Last Week in Denmark

Denmark’s International Party Movement, Budget 2026 Highlights, Students Learn Mental Health: LWID S4E12

• Season 4 • Episode 12

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We're starting early to build a better Denmark. This week, Dom and Fionn explore Billund’s new International Party, Denmark’s 2026 Finance Plan, and a pilot program adding mental health to school curriculums. From sugar tax cuts to climate investments and classroom wellbeing, they unpack how these changes reflect a Denmark that’s slowly becoming more inclusive—socially, politically, and emotionally. Listen to the full episode to learn how internationals, families, and students may all feel the ripple effects of these shifts.

Topics: 

(04:11) Denmark’s International Party Movement
(14:30) Budget 2026 Highlights
(24:00) Students Learn Mental Health

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Dom:

Welcome to the Last Week in Denmark podcast. Each week, two of our community members talk through Danish news stories and developments and how they impact internationals living here. I'm Dom and I'm here with Fionn:. In this episode, we will discuss three very interesting topics. Number one, Billit's International Party running in the local elections. Number two, the government's financial plan for 2026. And number three, mental health as a subject in schools. Before we get going though, we'd like to ask one thing. If what we're talking about resonates with you, please screenshot this episode and share it on social media. We're here to help internationals in Denmark stay informed and feel connected. Thanks for helping us reach more people like you. Hello, Fion. Nice to see you. How are you doing?

Fionn:

I'm good, Dom. I'm good. You know what? I was about to make a comment on the autumn weather and I feel like I've probably opened every single episode of this podcast that I've been on with some sort of comment about the weather. So I'll stretch my legs and not talk about that. It is a bit more autumny, but that's about it. No, I'm good. We just had the school holidays recently or the efterår ferie. That's a new thing to me. My kid is in school for the first time this year, so the sudden change in lack of flexibility is terrifying. But on the other hand, it's nice to, you know, have an excuse to take a few days off.

Dom:

Yeah, I think that's nice. Yeah, very nice. I think it's also good that your kid just started school because you'll probably have something interesting to say about our last topic about mental health as a subject. But, yeah, I've been good. I've also been thinking about commenting on the weather, but I think that's a bit cliche, so I think we can skip over that. Yeah. I've also just had a good week doing a lot of work, and it's always nice when we do a podcast because then I can do some research and learn more about new things. So very excited.

Fionn:

Yeah, absolutely. I don't know about you, but what I find as an international living in Denmark, I still read the news from my home country more than I read the Danish news. I still kind of check Danish news every day or every other day, but naturally enough, the news in my home country where I haven't lived for 11, nearly 12 years, but still, it's more easily digestible and understandable for me. So I actually, I love when I have a week when I'm doing the podcast because it forces me to engage that little bit deeper with the news  of the week or last week and to also speak to not only my friends, but my family. It forces me to speak to my family, but it's really nice speaking to my inlaws who are, you know, two Danish people from Fyn who like my parents in law, who are in their 60s and 70s and obviously have a very different perspective on the world than an international living in Copenhagen in their 30s. Right. Not that I need to be forced to talk to them at all, but I definitely feel like.

Dom:

But it's a good excuse.

Fionn:

Yeah. And you know, my. My father in law is a local politician. He won't be running for election again this time, so I don't need to worry about saying anything too. Too shameful. But it's definitely. It gives me more topics that I can connect with to my parents in law. So that's really nice.

Dom:

Yeah, that's really nice. And also I think reading the news is a good, a good opportunity to practice some Danish. Even though I have to tell you, when I was reading the finance plan for 2026, I didn't understand much. They were using very fancy language, so I had to translate that.

Fionn:

Yeah. Google, like Google Translate. Just being a part of Chrome has definitely made my life easier in so many ways. But it is a bit of a crutch, definitely. But yeah, for sure. I mean, researching this podcast is a lot easier and I feel like the end product is a lot better for our listeners with me using a translation software versus me not using a translation software because it probably wouldn't be the most informative. It was like, I understand that there is a finance bill.

Dom:

Yeah.

Fionn:

And that was as far as I got.

Dom:

That's what matters.

Fionn:

Exactly. Exactly.

