Features
Migrants’ digital competences and health information in Finland
TODAY, I focus on migrants’ digital competences and health information in Finland, a move away from the topic of personalities or groups and their accomplishments within the Ghanaian community in Finland that I have been writing on.
Worldwide, one problem faced by healthcare delivery services as well as peoples and especially patients is the provision of health information, and how patients are able to access such information.
Of late, I have been thinking about the situation of migrants or minorities in the context of their digital competences and access to health information. One can imagine the potential challenges migrants may face in accessing information, whether one looks at it as a drawback of the healthcare delivery services or the migrants’ own lack of skill.
Good Finnish healthcare services
Finland has a very good healthcare delivery system and social services accessible to all residents in the country. Information about healthcare delivery services is provided for every citizen.
Many migrants, including those in the Ghanaian community, are aware of these opportunities and are expected to take advantage of such chances. But research indicates that migrants or people with a culturally and linguistically diverse background face challenges in accessing health information.
Finnish government and health authorities have been promoting digitalisation of personal health records and aspects of healthcare services, although research has shown that some older migrants, for example, face barriers such as not having an e-ID in order to access information digitally.
Generally, patients and others need information about health, prognosis and treatment or care in order to ensure prevention or therapy for diseases, especially the chronic or life-threatening ones.
According to the World Health Organisation, chronic diseases and life-threatening illnesses are increasing worldwide in terms of morbidity and mortality. In most advanced countries such as Finland, healthcare delivery services have gone highly digital in order to ensure faster and undoubtedly an effective way of rendering health care.
Almost everywhere, research and other reports have shown that there are barriers or challenges faced by migrants in the digital systems of the countries they live in. For example, according to reports in some countries in Europe, including Finland, during the COVID-19 period, some of the barriers to public health messaging were the potentially lower levels of proficiency of migrants in the host country’s (majority) language.
Migrants’ health and wellbeing are affected by many factors, including cultural ideas of health, illnesses, and the prevention, treatment and symptoms of illnesses (see www.thl.fi). It is accepted that factors to improve health and wellbeing must be supported.
Digitalisation and access to health information
I think this is the time for Ghanaian migrants in Finland to acquire digital skills or competences in order to have an optimal benefit of the healthcare services and enhance their integration into the Finnish society.
As I have mentioned already, research and other reports have also shown that migrants or minorities face challenges accessing information due to language and other barriers. For example, there are potentially lower levels of awareness, perceptions of risk, and misconceptions not addressed in public health guidance and the national response.
Knowledge about digital competence and accessing health information among minorities such as Ghanaian/African migrants should be taken seriously, especially by the migrants themselves.
Enhancing Integration
Digital competence will thus undoubtedly be a good way to enhance integration. According to the Finnish health department, health and wellbeing are an important part of the integration process.
• Digital skills is a necessity
Migrant associations may help the health authorities and formally create awareness among their members and other migrants, usually in collaboration with some Finnish institutions, and are thus an important tool for several migrants to be positively active and to get their interest and concerns heard.
As I wrote previously, the role of migrant associations acting as bridge-builders for the integration and inclusion of migrants through participation in the decision-making process and by acting as a representative voice is highly appreciated in Finland.
The social media outlets have become an important means for disseminating information and it could be a key medium through which migrant groups or associations and other institutions could educate people.
Thank you
By Perpetual Crentsil
perpetualcrentsil@yahoo.com
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This week I have a very strong desire to put on my Apostolic Cap and talk about the power available to children of God which we can utilise to generate positive outcomes, in our lives.
There is a phrase in the Bible that if Christians meditate on, can immensely transform their lives. In Matthew 28:6 there is a phrase “… as he said…” according to the King James Version.
Thus phrase forms part of a statement declared by an angel of God to two women who were disciples of Jesus who had gone to his tomb early in the morning on the third day after his death.
According to the Biblical account, the stone covering the entrance of the tomb had been rolled away and an Angel was sitting on it and he made the statement to the effect that the Jesus they are seeking is not there and that he had risen, as he said before his death.
His resurrection affirmed the authenticity and dependability of the word of Jesus and therefore the word of God.
Christianity has to do with faith in the word of God. Pastor Mensa Otabil said if we view Christianity as an inside out view, you would go inside to operate the power that is in you.
As a Christian, the spirit of God and therefore the power of God, dwells in you. Anyone who is aware of this truth, does not go around seeking to have a so called powerful person resolve his or her spiritual issues.
