The Consultant Goes Home. The Colleagues Stay. 8 min. read. After nearly 20 years as a crisis psychologist and leader in organisations including the Red Cross, the Danish Cancer Society and the Danish Armed Forces...
We Have Made the Psychosocial Work Environment a Shared Responsibility As a development nurse in Psychiatry at Gødstrup Regional Hospital, Irene Amby has experienced how the Foundation Course in Strain Psychology...
We Have Developed a Shared Language for the Strain That Comes with the Work Head Nurse Rikke Louise Østergaard (left) and Department Management Secretary Dorthe Kondrup (right)...
Why Do We Make Managers’ Work Environment a Personal Responsibility? There is something odd about the way we talk about managers’ well-being. When employees...
Who Is Responsible for Managers’ Well-Being? “Dear manager, who is responsible for your well-being?” That question set the scene for a well-attended debate at Folkemødet 2026,...
Mette Uldbæk: “We Are Trained to Act, Save Lives and Take Responsibility” In the healthcare system, responsibility, maintaining an overview and the ability to act are strong professional ideals. But according to senior nurse...
Rikke Brokøb Ølholm Petersen: “We Must Not Lose Sight of the Pressure We Face as Employees and Managers” When expectations increase without the framework...
Malene Friis Andersen – Employees and the Consequences “When the system does not add up, employees start compensating” When expectations and working conditions in the welfare system do not align,...
Susanne Ekman – The System and the Toxic Debt “We have built up a toxic debt in the welfare system” We often talk about the solution to the pressures on the welfare system as...
When the Impossible Becomes Part of the Job – and a Shared Responsibility On the crisis of expectations, loss and moral stress. We often talk about the crisis of expectations...
Catch-22: When Professionalism Makes It Difficult to Rely on Others In many professions, the ability to take action, assume responsibility and maintain an overview is an important part of...
Psychological strain at work can arise when people are exposed to danger, violence, or other dramatic events. Such experiences can leave deep marks and require careful professional attention. But stress can also occur when work places us in situations where our values and conscience are under pressure. Here, we introduce the concepts of moral stress and moral injury.
In high-risk work – both physical and mental – the line between courage and recklessness can be very fine. We make decisions based on professional knowledge, data, and experience. We assess carefully and do our best. Yet even when a decision is well considered, the outcome can depend on factors beyond our control: luck, misfortune, and chance.
At Døgn & Familiestøtte Herning, the leadership team has worked deliberately with breaks as part of psychosocial prevention. We interviewed Center Manager Alice Eijgendaal about the key insights and lessons they have gained.
In the Social and Health Administration of Gladsaxe Municipality, employees have been working with the Institute’s digital basic course in psychological first aid. For them, the course was especially helpful in situations where everyday work can be stressful: How do we best support a colleague experiencing a crisis reaction – and how do we prevent stress from accumulating over time?
Accepting support can be more difficult than it might seem – especially for professionals whose sense of agency, responsibility, and oversight are central to their professional identity. Psychologist Rikke Høgsted calls this the Catch-22 of professional identity – a paradox in which the desire to appear strong can get in the way of seeking help.
Psychological safety and psychosocial prevention are not just one-off projects in Odense Municipality – they are a shared direction. Rehabilitation Manager Ulla Leth has decided that all employees across her four departments will complete the foundational courses in Strain Psychology and Psychological Safety.
It all started with a theme day at Learnmark Horsens, where psychological first aid was on the agenda. The topic struck a chord within the organization – and shortly thereafter, management decided to appoint 17 employees as psychological first aiders.
Nordjylland Emergency Services was recently highlighted in two articles in Kristeligt Dagblad, where Director Diana Sørensen shares their experiences with the work. She describes how themed days and the institute’s Digital Basic Course in Psychological Safety have made a decisive difference for their workplace.
Ann Rubæk-Nielsen has worked in the municipal sector within child and youth services for 25 years and has been a leader of leaders for 15 years. She describes psychological safety as a crucial component of effective leadership, enabling one to fulfill the core mission one is tasked with.
Humor provides extra energy and can be used to break a heavy or tense atmosphere. It can make a workgroup smile and even laugh together, offering the participants a brief distance from the potentially tragic situation they are in. Laughing together can be liberating and strengthens the group’s sense of community, which can in turn enhance effectiveness.
Preventing mental strain is a team effort that only succeeds if everyone in the organization—management, colleagues, and individual employees—understands their roles and responsibilities and actively contributes.
Professions in which individuals work daily or regularly with trauma, death, suffering, violence, neglect, or threats place special demands on employees and expose them to potential psychological strain.
For many employees in psychologically demanding jobs, the answer to the question WHY relates to experiencing meaningful work. That it matters to help others, defend democracy, create safety and security, care for the planet, or perhaps document the history of the oppressed.
The Red-Green-Blue Model illustrates what characterizes being “overinvolved” and “underinvolved” versus being “attuned and in contact.” The model supports a shared language and can thereby strengthen proactive, collective, and holistic strategic prevention.
No one can withstand everything. Everyone has a “breaking point” – a moment when they can’t handle any more. We know this, and it’s not new knowledge; it’s something that professionals have understood since World War II.