Center for Mental Health, City of Copenhagen

Situation

CMS faced the challenge of an increasing number of Copenhageners struggling with their mental health and consequently relying on the center's expertise. The center is therefore looking toward a future involving budget increases, capacity expansion, new services, and the relocation of parts of the center. With this rapid growth and expansion of capacity, there was a need to focus on secure operations and a shared strategic direction to ensure the center could scale up its prevention efforts. This included potential adjustments to the organizational setup as well as clear priorities regarding collaboration with both internal and external stakeholders on strategic initiatives and projects.

Broad involvement

To establish a solid foundation for the strategy, a wide range of internal and external stakeholders, as well as management and staff, were involved in identifying strengths and strategic opportunities. Directors and department heads at the municipal level were involved throughout the process to provide their perspectives and ultimately approved the strategy document. Internal and external stakeholders were engaged through individual and group interviews, as well as workshops where leadership listened to feedback and presented their thoughts and ideas regarding the center's strengths and strategic potential.  

Shared direction

Based on the diverse input, a strategic foundation was created, consisting of a mission, a vision, and four strategic pillars with associated goals and initiatives. The pillars focused on equality in mental health for citizens, cohesive and effective citizen pathways, bridging and partnering with civil society actors, and a strengthened role as a knowledge and competence center—a professional beacon.

Behavioral changes

Employees were engaged in an implementation process where, in dialogue with management, they took primary responsibility for initiating concrete pilot actions and testing behavioral changes for each of the strategic pillars over a 100-day period, again with broad involvement from internal and external partners.

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In connection with the collaboration, CMS developed a one-pager designed to give everyone a quick overview of the strategy's cornerstones, including how the individual parts connect.