Samenvatting

Crises and disasters can seriously affect the health, well-being and functioning of the people involved. From a governance perspective, it is important that public leaders and crisis managers are aware of what the psychosocial dimension of crisis management entails. The objective of the current contribution is to analyse dilemmas and challenges described in evaluations of crises that occurred in the Netherlands between 2012 and 2016. Thirty-six evaluations were analysed against the background of a theoretical framework combining crisis leadership tasks and psychosocial support principles along the crisis life cycle. Public leaders and crisis managers had to deal with classical crisis problems concerning coordination, collaboration and communication. Other recurring themes were linked to social media, and the tension between tasks such as meaning making (social recognition), account giving and learning. Moreover, the analysis illustrates how difficult it is to gain insight into the needs, problems and vulnerabilities of the individuals and groups affected.