Dom:

Should we jump into the first topic which also seems close to your heart, which is local elections, because for the first time in Danish local elections, we have a party that's composed only of internationals and that is the Billund International Party. And they want to represent the municipality's 4464 international citizens who make up for more than 16% of the municipality's population and 12.7% of the people who can vote. What do you think? Would you vote for a party that's only comprised of internationals, or would you rather vote for a party that's maybe a bit more mixed?

Fionn:

That's a great question, actually. I would rather vote for a party that's a bit more mixed, but that's. I feel a bit more aspirational. And actually, I think that to me is the really interesting thing that Simone, Giuseppe Ughieri and the three others are doing with the Billund International list, because they've stated that their goal is not necessarily to win. And I think that's very noble in the sense, but also actually really interesting because the thing that has stood out to me really from this, aside from the fact that I think this is historic and groundbreaking, but you know, I always like to think about the kind of real politic around this as well. And I did see that the mayor of Billund municipality, Stephanie Storbank, who is from Venster, thought it was super positive. Right. And the Billund International list have also said that, yeah, everybody thinks it's super positive. And we've been really pleasantly surprised by the kind of political maturity that in. In Denmark, like, people aren't going, oh, no, another new competitor. They're like, great, and how can we support and work together? Which is brilliant. But I do like that they've also all these kind of parties kind of said, well, we believe internationals should stand for an established party. Fair enough. But then they go, yeah, well, we haven't really been great at including internationals. And so, you know, maybe this kind of cuts to the heart of all of this, which is whether or not they are successful electorally. I think they've already had some success probably in some of their motivations, right, for running in terms of, I don't even want to say raising this issue, but putting it in a way that can't be ignored to draw probably a quite bad comparison. I feel like the topic of Greenland has been very much on the agenda this year in a way in Denmark that I have never heard it be on the agenda. You know, living in Denmark for the last six years, having worked for a Danish company for 15 years, right? Having had a Danish partner for 11 years, like suddenly Greenmo Land was on the agenda. Why? Because, well, someone wants it. And now maybe including internationals is on the agenda a little bit more because somebody's actually standing up and saying, well, if you're not going to include us or if we don't feel like we're being included, we'll try and do it ourselves. So I think it's a really, really interesting story and I have a huge amount of respect actually for the four that are standing up and running. What about you? What do you think about this?

Dom:

I think I have the same thoughts. I think when I go vote, I usually, I think I try and be maybe more logical about it and maybe vote for the more established parties because I think that's. I don't know if that's the right approach, but I think that's what I do and that's what the... what the other people from the other parties were saying. But yeah, I totally agree that I think it was less about winning but more about just making a stance. And I also heard that some people from the other parties were saying that they are concerned that if there's a party with only internationals, they will only care about what internationals have to say and what is good for them. And maybe not everybody in Denmark, but I think that that's not really true. And I think if you care about including everybody, you just make a good society in general. And I was looking into what some of the people in the party stand for and it was all things like representation, inclusion, integration, safety for bill and citizens with a lot of geopolitical tensions that are going on. So it's all things that would serve everybody. And it almost makes you a bit sad that they didn't start from a bigger party and they could win. But I guess that was the whole point also.

Fionn:

Sure. And I do think there is always not necessarily a danger or a risk. But what I've seen thinking about Ireland, my home, is very often you get a single issue party, if you want to put it that way, whether it is, you know, we are the party for housing rights or we are the party that we want to repeal the loosening of abortion laws, you know, something that is really single issue. They don't tend to have electoral success because most of the time, even if people care very heavily about an issue and it's very emotive to them, we tend to vote for very, very practical things like how's the health service doing, how is the local infrastructure, you know, are pensions going to be destroyed because of the actions of a crazy, I don't know, Argentinian premier or something? You know, it tends to be like housing, health, these types of things that dominate the actual reasons behind or immigration for that matter, that dominate the reasons behind people voting. So I do really appreciate that there is maybe criticism being leveled at them or a concern, as you mentioned, that well, this is kind of a single track thing, it's internationals. But I think as you mentioned, the things that they do stand for, I don't think these are single issue. I don't think these are things that only affect internationals at all. And I think actually maybe not no matter where you look at the political spectrum in Denmark, but across the political spectrum in Denmark, things like integration and inclusion, they are maybe seen through different lenses but they are included on those agendas. Right. Maybe some have very strong feelings about integration and how it needs to be very in one direction. Right. And you know, people should just become Danish and lose whatever they were before. And others have very different views as well. But I don't think it's. I don't think this is just a party that is only saying we're, we're only going to look after the internationals. But they do make a point in saying it is harder for us to represent somebody who's lived here for 70 years and only speak Danish and that's their life. And I think, I respect that. I don't know, humility, the self awareness of their argument.

