There can be great variation in a seafarer’s mood and mental well-being when they are doing their job at sea and when they are at home. That was the conclusion of a report from 2019 titled “Seafarer Mental Health Study” by ITF SEAFARERS’ TRUST & Yale University.
1.572 respondents participated in the survey: 40 % from the Philippines and the Pacific region, 29 % from Western Europe, 9 % from North America, 8 % from Eastern Europe and 5 % from other Asian countries, mostly from India.
More than 25 % of the seafarers expressed that they have had blue moods or depressed moods for several days within the last two weeks. That is significantly higher than in the normal population where only 6 % expressed the same. 17 % of the responding seafarers said that they had been feeling anxiety, while 20 % had had suicidal thoughts.
There are several explanations of why it can be challenging as a seafarer to maintain good mental well-being. Professor Rafael Lefkowitz from Yale University has been doing research into seafarers’ physical and mental health since 2012. He is one of two authors of the report:
”The seafarers were telling us that being isolated from their families, feeling pressure from the supervisors, having little control of their domains, and experiencing trouble sleeping are all troubling factors. Seafarers are also finding that they feel more depressed when they are at home and getting closer to going back to work. When at sea, getting their disembarkation delayed affects their mood in a negative way. These problems are logical when your work life is structured as a seafarer’s is”.
It is difficult to function at your best if you are not thriving mentally. Rafael Lefkowitz explains that a depressive condition can be expressed in different ways:
”We found that people with a higher score of depression symptoms were more likely to have been injured or sick in the last year. And many were strongly considering leaving the industry”.
Life at sea can be lonely, and often there is not a caring culture that lets the seafarers reach out to each other or the management for help or support if they are feeling depressed. The report shows that 35 % do not ask for help, and only a very small percentage will ask for professional help. A third have shared their mental state with family and friends. Even though seafarers spend months at sea together, only 21 % share their mental well-being with their co-workers.
Because of this fact, Rafael Lefkowitz encourages the seafarers to break with the tough culture and uncaring environment:
"Be on the lookout to help each other. It is a tough environment, so build friendly relationships and do social activities. Consider if there is some way to connect people to their families to make the isolation less problematic because maybe shipping companies could do even more?”, he says in relation to the development of digital connections to families at home.
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It is crucial that legislators, shipping companies, unions, professional organisations, and seafarers come together and work on solving the problem.
”Rafael Lefkowitz
It is crucial that legislators, shipping companies, unions, professional organisations and seafarers come together and work on solving the problem. That is the clear message from Rafael Lefkowitz. A shared global approach to changing the culture is needed if the mental well-being of seafarers is to improve:
“I cannot emphasize this enough: we need to recognize it is a real problem. Changes have to start at the top. Seafarers play an essential role in making our global community work. That is why this is a global problem that we need to take care of.”
Rafael Lefkowitz has several suggestions on how to improve seafarers’ mental well-being:
“First of all, we can address the training institutes and make sure they teach resilience – especially to new recruits – and teach them how to prevent depression. They especially need help in their first vulnerable years. It is also important that training programmes provide clear directions in cases of bullying and workplace violence”.
Rafael Lefkowitz advocates that a cultural change is strongly needed, to create a caring work environment where people take better care of each other and ask questions about mental well-being.
”The captain has a tremendous opportunity to create and help foster a caring environment. Of course, that can only be done if that culture is also directed by the company. It has to be a company-wide culture”, he says and elaborates:
”To succeed in this cultural change, we need to change the whole stigma of mental health. We really have to release that. If we can do that, then people suffering would feel free, and they would also get assured treatment. That would give a better outcome, and we would achieve more efficiency, less illness and fewer workplace injuries”.