Most Christians who move from prophet to prophet, do not believe that the spirit of God which operates in a Pastor or Prophet, is the same spirit that dwells in him or her.
In fact , that Christian may be more ‘powerful’ than the Prophet or Pastor he is going to for prayers because he is living a holy life, which is pleasing to God, for God is no respecter of persons according to Acts 10:34-35.
God does not give out his spirit in different measures to indwell believers. The spirit of God that dwells in a new convert, is the same spirit that dwells in a Bishop or a Prophet or an Evangelist or an Elder or a Deacon.
All you need to do as a child of God is to believe in the word of God and know that it works and that according to 1 John 4:4 we, Christians, that the Spirit of God dwells in us have overcome the world and Jesus in us, is greater than the Devil who is out in the world, wrecking havoc all around.
If we realise that we have overcome the Devil and everything he controls, then we can believe and act in faith and make declarations and just as Christ declared that he will die and on the third day, he will rise from the dead and it manifested as he said, there shall be a manifestation of our declarations also.
The problem of modern day Christians is that, a lot of them, do not study and meditate on the word of God, so they do not witness the manifestation of the power of God, in their lives.
Such an experience over time, give them the impression that the spirit of God dwells in different dimensions in believers. This then leads them to seek solutions to their challenges from so called powerful men of God.
Some Pastors also fall into this misconception of the measure of the spirit of God in believers. When the size of a Pastor’s church for instance, is not increasing the way he had been praying for self-doubt sometimes begin to set in.
Especially, if he begins to compare his church with that of say a colleague from the same Bible School, then he begins to wonder if there is not a spiritual secret he is not aware of.
This is when, if care is not taken, fellow Pastors who appears to be very successful in the ministry but are using occultic powers, could sway them from the narrow path and get them trapped in the Devil’s clutches and eventually and inevitably, destroy their lives. God bless.
By Laud Kissi-Mensah
Introduction
You have been there. Twenty tabs open comparing laptops. A blank page for an email you’ve been “thinking about” for three days. A menu with 30 options and you leave hungry.
This is decision paralysis: the state where the volume of information, options, or perceived stakes prevents you from making a decision at all. It’s not laziness. It’s a cognitive overload response.
In a data-rich environment, it’s becoming the default mode for both individuals and organisations.
This article breaks down why it happens, how it shows up, what it costs, and how to break it.
1. What decision paralysis actually is?
Decision paralysis is a failure of the decision-making system to convert information into action. Psychologists call it ‘analysis paralysis’ or ‘choice overload.’
It has three components:
1. Cognitive overload: Working memory can hold between four to seven chunks of information at once. When you try to track 20 variables, the system freezes.
2. Anticipatory regret: You overestimate the pain of making the wrong choice. The brain avoids the emotional cost by avoiding the choice.
3. Ambiguity aversion: Humans prefer known risks over unknown ones. When outcomes are uncertain, we stall.
The result is not neutral. Not deciding is a decision. It costs time, momentum, and opportunity
2. Why it’s getting worse now
2.1 Infinite options
Amazon has 350 million products. Netflix has 6000+ titles. Dating apps have unlimited profiles. The paradox of choice: more options increase initial satisfaction but decrease final satisfaction and increase regret.
2.2 Information abundance without synthesis
You can find 50 studies on sleep. Each one has caveats, conflicting results, and different methodologies. Without a framework to integrate them, more data creates more confusion, not clarity. This connects directly to the “data-rich, wisdom-poor” problem.
2.3 Reversibility anxiety
In the digital age, most decisions feel permanent. A bad post goes viral. A bad hire is public on LinkedIn. A bad career move is visible. The fear of irreversible error makes people delay.
2.4 Algorithmic mirroring
Platforms show you what you already engage with. This creates an illusion that there’s one ‘best’ option you are missing. You keep searching, convinced the optimal choice is one more scroll away.
3. How it shows up
Personal Level
Cannot pick a career path after six months of ‘research’
Spend two hours choosing a movie and watch nothing
Delay sending an email because it ‘isn’t perfect’
3.1 Organisational level
Teams spend 80 per cent of time in meetings gathering data, 20 per cent deciding
Product teams delay launch waiting for “one more data point”
KPIs multiply but no strategic choice is made
3.2 Common cognitive tells:
Endless comparison tables
Asking for one more opinion
Reframing the problem instead of solving it
Feeling drained after thinking but not acting
By Robert Ekow Grimmond-Thompson
