International collaboration brings new opportunities to support mental health in workplaces

Press release 17.6.2025

Every workplace has psychosocial risk factors and resources that are connected to work or working conditions. Psychosocial risk factors, such as factors related to the content of work, work arrangements, or the social functionality of the work community, can cause harmful strain on employees and impact their health. 

An international development project sought solutions to promote the prevention of psychosocial risks through enhanced collaboration. In the project, each participating country identified its short-, medium-, and long-term development needs and prioritized development proposals.

Cross-border cooperation is essential, as many countries face similar challenges. These challenges can be tackled by sharing effective national practices and exploring innovative opportunities for international collaboration. 

– Together, we can work toward preventing psychosocial risks in workplaces, promoting mental health-supportive practices, and examining their effectiveness. By combining our expertise, we can work more efficiently toward these common goals, says Elina Virtanen, Senior Specialist at the Finnish Institute of Occupational Health.

The expert group emphasizes the importance of fostering shared understanding and promoting education on psychosocial factors

An expert group established in Finland for the project highlights the need to create a mutual understanding of psychosocial factors in the workplace and their impact on employees' well-being.

– Creating shared terminology and achieving tripartite consensus among workplaces, occupational health services, and occupational safety authorities is crucial. This fosters commitment to building healthier, more productive, and fairer work environments in Finland, continues Elina Virtanen, the coordinator of the national expert group. 

Building a shared knowledge base can be achieved particularly through developing multidisciplinary education for appointed occupational safety and health representatives, as well as occupational health professionals.

The expert group also proposes, in the national action plan, the creation of a systematic, comparable approach to identifying and assessing psychosocial factors. It also recommends evaluating the effectiveness and cost-effectiveness of mental health-promoting workplace practices at the system, workplace, and individual levels.

– Every international actor involved in the project has appreciated the fact that each country has been able to focus on the aspects to be developed in the project based on their own starting points. The opportunity for cross-sectoral cooperation has also been considered important, says Owe Österbacka, Senior Specialist at the Finnish Institute of Occupational Health and a leader of the transnational expert group.

The Mental Health First Aid Kit gathers resources to support workplaces

The Mental Health First Aid Kit helps small businesses and entrepreneurs support employees with mental health issues. The kit includes the Mental health toolkit developed by the Finnish Institute of Occupational Health, offering free tools for creating a work culture that supports mental well-being.

Explore the Mental Health First Aid Kit: First-Aid Kit for Mental Health | NDPHS

MentalHealthMatters Project

• The project's goal was to increase awareness of workplace psychosocial risk factors in Baltic Sea countries that are part of the EU Northern Dimension Partnership in Public Health and Social Well-being (NDPHS) network.
• The expert group/the national community of practice consisted of 16 members from the Finnish Institute of Occupational Health, the Ministry of Social Affairs and Health, universities, universities of applied sciences, the Federation of Finnish Enterpreneurs, and labor market organizations. The group collaborated with national expert groups from Estonia, Latvia, Norway, and Poland.
• The representatives of the partner countries in the development project also formed an international expert group, where the results of the national expert groups were processed step by step.
• The project was led by NDPHS and funded by the Interreg Baltic Sea Region program's small project funding.
• Learn more about the project: Mental Health Matters | Finnish Institute of Occupational Health
• Visit the international project page: MentalHealthMatters - Interreg Baltic Sea Region

Further Information

• Elina Virtanen, National Expert Group, Senior Specialist, Finnish Institute of Occupational Health, tel. +358 50 411 3405, elina.virtanen@ttl.fi
• Owe Österbacka, Transnational Expert Group, Senior Specialist, Finnish Institute of Occupational Health, tel. +358 43 824 3768, owe.osterbacka@ttl.fi
• Saara Rissanen, Project Manager, NDPHS, tel. +358 50 408 8282, saara.rissanen@ndphs.org
• Ülla-Karin Nurm, Director, NDPHS, tel. +46 8 400 20 600, ulla.karin.nurm@ndphs.org