Crisis management
Sometimes we must deal with the crisis situation that arises when a colleague or fellow student dies or has a serious accident. In these situations, it is primarily a question of being prepared to receive, give space to and process the emotions of those affected by the incident. It is also about providing an opportunity to come together, in a respectful way, to reflect on what has happened and the memory of the deceased.
About the faculty's action plans
The faculty's action plans cover staff and students at the Faculty of Science and contain procedures to be used in the event of a serious incident. The plans are primarily intended to provide support in the event of a death or serious accident, but can also be used in other situations.
Receive and collect information on a serious incident
If you receive notification that a serious incident has occurred, use the checklist below to gather all the necessary information. Once you have completed the checklist, you should submit it to the Head of Department or equivalent at your department for further action.
Download checklist for notification of incident (PDF, 534 kB, new tab)
Head of Department informs about serious incident
As the Head of Department, you are responsible for informing the Head of HR at the Faculty Office of what has happened and for sending the completed checklist via email to him or her. If you cannot reach the Head of HR, you can contact someone else in the faculty's HR department. In the event of a death, the Head of HR will contact the Vice-Chancellor’s Office.
Contact details for the Head of HR, Gunilla Thylander (staff.lu.se)
Contact details for the Faculty's HR department
As Head of Department, you will also need to inform the relevant Head of Division and staff at the department. You should also identify and inform, for example, partners within the University.
Extra routine in case of a death
Head of Department calls for a meeting
As Head of Department you should promptly convene a meeting with the following persons (more may attend if necessary):
- Head of Department
- Head of division or unit
- Head of HR at the Faculty Office
- If applicable: the Doctoral Student Ombudsman, ldk [at] ldk [dot] lu [dot] se.
The meeting should focus on
- The measures that need to be taken
- Who is responsible for implementing the measures
- When the measures should be implemented
Examples of what needs to be done
- Contact with relatives
- Information to the staff at the department
- Contact with Occupational Health Service to offer counselling to staff
Occupational Health Service webpage - Memorial service
- Wreath or a flower arrangement for the funeral. The Vice-Chancellor's Office will also send one.
- Representation at the funeral
- Obituary
- If there is a flagpole outside the department: Fly the flag at half-mast when notified of a death and on the day of the funeral. Please note: You need to inform staff of the death before flagging. The Vice-Chancellor's Office is responsible for flagging outside the main University building.
Administrative tasks:
- Request a death certificate from the Swedish Tax Agency.
- Terminate the employment in Primula. The termination date is the date of the employee's death, as stated on the death certificate.
- Telephone calls and emails to the deceased should be redirected to a colleague.
- Tasks that the deceased had are to be assigned to someone else.
- In the LUCAT personnel directory, the deceased's LU account will receive a deceased status from Primula. Organisational roles and access rights are to be deleted by the directory administrator.
- Check which keys, access cards, etcetera that the deceased had and make sure they are returned to the University.
- Ask the webmaster to edit information on web pages where the deceased is mentioned.
In addition to the above, you may also need to consider whether there is an immediate need for a substitute teacher, which collaborators need to be informed and whether there are commitments such as meetings and conferences that need to be cancelled.
Suggested message to staff in the event of a death
Subject: Notification of death
Dear colleagues,
It is with great sadness that I have to inform you that our highly respected colleague XXX at the Department XXX has died. Our thoughts are with XXX’s family and friends. A memorial service will be held, to which all are welcome. Details of the time and place will follow as soon as possible.
XXX, Dean/Head of Department
Receive and collect information on a serious incident
If you receive notification that a serious incident has occurred, use the checklist below to gather all the necessary information. Once you have completed the checklist, you should submit it to the Head of Department or equivalent at your department for further action.
Download checklist for notification of incident (PDF, 534 kB, new tab)
Head of Department informs about serious incident
As the Head of Department, you are responsible for informing the Head of HR at the Faculty Office of what has happened and for sending the completed checklist via email to him or her. If you cannot reach the Head of HR, you can contact someone else in the faculty's HR department. In the event of a death, the Head of HR will contact the Vice-Chancellor’s Office.
Contact details for the Head of HR, Gunilla Thylander (staff.lu.se)
Contact details for the Faculty's HR department
As the head of department, you will also need to inform the relevant staff and students at the department.
Extra routine in case of a death
Head of Department calls for a meeting
As Head of Department you should promptly convene a meeting with the following persons (more may attend if necessary):
- Head of Department
- Director of studies
- Programme Director or Course Director
- Head of HR at the Faculty Office
- Representative of the Students’ Union
LUNA’s website
The meeting should focus on
- The measures that need to be taken
- Who is responsible for implementing the measures
- When the measures should be implemented
Examples of what needs to be done
- Contact with relatives
- Memorial service
- Information to students on the same course or programme
- Contact the Student Health Centre and the University's Multifaith Chaplaincy in order to offer counselling for students
Student Health Centre’s website
The University's Multifaith Chaplaincy website (translation is available via the top menu) - Wreath and representation at the funeral
Administrative tasks:
- Contact LDC and request a backup of the student's email so that relatives can obtain it upon request. This needs to be done urgently as the email will be deleted automatically when Ladok receives notification of death via the Swedish Tax Agency.
- Terminate the student's access rights and ensure that keys, access cards, etcetera are returned to the University.
The Student Records Office will suspend the studies when they receive notification of death via the Swedish Tax Agency. The student account will then be deactivated.
Suggested message to students and staff in the event of a death
Subject: Notification of death
It is with great sadness that I have to inform you that our student XXX enrolled in the course/programme XXX at the Department of XXX has dies. Our thoughts are with XXX's family and friends. A memorial service will be held, to which all are welcome. Details of the time and place will follow as soon as possible.
XXX, Head of Department
Responsibility in crisis situations
It is important that everyone at the Faculty of Science knows that there is a plan in place should a crisis arise. Ultimate responsibility in crisis situations rests with the dean of the faculty. When a department is affected, the head of department is responsible for crisis management.
The dean and heads of departments are responsible for ensuring that the action plans are distributed at all departments and that they are followed efficiently in the event of a crisis.
Crisis communication support
There are other types of crises – not due to individual cases – that require a large amount of crisis communication. If such a situation arises and you want to discuss how to handle the communication process, you are welcome to contact Johanne Elde, Head of Communications at the Faculty Office.
You can get help with:
- Identifying a message
- Identifying target groups
- Pinpointing suitable channels of communication
- Coordinating communication in cases where more than your own department is affected
Contact
Head of HR
Gunilla Thylander
Contact information for Gunilla Thylander (staff.lu.se)
Heads of Department
Psychological crisis support
The University has an agreement with the company BrolinWestrell for acute psychological crisis support.
Contact the University's department for security and environment to gain access to BrolinWestrell's emergency phone number.
Department for security and environment – staff.lu.se
If you are interested in hiring BrolinWestrell for a larger assignment, you first need to consult the faculty's head of HR.