New Crisis Psychologist Joins FSS MUNI to Help Build a Support System

Starting July 1, the faculty will introduce a new Crisis Psychologist position. What led to this decision? 

This was not a decision made from behind a desk. Over the past few years, the faculty has faced several exceptionally difficult situations. I was personally present during one of them, while I dealt with the others in my role as Vice-Dean for Education. In moments like these, you truly realize how fragile the boundary between everyday life and a crisis can be, and how important it is to have someone at hand who knows what to do. At the same time, it became clear that these situations affect not only students, but also instructors and other faculty and staff members. I was very fortunate that Zuzana Masopustová from the Department of Psychology spontaneously offered a helping hand and provided the professional support we needed to navigate the situation. That experience prompted me to start a conversation about the need for a systemic solution—not only to respond to crises, but also to be prepared for them.

What will the Crisis Psychologist’s role at FSS MUNI involve in practice? 

It’s not just about crisis intervention, although that is certainly a key part of the role. We will have a colleague who will be able to help shape this area strategically across the entire faculty—from providing direct support to students and employees, to collaborating with other stakeholders, to establishing standards and continuously evaluating them. For me, it is important that support and care are not ad hoc or dependent on individual initiative, but rather that they become a systematic part of how the faculty operates. In many ways, it is a shift in perspective: instead of asking, “Who can advise us?”, we are asking, “How can we create an environment where people have access to the support they need?”

What have these experiences taught you about how a faculty should operate?

It reinforced something I have often explored in my research, and that is also important to me personally: the most important things are often not the most visible. Care, relationships, and the everyday challenges people face have a profound impact on how people live, study, and work at the faculty. If we want to be a high-quality institution, we need to learn to look at issues from different perspectives and listen to a variety of voices—not just the loudest ones.

That also means being more sensitive to the fact that people at the faculty have different life circumstances and needs, and being able to respond to them across the institution rather than simply passing responsibility “somewhere down the line.” This is also one of the reasons why I decided to run for Dean of the Faculty of Social Studies at Masaryk University. I believe we are now at a crossroads and need to decide what kind of direction we want to take. Will we govern the faculty primarily according to the size and influence of its individual parts, or will we be able to better connect different perspectives and build an environment based on support, care, openness, and respect for diversity?

As a woman, a caregiver, and a representative of a small academic discipline, I may be particularly attuned to these issues. It is precisely this perspective that I would like to bring to the faculty’s leadership.