Riihenkulma Children's Home

At Riihenkulma Children’s Home, we strive to ensure that the children’s daily lives are as comfortable and enjoyable as possible. This involves taking care of basic needs and supporting schoolwork.   

The children are allowed to bring their personal belongings along to the children’s home and every child has their own room, which we will help decorate.   

The wards have a regular daily rhythm. Daily life involves morning routines, regular meals, schoolwork, curfews and set bedtimes. We support school attendance in many ways and escort younger children to school, as necessary. Rides to school can also be arranged if needed. 

After school, the children can engage in hobbies, meet friends or wind down in private.  

Adults are always present and available to help. Every child has their own personal instructor pair to ensure confidential and therapeutic relationships. Personal instructors act as trusted and safe adults for the child. 

Instructors plan weekly meetings according to each child’s wishes. For example, the children can decide on going to the cinema or out to eat with their personal instructors. Many times, the meetings are held at the children’s home and involve chatting and hanging out. 

Personal instructors ensure that children are informed, engaged and included in the activities at the home and that their thoughts and wishes are heard.  

The personal instructors also handle any necessary purchases for the children. Children are also given a weekly allowance that they can use as they please. 

Over the course of the year, we organise events, such as spring and Christmas celebrations and camps on the island of Vartiosaari. 

All children have a personal care and upbringing plan, prepared in cooperation with the child, their guardians and their case social worker. Every child also has a client plan prepared by the case social worker. 

Riihenkulma Children’s Home provides long-term foster care. We regularly assess each child’s placement outside the home in cooperation with the child, their guardians and the relevant social workers. 

We engage in goal-oriented and systematic collaboration with the families. Our aim is to maintain and strengthen the contact and continuity of relationships between children and their parents and to support the children’s growth and development according to their family’s situation and resources. 

We support all child-parent relationships and the children’s unique experiences of their families. It is important for us to involve parents in the everyday life of Riihenkulma Children’s Home, and we strive to create possibilities for them to engage in various activities. All parents are well-informed about their child’s matters and participate in finding solutions to problems and handling practical matters. 

The personal instructors are in regular contact with the guardians. We often call the parents of younger children daily. 

In the negotiation regarding the care and upbringing plan, we look into the possibility of the child returning home for a trial period. We prepare a home trial agreement with the child and their parents, which sets the objectives for the trial periods. We regularly assess the home trials’ success with the parents and the child. 

Each child can also maintain contact with other loved ones as agreed. Family members, friends and other people important to the child are welcome to visit Riihenkulma Children’s Home. 

We employ instructors and nurses with training in the social welfare and healthcare field. The demanding level also has social instructors and occupational therapists. 

The employees with neuropsychiatric coach training organise systematic neuropsychiatric coaching sessions for the children. Neuropsychiatric coaching supports the children’s strengths and helps them practice everyday life skills.  

The staff of the demanding level ward have been trained in the methods of dialectic behavioural therapy (DBT), which we use to support children in learning constructive operating and interaction models and practicing emotional regulation. 

The senior instructor oversees managing care and upbringing efforts at the wards and makes sure children are treated well. The ‘Plan for good treatment’ is a tool prepared in collaboration with the children and is used to guide work at the home. 

The children’s home psychologist meets with the children and parents as agreed. Parents can also contact the psychologist in matters regarding their child. 

We also get weekly visits from a general practitioner and a doctor specialised in neuropsychiatry. 

The home care instructor is responsible for the meal service. 

The director of the children’s home is responsible for the operations of the children’s home.