Ohkola opens new forensic psychiatric facilities with private rooms
Wednesday 11th November 2026 on 13:45 in
Finland
The Ohkola forensic psychiatric hospital in Mäntsälä will open new facilities on Monday, giving every patient a private room, Yle reports. The hospital’s capacity will remain at 120 beds.
The new building is designed to support more individualised care and combines new and existing sections into one hospital. It includes patient wards, therapy and meeting rooms, spaces for visits, a gym and an outdoor fitness area.
Each ward has its own outdoor courtyard, allowing some patients to spend as much time outside as they wish. The fenced grounds include different kinds of outdoor spaces that can also be used by patients in more challenging situations. Hospital officials say the new facilities also improve security and supervision.
Ohkola has seven wards. Fifty-six existing beds are moving into the new sections, but the total number of beds is not increasing, despite demand. HUS chief physician Joni Liskola said there are more patients in Finland and in the HUS area who need intensive inpatient psychiatric care than there are beds available. He also said that a shortage of general psychiatric beds could leave the need for intensive care beds unmet in the future.
Forensic psychiatric patients have been ordered into involuntary psychiatric hospital treatment following a mental state examination. They often stay in hospital for a long time, with treatment focused on planned activities and rehabilitation. Their return to life outside hospital is often supervised and guided. The wards also conduct court-ordered mental state examinations to assess a person’s criminal responsibility at the time of an alleged offence and their need for treatment.
Construction began in summer 2024. The new building cost 44 million euros, compared with an advance estimate of about 38 million euros.
Finland’s forensic psychiatric hospitals are in Kuopio, Vaasa and Mäntsälä. The Niuvanniemi Hospital in Kuopio has 297 beds and the Vanha Vaasa Hospital has 178; both operate under the direction of the Finnish Institute for Health and Welfare. The HUS unit in Ohkola has 120 beds. A psychiatric prison hospital also operates under the institute, with 40 beds at Turku Prison and 14 at Vantaa Prison.