Seafarers, like all human beings, need three things: recognition, stimulation and certainty, argues INTERTANKO in its second edition of ’’Crew Welfare Management and Mental Wellness”
The guide provides best practices on wellbeing for crewing managers and shore-side staff. In this post, we explain ways to address seafarers’ need for certainty because when life lacks structure, people can feel lost or fearful; when it is too rigid, people can become rebellious or passive.
4 key actions to address Seafarers’ needs
Ordinarily, life at sea might be viewed as containing too much certainty, with the working environment being overwhelmed with many rules and regulations governing what seafarers can and cannot do. In contrast to their working environment, seafarers’ personal lives, particularly in the current situation, are likely to be associated with too little certainty. The coronavirus has made it very hard to plan and enact crew exchanges, leading to seafarers experiencing a lack of predictability and control over when they will be home, or, when they will be earning.
Interaction between shore management and shipboard personnel is vital!
- Effective communication
- Look out
- Reach out
- Lead by example
12 Best Practices for shipping organizations to REDUCE UNCERTAINTY
- Schedule virtual town hall meetings to improve the flow of information
- Continue financial support to cadets when their studies have been interrupted
- Set up a dedicated Special Crew Operations team for COVID-19 issues
- Create a solidarity fund to provide cash advances to crew ashore who were delayed in joining back
- Provide remote access to wellbeing support, mental health line and medical support
- Perform crew changes where possible
- Run wellbeing questionnaire campaign for all crew on board ships that could not disembark
- Communicate on a weekly basis all crew change initiatives
- Share details regarding company’s attempts to address the plight of the crew
- Provide persons on-leave with 50% wages every month until they join back
- Provide medical coverage and pension to those who have exceeded the leave and cannot join back
- Hold the ship in anchorages / ports to complete crew changes
