Dr Kate Thompson, a counselling psychologist, provides information and guidance for seafarers, on board vessels and ashore, affected by the COVID-19 Pandemic.
Dr Thompson, prior to discussing how can seafarers deal with their mental health during this time, she focuses on the strong features they have, which can seem really helpful.
Seafarers have already developed skills that the rest of the population will need to adopt in future to manage the pandemic. For instance, seafarers are able to manage long periods when they can not articulate freely as they remain onboard a vessel for a long period of time. Also, they are used to not seeing their family for months on end and know how to manage boredom and connect remotely with others.
Please do draw on these strengths and even share them with others so we can all manage the pressure and boredom of the coming weeks.
In addition it is advised that seafarers can balance their time between physical exercise, time for contemplation or quite activities and time for connecting with others.
Above all, Dr. Thompson advises to always be kind to yourself, given the unusual circumstances which may affect the crew members.
Port restrictions bring enormous uncertainty to seafarers who remain outside ports waiting for long periods. She adds that the advice above is important to handle this demanding situation and is more important in cases where anxiety is high and there is limited information about when the situation will change.
It is always important to know what helps you feel less anxious.
Concluding, it it highlighted that it is important to comply with the advise issued by WHO and other organizations, mostly concerning social distancing, as rushing home to one’s family may put them at risk.
