory military service is not for Finland (16.5.2007)
  Numbers of those exempted from military service heading upwards (10.6.2008)

Helsingin Sanomat