Denmark’s leading mental health organization SIND is launching a nationwide project to help people prepare psychologically for crises, from power cuts to hybrid warfare, amid a broader government push asking all Danes to be ready to cope alone for three days.
The organization will hold six public talks across the country later this year and is publishing practical guidance on its website. The goal is to shift people from worry to action, grounding the advice in everyday steps like stockpiling water, batteries and canned food. As reported by SIND, the project is supported by the Danish Emergency Management Agency and focuses on the mental side of a very physical question. How do you stay calm when authorities warn you might lose electricity or internet?
From Bunkers to Batteries
I have lived in Denmark long enough to remember when crisis preparedness meant Cold War bunkers and dusty civil defense plans filed away in municipal basements. Today the conversation has moved into the kitchen. Beredskabsstyrelsen now officially recommends that every household be able to manage on its own for 72 hours in the event of a crisis. That means having enough drinking water, food, medicine and a way to get information without digital infrastructure.
The shift is part of a broader national rethink of societal resilience. Denmark still has shelter space for about 3.6 million people, roughly 61 percent of the population. But the threats authorities worry about today are not nuclear strikes. They are cyberattacks on power grids, extreme weather disrupting water supply, and what military analysts call hybrid threats: disinformation, fear and deliberate attempts to divide society.
Control as Therapy
SIND’s project starts from a straightforward insight. Preparation reduces fear. When you have a flashlight, bottled water and a plan, you feel less helpless. That sense of control, the organization argues, is itself a form of mental health care. Jeanette Serritslev, a military analyst who has spent years studying information warfare and hybrid threats, is involved in the project. As stated by SIND, she emphasizes that the real weapons today are mental, using desinformation and anxiety to weaken societies from within.
Denmark has structural advantages. High trust in institutions, strong public media, and a culture of cooperation mean people are more likely to follow official advice and help neighbors. But that does not make everyone immune to dread. The war in Ukraine, climate disruption and talk of hybrid threats all fuel background anxiety. For people already living with mental illness, official warnings can tip from reassuring to overwhelming.
Practical, Not Panic
The project’s website offers concrete steps, drawn from training sessions SIND held this spring with volunteers. Start with the essentials: water, a headlamp, a wind up radio, and some canned goods. Most people already have extra food in cupboards and freezers. There is no need to rush out and buy survival blankets you will never use.
One suggestion is to turn preparedness into a social event. Invite friends over for a practice dinner with three constraints: only long shelf life ingredients, only bottled water, and no electricity. It sounds silly until you realize it gets you thinking about what you would actually do, and it makes the prospect of a blackout less abstract and more manageable.
Sharing the Load
Another idea is to prepare as a group. If you live near each other, divide responsibilities. One household might store extra water. Another has a camping grill everyone can use. A third keeps the wine, chocolate and board games for morale. The volunteers also suggested a media rotation during tense periods: one person follows the news each day and alerts the group only if something genuinely important happens. Everyone else gets a break from the cycle.
The Bigger Picture
SIND’s initiative fits into what the Danish government now calls “totalforsvar,” or total defense. The concept, revived from Cold War vocabulary, treats crisis readiness as a shared responsibility among citizens, companies and the state. New legislation fast tracks construction of defense and emergency infrastructure. A new Resilience Center Denmark is being set up to coordinate technology, research and policy on everything from cyberattacks to energy blackouts. Denmark has also signed agreements with Ukraine to share knowledge on civil protection and emergency response, learning from a country living through sustained crisis.
The official line is calm and practical. Authorities stress that a full scale war in Denmark is not considered likely. The realistic risks are temporary disruptions: a few days without power, water cuts, digital services down. Still, for some people those scenarios are frightening. For people with severe mental illness, losing access to telehealth appointments, online support networks or even the routine of daily digital contact can be destabilizing.
Who Bears the Burden
There is a quiet tension in the 72 hour recommendation. On one hand, it spreads resilience across the population and frees emergency services to focus on the most vulnerable. On the other, it shifts responsibility downward. Not everyone can afford to stockpile. Not everyone has storage space, physical capacity or cognitive bandwidth to plan. People with depression, psychosis or anxiety disorders may find the entire conversation paralyzing rather than empowering.
SIND’s approach tries to acknowledge that tension by focusing on small, manageable actions and by framing preparedness as something you can do with others. The project does not pretend that a household crisis kit solves hybrid warfare or stops climate change. It offers something narrower and more achievable: a way to feel a bit less scared
