Role and responsibility of educational institutions

Students preparing for high-risk mental professions must, for several reasons, be introduced to strain psychology from the very beginning of their studies. An obvious reason is to help students make informed career choices, giving them a chance to change courses if they realize they do not want to expose themselves to the mental risks associated with professions such as doctor, priest, police officer, prison guard, midwife, soldier, social worker, journalist, etc. Another important reason is that students can gradually mature in taking responsibility for the people they are being trained to help and can, from the start, learn to take care of colleagues and themselves. During their studies, they get to try different strategies and learn more about themselves.

“One of the experienced teachers in the medical program spoke about it every year, saying: ‘In five years, you will be responsible for potentially losing a patient. Now four years. Now three years…’ It was actually reassuring, because it helped students get used to the fact that it could happen.”

Many students are also exposed to high-risk workplaces through internships or student jobs, in healthcare, social work, and even media.

“At Utøya, all editorial staff were on holiday, so very young people were left in front of the screens, seeing images flood in. Completely unfiltered. As a war photographer, I have chosen to confront myself with horrific events through a camera lens. But when these images arrive back at the newsroom, the horrors are unfiltered and unprepared for. It can be very overwhelming for them.”

Role and responsibility of the organization

A mentally sustainable organization is committed to delivering professional work to clients while ensuring that employees are protected from harm. Some organizations are large, with thousands of employees across many countries; others are small, sometimes just one person. Regardless of size, each employee has only one direct supervisor and a core group of colleagues they collaborate with daily. The organization holds the legal responsibility and must ensure up-to-date personnel policies that include preventive practices to avoid harm and procedures for support if harm occurs.

It starts at hiring: organizations must inform applicants about the mental risks of the job and the collective responsibility to prevent trauma exposure from causing mental harm or reduced judgment. Applicants should also be encouraged to discuss this with their personal support network to ensure accepting a position is well-considered.

Top leaders must actively model responsibility for their own and other leaders’ well-being. Stress, frustration, or dissatisfaction in leadership inevitably spreads to the entire organization. Leaders are also responsible for ensuring physical safety and employment conditions that meet employee needs for reduced hours, leave, or senior arrangements. With professionals staying longer in the workforce, leaders need awareness of preventing cumulative strain reactions.

The organization must create a learning culture, especially regarding mistakes employees occasionally make. The focus should be on organizational responsibility and what the organization – and perhaps the sector – can learn, rather than placing blame on individuals.

“In the Armed Forces, we used the terms ‘Lesson Identified’ and ‘Lesson Learned’. These were established concepts long before I joined, and they had a calming effect on me. It was like… well, there have been generations before me who also didn’t always complete the task perfectly. It sent a strong signal that not only can we improve, but we are also professionally obligated to do so.”

Role and responsibility of the leader

Being a leader in a high-risk mental workplace requires balance. Dealing with trauma, death, suffering, violence, neglect, or threats requires a clear and compassionate leader who sets boundaries and priorities. Employees need space to process intense experiences. Staff carry significant responsibility for others, whether in hospitals, accident sites, offices, or at clients’ homes. They make themselves available, applying empathy to gain trust and create solid action plans. Leaders must set clear work frameworks while trusting employees with responsibility – which can feel paradoxical but is central to leadership.

Recruitment

It goes without saying that hiring people with the right competencies is crucial. However, this becomes even more important in roles where mistakes or uncertainty on the part of the employee can have serious consequences for those they are meant to help. Furthermore, a gap between the demands placed on the employee and their professional and personal competencies can create a risk that the person experiences mental strain.

Once the right person has been hired, it is the leaders’ responsibility to ensure that the new employee acquires a basic understanding of strain psychology, if they do not already have it, and also receives a thorough introduction to the organization’s own concrete preventive practices. This ensures that the new employee remains professionally competent while taking good care of both colleagues and themselves.

High task awareness, clear frameworks, and professional leadership
A central part of a leader’s responsibility involves maintaining high task awareness and establishing clear roles within the workgroup. When a task is well-defined, and there is clarity regarding both responsibility and decision-making authority as well as the boundaries within which the task must be performed, it becomes possible for individual employees or the team to develop a solid plan for completing the work and to have realistic professional expectations of themselves. A clear understanding of what one’s current task is, combined with a shared alignment of expectations with both the leader and colleagues, increases the likelihood of later being satisfied with one’s own performance—a crucial protective factor. It is also the leader’s responsibility to ensure that employees continually have the right competencies and opportunities for professional development through peer training, courses, and further education.

Employees in high-risk mental jobs are often proud professionals with a strong sense of vocation, taking pride in helping others and performing their tasks at a high professional level. A key part of a leader’s responsibility is therefore professional leadership. If a leader does not possess the relevant professional background, it should be made clear to everyone who the professionally responsible person is—the one employees can turn to with questions or doubts about their work. A professional who has lost their balance and begun to either over- or under-involve themselves needs professional support to return to their tasks and to their professional self.

Professional language use

It is also the leader’s responsibility to ensure the use of professional language. In roles where employees are regularly exposed to mental strain, which may lead to over- or underinvolvement, this can directly affect how they communicate. Language often reveals when imbalance occurs. Overinvolvement may, for instance, show through an anxious or irritable tone, dramatic or overly affectionate expressions, or frequent use of familiar terms. Conversely, underinvolvement can manifest in a restrained or cold tone, judgmental expressions, or very formal and dry language. If such imbalances have persisted over a long period – perhaps across generations – the language itself may become harsh and blunt, sometimes peppered with slang, nicknames, or pet names.

Strategic planning

The leader also has the overall responsibility to allocate tasks in a way that makes the best use of the group’s combined resources. How the leader chooses to exercise this responsibility will vary from organization to organization. In some workplaces, it is customary—and perhaps even preferred—that the leader primarily distributes the tasks. In others, it is customary for the team, together with the leader, to decide on task allocation. Regardless of which approach is used, there are six principles to keep in mind that directly affect how much the work impacts individuals. These principles are:

1. The principle of teams
2. The principle that the most difficult tasks are, by definition, the team’s
3. The principle of variation
4. The principle of deliberate task allocation
5. The principle of using the best part of working time on the most challenging tasks
6. The principle of deliberate transitions

Responsibility for one’s own and employees’ well-being

Just as top management must, a leader must of course take both their own and the team’s well-being seriously. Even if any signs of distress can have many causes—and do not necessarily relate to high emotional demands—they should always be taken into account. They form the underlying tone of the job on which all other factors rest. Loss of motivation, lack of trust, dissatisfaction with leadership, collaboration problems, and exhaustion may not—but can—be symptoms of external stressors. It is therefore important to take sufficient time to thoroughly investigate the causes of distress, so that inappropriate measures are not implemented.

And finally, the leader—just like everyone else in the organization—must remember to share. The hard, the difficult, the fun, the frustrating, the challenging, and the meaningful aspects of being a leader in a mentally high-risk environment!