Hanne-Maria Leppäranta

Social worker and project coordinator in Finland

Hanne-Maria is a social worker from Tampere, Finland, who has worked on developing personal budgets in Finland.

She is specialized in ASD spectrum clients and working with people who have need for support but fall in gaps between existing service structures. She is interested in developing social support services which offer individual solutions and practical assistance for clients. 

In her work, Hanne-Maria has noticed that it is far easier to get five appointments for light counselling than someone to help the client to clean his bathroom. She feels that the second option would often be far more helpful. Hanne-Maria’s professional background in public law and social work has helped her to translate the concepts and results of personalized services between social services and administration. During Finland’s preparation phase for regional government, health and social services reform in 2018, Hanne-Maria worked as a project manager and developed a needs-based model for calculating personal budgets. She is an experiencer lecturer who has also trained other social services professionals on the subject.

Currently, Hanne-Maria is interested in developing better tools for hearing of views when non-voluntary care is considered for intellectually disabled client.

Hanne-Maria has been a caregiver for a disabled family member since 2008.

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