Dom:

Yeah, for sure. And I think one more thing to add to it, which I read in an older article about the party and interesting they want to do is they want to use the polling option on Facebook to get people's opinions on how they should approach certain issues if they were to win. And the group that they do it on is free for everyone to join also of course non internationals. So I think they also just walk the talk and they really want to make sure that people are heard.

Fionn:

Yeah, absolutely. I thought our colleague in last week in Denmark, not from the podcast team but from the main publication, so to speak, Ali Lewis, she did a really interesting interview and kind of profile with you could say their, their main candidate. There are four candidates but they're kind of at the face of it, so to speak, Simone Ugari, if I'm pronouncing that right and who is Italian. I thought that they had a very interesting profile there and I'd really encourage people to head over to last week in Denmark and check out that profile and all the profiles of the internationals standing for election. But one thing that I thought was actually super was reading towards the end of that, a few days actually after the interview, Billund International announced a major cross party agreement with Venstre, the Social Democrats and the Conservatives to establish a brand new international council after the elections are over. And if you've been paying attention to the last couple of episodes of this podcast, you'll know that the National Integration Council will be abolished by June 2026. So I think that's really cool that maybe, okay, the central government is abolishing something, and yeah, we can support that or complain about that however we want, but maybe at a local level we can reframe things really around the needs of internationals in a different way. And very often I think, yes, there are national issues that affect internationals, but really often it's how we interact with our comune. Right. How do we actually navigate that system? How do we get kids in school or whatever are those little everyday things that maybe can trip you up. So I think that's really, really positive as well.

Dom:

Yea, definetly agree.  One more thing, I want to mention to this topic before we move on is , I would be myself if I wouldnt say it.  Remaind to everyone who is listening, and I`m pretty sure Ive been mentioned it before, but ..Go vote!  Its so important that intenationals go vote. And I think  especially in Poland where Im from, we always say , you have to go vote, because your ancestors fought for democracy, so use that right. And what I actually didn`t know  was and I think maybe a lot of people don't know, is that before the 18th of November, you can vote by post, by going to your local library. You just need to bring identification. That can be your yellow card. Remember, not every library does that. So check whether your local library does that and the opening hours and then you can vote by mail. So I think that is super nice. If you're not here on the 18th of November, for example.

Fionn:

Absolutely. Vote early, vote often. That's the saying.

Dom:

Exactly.

Fionn:

And I have to say, I'm somebody. I love voting. I think I get so excited over. I'm a bit of a dork with all things kind of elections and political, but I've had so much fomo, because today actually they are counting the votes in Ireland for an election that was yesterday for the President. And the president, it's not like an American president. It is a kind of figurehead head of state. So like Kongfag. But it's a seven year term so it's not often that you get the elections and I can't vote in that unfortunately. I've been out of Ireland too long. So I'm really looking forward to November 18th to get to exercise my right to vote.

Dom:

Super important. And if you don't know who to vote for, remember to take the DR online test. It's a very good one. Well, I think that brings us to topic number two, which is Finance Law 2026. As 2026 is approaching, it's a good idea to take a look at it. It's been released in August this year, I believe, and it is basically the government's proposal for the state budget for 2026 and in some cases beyond basically which areas should receive funding, what potential tax changes should be made and what political priorities should be focused on. I was reading summury of the ministry report and they started by saying: the Danish economy is strong, we have healthy public finances, record employment and businesses that are creating growth throughout the country, Denmark is a European success story and we must protect this position of strength. So very big words. I think it's good to take a look more inside of what that actually means. Do you have any first thoughts you would like to share?

