Referral to a psychologist
You can get a referral to a psychologist from your primary doctor in Denmark. Based on a conversation with you, your doctor will assess whether you fulfil the conditions for reimbursement of psychological counselling through the Danish Health Insurance. As a starting point, you must report within 6 months of the incident and fall into one of the following groups of people. The list is the result of an agreement between Sygesikringen and the Danish Psychological Association.
- robbery, violence and victims of rape
- traffic and accident victims
- relatives of severely mentally ill people
- people affected by a severely debilitating illness
- relatives of people affected by a seriously debilitating illness
- next of kin in the event of death
- people who have attempted suicide
- women who have had an induced abortion after 12 weeks of pregnancy
- people who have been victims of incest or other sexual offences before the age of 18
- people who have mild to moderate depression and are 18 years old or over at the time of referral
- people who suffer from mild to moderate anxiety, including mild to moderate OCD, and are 18 years of age or older at the time of referral
The reimbursement is 60% of the psychologist's fee.
You can receive reimbursement for a maximum of 12 consultations. However, the doctor can choose - at the request of the psychologist - to re-refer people who need psychological counselling for depression and anxiety. In this way, you can receive reimbursement for psychological counselling for up to 24 consultations.
What is a crisis psychologist?
Psychologist is a protected title. This means that only people who have completed the university programme cand.psych. or MA in psychology are entitled to call themselves psychologists.
Crisis psychologists are psychologists who have specialised in psychotraumatology (crisis psychology) as part of their further training. These psychologists therefore have special experience in treating people who have been exposed to a traumatising event.
At www.psykologeridanmark.dk you can search for a psychologist with specialised training in psychotraumatology and read more about what psychologists specialising in psychotraumatology can do. Please note the website is only in Danish.
Other options for getting help
Some people will find themselves in a situation where they are not covered by the National Health Insurance and therefore have to pay for psychological counselling themselves. It can feel deeply unfair to be in a crisis that is not on the National Health Insurance list or simply falls outside the time limit.
If you can't get a reimbursement, talk to your doctor about what alternatives you have. In some cases, the workplace or social services will provide crisis counselling. Some private organisations also provide funding for psychological counselling, including the insurance company Falck and Sygeforsikringen Danmark (only if you have been referred under the public health insurance scheme). In addition, there are many associations and centres that provide help for traumatised people, often in the form of telephone counselling, group sessions or individual face-to-face sessions. On the research pages you can find links to some of these organisations.
There is still much debate about which people need crisis counselling - some believe that the population is becoming wrapped up in cotton wool, while others believe that some of the people who fall outside the 'category' also have a real need for crisis counselling. The Danish Center for Psychotraumatology's goal is to create and disseminate greater knowledge about psychotrauma pathology to ensure that the right help is provided to those who need it.