The course focuses on applied crisis psychology and provides knowledge about different methods for helping and supporting people affected by crisis – including the method of psychological first aid, which is a legal requirement in workplaces where employees are at particular risk of experiencing traumatic incidents.

The topics are presented in an accessible and easy-to-understand way, making the course suitable for all employees. It creates a shared language through models, metaphors, and key concepts, and ensures pedagogical consistency by offering the same learning framework across the organisation.

The course takes a holistic and collective approach to prevention by identifying concrete courses of action for the individual employee, for colleagues, for managers, and for the organisation as a whole. A central message of the course is that the most effective prevention is grounded in social support and human connection – ensuring that people affected by crisis remain connected to others.

The course can be used:

• For internal training or themed days for entire departments, leadership teams, TRIO groups, or the occupational health and safety organization, e.g., as supplementary occupational health education.
 
• As a shared starting point for specific initiatives regarding, for example, sick leave, collaboration, well-being, and job satisfaction.

• As part of the onboarding program for new employees and leaders.

The course is aimed at workplaces where there is a particular risk of experiencing traumatic incidents. In such contexts, occupational health and safety legislation includes a legal requirement to provide psychological first aid.

This applies to employees:

• who work on public roads and may therefore be at risk of being struck by vehicles in the course of their work.

• who operate heavy moving machinery on construction sites or in agriculture.

• whose work involves a risk of exposure to high voltage, explosions, fire, drowning, or suffocation. 

• in mentally high-risk professions – that is, roles involving high emotional demands and/or regular exposure to traumatic events, either directly or indirectly.

The course is structured around the model The Help Pyramid and provides concrete guidance on self-help, peer support, psychological first aid, and managerial support – including crisis leadership in acute incidents and psychological defusing. The course also includes guidelines on when to involve professional specialists.

The course consists of two parts: a foundation programme of five modules for everyone in the organisation, and an advanced programme of five modules aimed at designated psychological first aiders, the occupational health and safety organisation, work environment, leadership or development consultants, and managers.

Each module includes a short video, ending with a reflection exercise, and participants are encouraged to take notes in the accompanying workbook. Afterwards, participants are encouraged to discuss their own experiences with the topic.

The course can be delivered either as online training or as in-person sessions. The running time of the modules varies depending on the topic but typically ranges between 6 and 9 minutes. The total video running time of the course is 85 minutes. The overall duration of the course will depend on how much time is allocated for reflection and discussion. The course package includes suggested programme outlines for a full-day session, a half-day session, or delivery of one module at a time over an extended period.

The course package consists of:

• A course manual, including three sample programme outlines for inspiration when planning and delivering the course.

• Access to the 10 video modules in the Digital Foundation Course in Psychological First Aid.

• Module overview (PDF), which can be printed and distributed to participants.

• A workbook with reflection exercises (PDF) to be printed and distributed to participants.

• A supplementary worksheet, “The Help Pyramid” (PDF), which can be printed and distributed to participants.

• Supplementary worksheet ”How to… Self-help” (PDF), which can be printed out and handed out to participants.

• A supplementary worksheet, “How to… Self-Help” (PDF), which can be printed and distributed to participants.

• A supplementary worksheet, “How to… Peer Support” (PDF), which can be printed and distributed to participants.

• A supplementary worksheet, “How to… Supporting Employees” (PDF), which can be printed and distributed to participants.

• A supplementary worksheet, “How to… Psychological Defusing” (PDF), which can be printed and distributed to participants.

• A supplementary worksheet, “How to Practise the Methods” (PDF), which can be printed and distributed to participants.

• A checklist outlining the legal requirements (PDF), which can be printed and distributed to participants.

• A supplementary worksheet, “Who Should Receive Support?” (PDF), which can be printed and distributed to participants.

• A supplementary worksheet, “The Four Lines” (PDF), which can be printed and distributed to participants.

Course materials are delivered electronically via a link that provides the unit/department with access to the content. This access is exclusive to the specific unit/department and must not be shared with others.

If you wish to use your own learning management system or course platform, the materials can generally be delivered for integration there as well.

The modular structure of the course makes it highly flexible and allows for different forms of competence development*:

The Group Model: A format in which a group completes the course together and reflects collectively on the content of each module along the way. The course can be facilitated by a designated coordinator – for example, a manager, team leader, occupational health and safety representative, or an internal work environment consultant.

Duo Model: A one-on-one model, where the course is taken together with a colleague, or for managers, together with a peer manager. The duo model can also be used by interns and their supervisors, mentees and mentors, or new employees and their onboarding managers.

The Self-Study Model: A format in which the participant – the individual employee or manager – completes the course independently and takes notes in the accompanying worksheet for personal use throughout the process.

*Please note: the course is sold exclusively to organizations and requires a minimum of ten licenses.

The do-it-yourself principle activates the organisation’s own resources and makes it easy to adapt the course to local conditions. When the course is facilitated by internal staff, it naturally strengthens ownership, which often makes implementation smoother and more sustainable. In addition, it eliminates the cost of engaging an external consultant.

The course is based on principles that comply with the preventive requirements set out in the Danish Working Environment Act’s Executive Order on the Performance of Work – Danish Working Environment Authority (at.dk). These are principles that organisations are required to know and apply in their preventive efforts, and which the Danish Working Environment Authority uses when assessing the psychosocial work environment during inspections.