Fionn:

Yeah, and I think it actually ties in a bit with what we've just been talking about, which is the elections. So this to me does feel a bit like a pre election budget understanding that these are the local and regional elections. So maybe not quite as much a first order election as for the parliament itself. But even still it seems like there are a little bit more goodies or the headlines are a little bit more too frame this as a giveaway budget than some other budgets that I've seen. And that makes me a little bit cynical about some of the things in here I think. You know we, we've talked on this podcast before about some of the changes in VAT. So for example the cuts on coffee, chocolate, sweets that are meant to come in from July. And as much as I love coffee, chocolate and sweets,

 Dom: don't get me started

Fionn:

like that's not where I necessarily want tax dollars to be saved. If anything I feel like that's very counter almost every other country which is, you know, has sugar taxes and they form a major revenue raising form of our budgets. That said on terms of books becoming VAT free. I think that's wonderful. Call me a hypocrite, sure. But I would much rather encourage people to read or listen because it also includes audiobooks and I think that's actually very cool because I know so many people who would classify themselves as, oh, I'm not a big reader. But then they actually listen to audiobooks all the time. And like, don't be a snob about how somebody consumes media. It's wonderful to encourage people to engage with stories, fiction or non fiction. So there are some of these, like, I don't know if you would call them smaller giveaways. There are some that maybe feel more impactful. There are some employment tax deductions which will hopefully put a little bit more money into people's pockets by the end of each year. And there are some things like, you know, parental fees for daycare, kindergartens which are going down. I think that's great. But as I say, the cynic in me a little bit does feel like this is a pre election giveaway, at least on some of the things. But I don't know, am I just an old cynic?

Dom:

No, I don't think so.

Fionn:

How do you feel about them?

Dom:

No, I had the same thoughts, especially for the coffee, chocolate and candy taxes. I, I'm the biggest chocolate fan. Like anyone who knows me knows that I'm the biggest chocolate fan. But there's so many other things that we could cut the tax on and especially I, I was diving a little bit deeper into the report and they were saying that for the average person in Denmark, abolishing these taxes would save around 375 crowns a year. So it's not like insane savings that you're going to get unless you, I don't know, eat chocolate every day. And it's actually the first time they reform those kind of everyday goods taxes in more than 10 years. So that's quite interesting. Definitely agree on the book tax. As a big reader myself, that's great. And what I thought was interesting. One of the things that they aim to tackle is climate change. Not only trying to make sure it doesn't happen, but also when it happens, protecting the citizens. And what I didn't know was that coastal protection is a big topic. We all know that climate change is causing rising sea levels and more extreme weather. And apparently a storm surge that currently occurs once every hundred years is expected to occur once every three years in 2100, which is not our problem, I guess. But.

Fionn:

Well, I mean this is the thing, right? In Denmark it's kind of hard to say, okay, I'll just buy a house on a hill.

Dom:

Yeah, like it is.

Fionn:

It's so flat. And I really feel this in the sense of I live with no exaggeration, maybe 4 or 500 meters from the sea. And we have been lucky in the sense that we haven't had any issues with storm surges here. But I know if you go a little bit further south from where I live, you have Jawar and you have some of these kind of more southern coastal towns at the bottom of Amer, and there they've suffered really, really serious flooding over the last few years, like quite consistently with these.

Dom:

Yeah, yeah.

Fionn:

And I'm. I'm pretty pro billion krona boost in keeping seaside towns dry. So I think that's certainly something that is positive. As I see it. It's maybe actually something that surprised me a little bit. And the reason I say it surprises me, and it may not have surprised anyone else, but there's a number of things in this budget. And the budget was negotiated or kind of agreed upon very recently by the government and the Conservative Party. So obviously some compromises were basically made between parties in government and a party out of government. The Conservative Party here in Denmark, they do push for a Green transition in a way that, if you aren't familiar with Danish parties, you might think Conservative Party. No way. They're probably saying the Green transition is a scam or drill, baby drill or whatever it is. And they also. One of the things that was included, which I think is a wonderful thing to actually have included, is that from 2027, parents who lose a partner while raising children are going to have the right to have 12 weeks of paid bereavement leave. And that's something which very, very few countries offer. And this is actually something that the Conservatives have been pushing for years. And I will. If I sound like I'm chilling for the Conservatives, I'll hold my hand up right now and say, I am absolutely not a Conservative voter in any country I've ever lived in. And that's big C Conservative or small C Conservative parties. That's not the kind of end of the spectrum I land in whatsoever. But I think that's maybe something interesting as an international living in Denmark. There are many, many things which I think parties agree on quite generally. I think the spectrum on a lot of issues is narrower than you would see in other countries. There are some where, you know, like, if you look at SF's position on immigration and you look at DF's position on immigration, they are completely miles apart. But there's a lot more, I think that as a society Denmark agrees on than is fractured. And I think generally also the window of what is the centre is further in many ways to the left than you would see in a lot of countries, which I don't think is going to surprise anyone listening to this podcast. But yeah, I think for all my cynicism, maybe at the start, I think there are some really good things in here. Maybe it is to win some votes, but it's also. That's politics, right?

