Tænk, hvis vi
(Imagine if we)
Imagine if we could create a future where fewer young people are unhappy. Where well-being is a shared area of responsibility rather than a personal matter. Where the framework for everyday life stimulates more positive communities and more meaning. Where we catch one another before we fall. Where we have broken the curve of anxiety, depression and stress. Where we foster well-being rather than trying to treat unhappiness.
Such a future would demand a fundamental shift in the way we view both the current system and the society we live in today. We cannot go it alone if we are to experience authentic well-being, because research indicates that our well-being is affected by the context in which we find ourselves, and by everything that surrounds us in our everyday lives [1]. That is also why new models for greater well-being cannot be created in sealed rooms – irrespective of whether they may be political rooms, treatment rooms, school classrooms or rooms in the home.
Interventions
Through the initiative Tænk, hvis vi (Imagine if we), the Danish Design Center and the ROCKWOOL Foundation Interventions Unit are committed to finding possible solutions by activating knowledge about mental well-being through future design and by shaping images of alternatives to the systems we know today.
Why mental well-being?
We know that the figures for perceived unhappiness among young people give grounds for concern. Every third woman and every fifth man in the 16–24 age group experiences unhappiness, along with signs of stress, anxiety and loneliness [2]. And we know that unhappiness in youth has an impact far into adult life in relation to education, work and health alike [3]. However, when it comes to mapping paths towards a new future, we continue to lose ourselves in the existing framework.
It is clear that new solutions and a shared direction are required. A change of system demands new knowledge, new “rules of the game” and new ways to involve the people affected: both the young people themselves and those who interact with them on a daily basis. We are therefore curious to discover what happens if we change our perspective and examine possible new approaches in an attempt to carve out a future where more young people experience well-being.
So how do we do it?
It’s easy to say “we need to change the systems”, but it’s a lot more difficult to do this in practice. That is why the Danish Design Center and the ROCKWOOL Foundation Interventions Unit have launched the initiative Tænk, hvis vi (Imagine if we) with the objective of activating knowledge about mental well-being through future design and by shaping images of new solutions and new approaches to replace those that define the system today.
In practice, we are doing so by developing future scenarios for what a happy life could look like to young people, and which are so tangible that we can see precisely what changes are required. This is the first step on a long journey, where we are keen to work together to experiment with how these scenarios can be brought into play in practice in the areas of schools, education and employment and chart a new direction for young people’s well-being.
The Four Shifts
What happens if we shift our focus from the individual to the community, from treating symptoms to emphasising structures that generate well-being?
In partnership with a wide range of players, we are keen to examine whether taking an amended approach to the phenomenon of “mental well-being” would make it possible to enhance well-being among young people and thus put them in a stronger position to play an active role in the world around them. We have developed a framework that outlines four shifts from what distinguishes the current system to the form that new, supplementary approaches to boosting mental well-being could take. They are four shifts that we plan to use as the jump-off point for developing new future scenarios and ideas for new solutions under the initiative.
1 Purpose
Distinguishing features of the existing system:
FOCUS ON SYMPTOMS
There is intense focus on tracking, diagnosing and treating the symptoms of the individual.
Distinguishing features of a complementary system:
FOCUS ON STRUCTURES
Focus on redesigning structures that reproduce patterns which enhance mental well-being.
2 Power
Distinguishing features of the existing system:
MENTAL HEALTH IS THE PRESERVE OF PROFESSIONALS
Access to diagnoses and treatment of mental conditions is limited to psychiatrists and psychologists.
Distinguishing features of a complementary system:
MENTAL WELL-BEING IS A SHARED RESPONSIBILITY
Everyone has knowledge of and experience with mental well-being. It is therefore a shared responsibility and open to everyone.
3 Resources
Distinguishing features of the existing system:
TARGETED AT INDIVIDUALS WITH SPECIFIC DIAGNOSES
The individual diagnosis provides access to resources and opens the door to treatment targeted at the specific needs of individuals.
Distinguishing features of a complementary system:
FOR EVERYONE
Build up capacity that extends beyond the professional players and which allows people to be a resource for one another in everyday life.
4 Relations
Distinguishing features of the existing system:
REMOVED FROM THE EVERYDAY CONTEXT
The focus is on providing individual support for treatment in which the individual is taken outside his/her everyday contexts.
Distinguishing features of a complementary system:
WITHIN THE EVERYDAY CONTEXT
The focus is on stimulating mental well-being in everyday contexts through new opportunities for action when problems are experienced collectively.
Find out more about
Tænk, hvis vi (Imagine if we)
The initiative was created in partnership with the Danish Design Center
Read more on the DDC project siteWhat’s next?
The project was completed in 2023 under the auspices of the ROCKWOOL Foundation, and lives on at the Danish Design Center.