Name:	Ulrika Krook
Year of birth:	1978
County:	West Uusimaa
Town:	Kirkkonummi
Title:	Lawyer, university teacher

Member in:

Ulrika
Krook

West Uusimaa

"Functional wellbeing-services are made together"

Hello!

My name is Ulrika Krook, and I am a lawyer specialized in the law concerning social services and healthcare, human rights and administration. I teach law at Helsinki University, in the department of Svenska social- och kommunalhögskolan, focusing on topics such as children's rights, care of the elderly, healthcare, social services, and wellbeing services provided by the counties. Additionally, I provide training for staff working in social and healthcare, early childhood education and schools. I participated as an expert when the wellbeing services were prepared to be set up in the county of Western Uusimaa.

Functioning social service and primary healthcare are the foundations of our welfare society. We need reliable services when we have children, when accidents occur, or when you or a family member falls ill or has a disability. Today, this is not the reality. Therefore, we need decision-makers who understand laws, administration and the similarities and differences between healthcare and social services.

I am active in social and healthcare organizations and serve as vice-chair of the Hem och Skola association (PTA i.e. parents teachers association). By collaborating with associations and organizations, we can utilize existing expertise to develop and ensure access to Swedish-language and bilingual services—this is also economically advantageous.

As a committed parent, I want to focus on preventive measures and student welfare, including more school social workers and psychologists. Child healthcare should also include social workers. I want to improve cooperation between schools, student welfare, organizations, and associations.

With over 15 years of work experience in social and healthcare organizations, I am ready to contribute my knowledge and expertise to realize functional and accessible services and care.
Together, we can create a welfare system that works for everyone.

My family and friends are important to me. I am a professional, driven, and empathetic person who enjoys singing in a choir and practicing Pilates.
Feel free to contact me and follow me on Facebook and Instagram to stay updated on my campaign and our common goals.

Ulrika

Important political topics

Safe living

I want to work for:
• Equal, functional, and accessible social and primary care as well as specialized healthcare – regardless of mother tongue, place of residence, age, gender, disability, hbtqi, life situation, or financial circumstances. Equal opportunities across the entire wellbeing- services-county.
• The inclusion of mobile health stations, such as health buses.
• Supporting our personnel – flexibility and opportunities for career development and education must be ensured.
• Ensuring that the wellbeing services county functions in reality in both Swedish and Finnish for both users and staff.
• Swedish-specific solutions with service vouchers and personal budgeting, allowing small and medium-sized producers, including producers from the civil society, to thrive in procurement processes.
• Securing the operational conditions of voluntary fire brigades.
• Ensuring ambulances are within reasonable distance – also in the western parts of the region.
• Improving citizens' trust in the wellbeing services county and public services.
• A holistic approach where, in addition to economics, human values such as promoting and maintaining health, functional capacity, and welfare, as well as equality, equity, and social security, guide operations and decision-making.
• Embracing future visions – planning and developing services together with organizations, municipalities, and educational providers, while investing in the welfare region's research, development, and innovation activities, also in Swedish. Enhancing the competence center at Raseborg Hospital with necessary actors for social services.

Thriving children, adolescents and families

I want to work for:
• Preventive services and holistic thinking – providing children, youth, and families with help and support in time to avoid greater needs and more expensive services. Examples include home services for families, family work, and strengthening children’s and students’ socio-emotional skills and mental well-being together with schools and daycare centers.
• Ensuring that families with children have access to home services for families, even when the children are sick, when the right to stay at home has ended, or when a single parent falls ill with influenza or severe stomach flu.
• Ensuring that both child healthcare and early childhood education services have school social workers – every municipality should have at least one child health clinic with social workers and psychiatric nurses.
• Collaborating with municipalities and associations to create groups that strengthen family cohesion in their natural environments.
• Strengthening student welfare – every municipality or larger school complex should have at least one leading school social worker and psychiatric nurse.
• Cooperation between schools, social services, the police, and associations to increase safety for youth and prevent gang criminality.

Functioning social welfare

I want to work for:
• Increased visibility and better knowledge of social services such as home care, 24/7 care, disability services, and transportation services.
• Sufficient resources for social services, including their staff – the number of clients per social worker in disability and elderly services must be limited.
• Smaller residential units within disability and elderly services to promote and maintain clients' functional capacity and improve job satisfaction for staff.
• Preventive measures in elderly services – for example, physiotherapy for elderly people and home care including cooking, errands, and outdoor activities to delay the need for heavier and more expensive housing options.
• Social and health guidance for elderly people – providing information about social services to enable planning and awareness of available options. Early detection of memory illnesses and other health issues to slow down or even stop their progression.
• Developing community living concepts and options that allow elderly people to plan their housing so services, support, and care can be easily increased when needed.
• Ensuring that elderly people can combine public and private services to meet their individual needs and safeguard self-determination.
• Ensuring carers have access to the support and services they are entitled to and breaks – short-term care services are also needed in Swedish.
• Strengthening participation and independence for persons with disabilities and their families – utilizing the opportunities provided by the new disability act and ensuring access to rehabilitation.
• Piloting Swedish-language services with service vouchers and personal budgeting to develop various service forms for persons with disabilities, such as housing, training, supported decision-making and short-term care.
• Taking care of our specialized staff and limiting the number of clients per worker so time and resources are sufficient to implement the new disability act in accordance with the Convention on the Rights och Persons with Disabilities.