Dom:

Yeah, yeah, for sure. And I think just like, just like we were discussing the Billund International Party a while ago with the climate change and yeah, even if it is just a ploy to get more votes, the fact that they are talking about it, like you said, it's super important. I mean, I come from a country where climate change is not really something you ever talk about. So yeah, it's super nice even just to have a discussion about it.

Fionn:

Absolutely. So, I mean, yeah, I think we're going to see the finance bill kind of, well, taking effect from 2026 like it says in the tin. But as you mentioned from the start, there's many measures in there that kick off in 2026, but kind of phase in over multiple years. And yeah, I think for better or worse, there are plenty of things in here where people can probably find something that they're very happy with. And there's probably some things in here maybe like the cutting the sugar tax, if we want to call it that way, which, you know, don't necessarily feel very revolutionary.

Dom:

No, exactly. So, yeah, there's a lot of interesting things there. And anyone can download the report from the website of the Ministry of Finance. And yeah, I mean, honestly, I could just talk about this for hours because there's so many interesting things to discuss. But I think what's also maybe interesting to mention is that there are five main priorities that they were focusing on. I probably should have said that in the beginning, but maybe we can have it as a wrap up. The first thing was welfare. The second thing was cheaper and better everyday life for people in Denmark, which was like the sugar tax, for example. Number three was the growth and green transition. Four was security and safety and then five was cultural life, which is like the book tax removal, for example. 

Fionn:

The book text... I also saw some things mentioned under that were funding for church choirs and skate parks. So culture in all its forms. 

Dom:

Which honestly is just so lovely that they think about these little things. And I think that also just shows that people care.

Fionn:

Ah, absolutely.

Dom:

Yeah. Even the conservatives.

Fionn:

Well, speaking of caring, I think that maybe touches on our final topic for today, right?

Dom:

I do think so. And it is. I think it's so, so funny that I seem to always get some subject related to schools when I have a podcast episode. And I always call my mom about it because she's been a teacher and a child psychologist. So, like, what do you think about this? I'm gonna think the same.

Fionn:

That's funny. My mom was also a teacher.

Dom:

Oh, really?

Fionn:

Not a child psychologist, though she was. I was about to say she was deeply abusive. That would be a joke. But maybe my mom's listening to this. So, Mom, I love you and you are a wonderful mother. I'm in very big trouble now.

Dom:

Yeah, I think teachers, children, it's always a different type of person slightly.

Fionn:

Absolutely. Absolutely.

Dom:

But, yeah. So there's nine classes across two Copenhagen youth education programs, which are the first to try out a new teaching program that adds mental health to the curriculum. And basically the aim is to help students cope better with stressful situations and just life in general, I guess. And this subject is not called mental health, but it's called, in loose translation from Danish to English, the Knowledge of Being. It's basically being piloted right now in a few classes across Copenhagen. Have you ever heard of anything like this before?

Fionn:

No, not actually in. This was kind of news to me. I would say in this more official context, if you want to put it that way, or like something that is actually being rolled out or tested on a larger scale. And what I have heard, though, is many times people talking about what a good idea this would be, not necessarily in a Danish context, but listening to other podcasts that touch on mental health or, you know, reading about psychology, a lot of the things that struck me, and this is almost going to sound like I'm anti academia, and I'm not. I come from a family of  that's deeply rooted in academia. I'm probably the stupid black sheep of that, but I have great respect for it. But one of the criticisms you often hear in school, right, is when am I ever going to use Pythagoras theorem? Like, yeah, I'm learning things that I'm never going to use. And obviously we. We learn some of these things for.. for reasons, whether that is that it's, you know, helping you build critical thinking or exposing you to new cultural ideas. There's lots of very, very good reasons for it. But one thing that I was thinking about with this is we don't really teach kids how to be, if that makes sense. Yes. We, you know, through the classroom should teach them how to don't hit each other. Bullying is wrong. And it goes deeper than that. I'm overgeneralizing. But I think one thing that, you know, I've learned more as an adult also looking at things like say, cognitive behavioral therapy, I think like, shouldn't every three year old be... be kind of not learning the theories behind it, but. Right. You know, yes, you have feelings and that you can't control that. But what we can try and control is how we react to those and how we think about those feelings and how we let those feelings determine our actions. And of course to some degree we do that with little kids. Like, yes, you're angry, but that doesn't mean you can hit Leo or whatever. But I feel like particularly, you know, these are classes that are aimed at gymnasiums and that's often a point. They're growing and they should be allowed to grow themselves. But it's also a very tough time. And actually understanding your feelings and being able to recognize your feelings is a really, really powerful skill because it will determine your actions, whether you think you're the most logical, rational person ever. We're all just a big bag of feelings and how we can actually interact with other people with that, I think is so important in everything from personal relationships, but also thinking like people's careers. Right. It's so important.

Dom:

Yeah, totally agree. And again, I was asking my mom about this, what she thinks, and she was saying that she noticed that a lot of the times when something happens to a kid in school, whether they're, I don't know, three or 15 years old, it is the parents first instinct to jump in and solve that for them. And she thinks that's, I mean, obviously that's not great. It might feel great in the moment, but apparently then a lot of the kids, they actually come to her and they're like, oh, my mom wants to solve this for me. And they actually want to know how to deal with situations themselves. I mean, obviously, like you should shield your 3 year old from bullying or whatever. Sure, don't throw them in the deep water, but, but they should learn resilience because yeah, as much as if I had children, I would love for them not to have any problems. Like they will. Right. So it's super important.

Fionn:

Yeah, absolutely. And I mean, I have two kids. One is two, one is about to turn seven next week. So I've spent my morning sneakily buying ...

Dom:

Oh! Happy birthday

Fionn:

... sneakily buying Birthday presents for him while he was at his judo class without him knowing and he was sitting beside them the whole way home in the bike.


Dom:

Well, I hope he doesn't listen to the podcast.

Fionn:

He doesn't think I'm cool enough for that.

Dom:

Okay.

Fionn:

But my son, he's getting older and like for anybody out there with a three year old who's currently, I don't know, throwing a banana at the ceiling, like it does get easier as they get about five, they start to be able to reason with things more. But that's also been something that, as just, I don't know, as a parent, but as like a human being has been very instructive for me in like, how do I deal with somebody who isn't able to really explain to themselves why they're feeling the way they're feeling? Like why are they so angry about something that is so, to me, tiny? And I will be the first to hold up my hands and say I don't always get it right. But I think teaching myself in that process to also try and teach him to like, you know, approach things with self compassion and approach other people with, with empathy rather than anger or whatever other emotion maybe springs first is really transformative. Not that this is a self help podcast, I don't want to turn it into one, but we see like even in the workplace over the last few weeks, I saw a major drama over something very, very little, and I won't give any details, but it basically escalated all the way up to the C level of the company. And while it was escalating all the way up to the C level of the company, the person who felt very aggrieved by something spoke to somebody else in a quiet one on one and it was all resolved. It was a misunderstanding and they left that meeting going, oh, that's brilliant, and then had to go all the way back up to C level to explain, that actually everything's fine. And I just thought, wow, if we can kind of instill from an early age an ability to help ourselves, not over catastrophize things or not approach things with hurt pride and always easier said than done, but to actually say, hey, maybe somebody else made a mistake and I can talk to them as a person and we can fix this rather than just facilitating blame and anger. I mean, not only is that I think, good for society, but you know, if you're a business, you don't want to be wasting your CEO's time, which is more valuable, right? Over something that can be solved just interpersonally so I think this is just a really, really important thing we have, or in most countries we have classes for teenagers to teach them about, you know, health and sex ed and everything there. And I think this is equally important. Right. Our mental health is so important. Like, I don't know about you, but as a teenager I was the world's biggest angry goth on the inside. On the outside, I looked like a very boring nerd, but, you know, I was really, really angsty and torn up all the time and I didn't, I didn't always know how to deal with that. And yeah, sometimes it, I think, would have been great to have some tools that I could fall back on to, to learn about that.

