1st Global Conference for Seafarer Mental Health and Wellbeing

The 1st Global Conference for Seafarer Mental Health and Wellbeing will bring together global leaders and key stakeholders from the maritime sector who are actively involved and have a keen interest in discussing practical solutions to improving seafarer mental health and wellbeing. The focus will be on interventions and exploring best practice of implementation, monitoring results and identifying what more can be done.

In 2020 an industry-wide survey on seafarer wellbeing showed that 54% of seafarers felt they were not being actively helped to manage stress and fatigue. This is with the backdrop of a significant crew-change crisis impacting both seafarers and their families during a tumultuous year. But seafarer mental health and well-being has been an area of concern well before the pandemic, with issues such as isolation, fatigue, and stress being commonly reported.

In 2019 the Institution of Occupational Safety and Health found that “significantly more seafarers report being happy or very happy at home than report being happy or very happy on board”. In the same study 55% of employer respondents stated that their companies had not introduced any policies or practices aimed at addressing issues of seafarers’ mental health in the last 10 years. In contrast, the latest The Mission to Seafarer’s Happiness Index highlighted the positive impact that small scale solutions and investments with regard to connectivity, food and social activities have made to life on board. This conference will look at practical approaches and highlight solutions that can be implemented to tackle ongoing issues.

Conference Committee

• Co-Chair: Capt Panos Stavrakakis MBA, MSc, PhD, CEng, FIMarEST, Champion of IMarEST Mental Health & Wellbeing Initiative and Head of Centre of Organizational Health & Wellbeing, Health & Safety Executive
• Co-Chair: Stephanie McLay MSc MBPsS, Senior Human Factors Consultant, Lloyd's Register
• Chrissie Clarke, Programme Manager Diversity and Skills, Maritime UK
• Hazel Lewis, Seafarer Safety and Human Element Policy Manager, Maritime & Coastguard Agency
• Pav Hart-Premkumar, Human Element Policy Specialist, Maritime & Coastguard Agency
• Richard Graham CEng CMarEng FIMarEST, Chair of IMarEST Professional Affairs & Education Committee

Call for Presentations

The IMarEST is seeking to hear about experiences from all perspectives: Senior leadership, ship owners/operators, flag states, port states, charterers, manning agents, unions, training providers, academia, associations, and regulators.

Presentations could address any number of key topics:

• Raising awareness, overcoming stigma, and understanding the effects of working at sea
• Safety culture and how this can be used to promote positive change
• Workers’ rights and violations
• What lessons can we learn from other industries?
• What policies and practices have been/could be implemented and their effectiveness to support seafarers’ mental health and wellbeing?
• What challenges do smaller crews/companies face?
• What does a healthy working environment look like? How can we create a healthy working environment? What benefits a healthy working environment brings to the industry?

Please submit your abstract by 18 April 2021.

Please use code NMDGSUPPORTER to get 20% off on against non-member tickets.

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