Support during your doctoral studies at the Department of Global Public Health

Issues with your work environment or employment

The Human Resources unit at the department can assist you if you need support or have questions regarding your employment or your work environment.

Struggling with stress, depression, or other health matters?

In case you are struggling with stress management, crisis, depression, or other mental health matters, the following resources are available to you: 

Occupational health care

Avonova is the current occupational health care provider for KI which offers preventive and rehabilitative occupational health services for all doctoral students (both employed at KI and scholarship-holders). If you, for example, want to meet with a psychologist, you can reach out to Avonova. Usually, you are entitled to 1-2 appointments per year without checking with your manager or supervisor first. Avonova can also support with matters related to physical health.

For more information about Avonova occupational health centres, read here.

Telephone counselling is also offered to all employees, scholarship-funded doctoral and post-doctoral students.

Health Promotion

Sometimes all that is needed is a regular practice – whether physical or mental. KI’s Health Promotion team offers live streaming classes almost every day for your physical as well as mental health and well-being, such as yoga, mindfulness, active break, HIIT etc. On the 'Live streaming classes' section, you can find links to the Zooms that each class uses and an updated schedule for the week.

Specific resource for coping with the COVID-19 pandemic

The National Centre for Suicide Research and Prevention of Mental Ill-Health (NASP) at KI has compiled a list of resources which might be useful in coping with the COVID-19 pandemic.

Struggling with doctoral education and supervision?

In case you are struggling with your doctoral education, supervision, you can always talk to your main supervisor. If that does not help, you can contact the director of doctoral education.

Director of Doctoral Education at GPH

Emilie Agardh

E-mail: emilie.agardh@ki.se

KI has also put together a comprehensive list of support, including information about equal opportunities, and what is expected of supervisors and study directors and other formal roles at KI.

Contact the Doctoral Students’ Ombudsperson for support and advice

The Doctoral Students' Ombudsperson (DO) is also available if you have questions or need support. The DO is employed by Medicinska Föreningen to support all doctoral students at KI. The DO can provide you with independent information about rules and regulations at Karolinska Institutet, as well as assist and support in conflicts with the department.

The "ombudsperson" is employed by the Medical Students' Association in Stockholm (MF). The DO works under complete confidentiality, unless explicitly told otherwise by the doctoral student who seeks advice.

You can contact them directly through their website.

Harassment or bullying

Harassment or bullying has no place at work. If you have experienced or been the witness of harassment or bullying, you are always welcome to contact HR unit at the department. The HR unit can help you by being an intermediary when communicating with the person(s) concerned. They can also help you to get in touch with a psychologist.

Contact the HR unit at the department

Contact the HR unit at hr-gph@ki.se or visit us at Widerströmska huset on the third floor. Contact details to administrative staff at the Department of Global Public Health

Doctoral student representatives at the department

The doctoral student representatives are at hand when you need to talk to a fellow doctoral student.

You are welcome to contact the representatives at the department, if you have any questions regarding your doctoral studies.

Current doctoral student representatives at the Department of Global Public Health