Dom:

Yeah, yeah. And I think that's also why I like that they named the subject Knowledge of Being and not just like generic mental health, because there's so much more to it than, I don't know, conflict management. Right. It's just...

Fionn:

 absolutely, absolutely 

Dom:

...how to be a person. I mean, in this world with social media and insane beauty ideals and, I don't know, seeing news all the time, it's just. It's hard. It's really. I can only imagine how hard it must be growing up surrounded by noise, constant noise.

Fionn:

I think you're absolutely right. I'm. I remember growing up with, like, really growing up with social media in the sense that social media was growing up as well. And I think I first had a social media profile when I was maybe 14, but it compared to the social media landscape now was so innocent and so like, you know, the Internet wasn't actively trying to melt your brain.

Dom:

Yeah.

Fionn:

Or maybe it was and it was just quieter about it, but like, that landscape has changed so much. And even though there was social media and there was pictures and images, there wasn't this intense beauty standards, I think, if you want to put it that way. So, like very much in everyone's face 24 hours a day. I'm very glad I grew up even then rather than 10 years later and was exposed to all that.

Dom:

Yeah, totally agree. There was no brain rot back then. And I think one more thing that's relevant to this is that a lot of people think that the Danish health system doesn't do much prevention. And especially if you want to go to a psychologist here or a psychiatrist, you have to wait for weeks over weeks over weeks. So I think this is especially important that now the government tries to do something to maybe mitigate that and actually start teaching people earlier. Of course, there's a lot of things that you can't fix with just a positive mindset. But I think so many things can be. So it's nice that they are taking the step to start earlier.

Fionn:

Yeah, absolutely. And I think if we can almost tie that in with what we were just talking about in terms of finance and budget and everything, everything you can do earlier in a process saves so much later on. Yeah, and I think we, we've. Like, when we first started recording season three of this podcast, one of the very early topics we talked about was more mental health support. And that was in terms of, like, phone lines and at a community level. And you're absolutely right. Like, not everything can be fixed with a positive mindset. Although, you know, that's news to me. I have to turn off all the Tony Robbins videos. No, but, like, you have, like, people can have really acute mental illness and mental health episodes, and you're not going to fix that just by having a class in school. But so many things do not happen out of nowhere. And many, many times the reason for a mental illness is because somebody's general mental health is not great. Just like how when we are less physically fit, we can be maybe more likely to get sick. And I think, you know, investing in this, investing in things like community helplines, investing at that level, we know it saves so much because it does cost the state a lot when there are more acute illnesses, whether that is mental health, like mental illness or type 2 diabetes as a result of obesity. Not that that can be the only reason for type 2 to diabetes, but you get where I'm going. Like, the more we can prevent it makes great financial sense as well. So I think, you know, something with this story can sound almost like, for want of a better word, and I hate the term, woke. They're teaching mental health in schools now. But even if you are a very fiscal conservative, you could, you should look at this and say, okay, we're going to save a lot of money in the long run as well.

Dom:

For sure. And I refuse to believe that woke is a bad word. I think I consider myself woke, so.

Fionn:

I do as well. I just think it's. It's so overused and misattributed is the reason. I don't like it anymore.

Dom:

That's very true. Yeah. And it has been taken from black culture in the very beginning, so it's been very misused. Well, yeah, I think, I think that was it for today. I think three very good discussions. And I guess maybe the one thing that we can take out of this is starting early whether it's mental health or climate change, it's.

Fionn:

Or voting.

Dom:

Yeah, exactly. Very important not to wait last minute or until the problem is really big. Just start early and do it. And yeah, it's not going to solve everything, but might make it a bit better. Well, thank you so much. I think. Great discussions. And yeah, one last thing, do not forget to vote anyone who's listening. Very important.

Fionn:

Otherwise Dom is going to come to your house and personally look very  disappointed at you.

Dom:

Yes, and I can be. I'm very scared when I'm disappointed. So don't do it.

Fionn:

Oh, super. Thank you all so much for for listening and thank you for the lovely conversation, Dom

Dom:

 Thank you so much. Speak next time!

Fionn:

Talk next time!




Head Shot

LWID

Host
Head Shot

Dominika Handzlik

Guest
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Fionn O'Toole

Guest