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When the Danish municipality Fredensborg Kommune chose Merlinia Assistance, one of the important considerations was that a threatened employee is able to monitor whether his/her request for help has been registered and when a colleague is on the way.

Only Merlinia Assistance lived up to all the requirements when a new common IT system was needed by the Fredensborg municipal administration departments.

- We tested three systems and chose Merlinia's because of its future development potential, because it is simple to use and maintain, inexpensive compared with what it delivers, and doesn't require expensive visits from consultants, says Deputy Director Arne Hauge Jensen from Fredensborg Kommune.

The system that was used previously allowed, like Assistance, the employees to summon help when they felt threatened by a client. But it was far from certain that the person needing the help would actually get it.

- The system sent an SMS to summon a town hall guard or someone from the emergency department, but it had its limitations. For one thing there wasn't always a guard on duty, and for another the threatened person simply had no way of knowing whether the SMS was received by anyone or not. In addition, a conflict can escalate unnecessarily when a person in uniform shows up, notes Arne Hauge Jensen.

He adds that the really ingenious thing about Assistance is how, under normal circumstances, its presence is seen only as a small blue icon on the PC screen; but when you feel threatened and casually, and unnoticed, hold down a certain key for a few seconds the icon turns red to indicate that your request for help has been registered. When the icon turns green, you know a colleague is on the way.

- That's really clever, because to the person holding down the key those few seconds seem interminable. And our employees have reacted quite positively to Assistance. It is very reassuring for them to be able to see that there is a reaction to their request for help.

Fredensborg Kommune has used Assistance since the beginning of 2007, and so far no employees have had the need to use the system to call for help from their colleagues. Arne Hauge Jensen explains that even if Fredensborg Kommune sees Assistance as a good basis for ensuring that the employees have as safe an environment as possible, it is still necessary to use other strategies as well.

- For example, we set up our offices so the employees are able to leave quickly if necessary. A client must not be able to easily block the only way out. And the difficult talks are scheduled for the busy hours in the middle of the day, when a lot of people are around, and not during the slow hours. We also have in-house training sessions about how to decode and verbally disarm a threatening person, says Arne Hauge Jensen.

Fredensborg Kommune has installed Assistance on approximately 150 PCs in the Job Center, the Social Services Center, the Civic Information Center, and even in the municipal Dental Care Center.

Fredensborg Kommune

" We tested three systems and chose Merlinia's because of its future development potential, and because it is simple to use and maintain".

"[When you] hold down a certain key for a few seconds the icon turns red to indicate that your request for help has been registered".

Deputy Director
Arne Hauge Jensen,
Fredensborg Kommune