Denmark launches online mental health service to challenge AI chatbots

Denmark’s health service has launched a free online programme to help adults experiencing mental distress, offering an alternative to AI chatbots, DR reports.

Called Bedre Trivsel, or Better Wellbeing, the programme is available to everyone through sundhed.dk, the national health website. It guides users through short online courses with practical exercises, led by a presenter in videos.

The offer comes as more Danes turn to chatbots for information about mental health, according to a report by the Center for Digital Psychiatry. Project lead Tor Juul Groth said people often search online in the evening for answers about their distress and advice on what to do. He said chatbots can struggle to provide accurate information on mental health.

The report found that 77 per cent of Danes searched for health information online in 2025, while 41 per cent looked specifically for information about mental health. Traffic to sundhed.dk and mindhelper.dk fell sharply after Google began showing AI-generated answers directly in search results in May 2025.

Christian Gaden Jensen, director of the Mental Health Foundation, said people search online for help with stress, burnout, poor sleep and concentration problems, and want practical steps they can take. He said a preventive programme such as Bedre Trivsel could be useful, noting that not everyone who experiences stress necessarily has clinical stress.

Figures from the National Health Profile, prepared by the Danish Health Authority and the National Institute of Public Health, show that the number of Danes experiencing stress in everyday life has risen since 2010.

General practitioner Palle Mark Christensen, who works in Otterup, said the health service’s involvement gives the programme credibility. Doctors may refer patients to it, and he said its language is accessible to the public.

The programme aims to have 20,000 Danes begin an online course in 2027.