New ideas and initiatives to support those living and working on board post-pandemic
By Felicity Landon
Never let a good crisis go to waste, said Winston Churchill. This seems applicable when considering the response of ship and crew managers to the pandemic – not only during the crisis, but afterwards too.
Covid-19 threw into sharp relief the very considerable day-to-day challenges of living and working at sea. Ship and crew managers responded to the situation with a range of initiatives and support for those on board. Then came the recognition that many of these initiatives were not strictly ‘Covid-related’ but equally valuable in ‘normal’ times too.
For example, Simon Frank, chief human resources officer at ship manager Thome, says that the mental health support provided to seafarers has proved to be an excellent move. A concerted effort to arrange social events during the lockdown was so successful that Thome is now investing more there, too.
“Whatever we committed to during Covid-19, we intend to hang on to. We see that this has given us an opportunity to review some areas that might have been a bit neglected; now we see ourselves in a better place,” he says. “We didn’t know when it [Covid] was all going to end but these new initiatives and methods were successful, and it was never our intention to take them away.”
Supporting seafarers on the social and mental side was the priority during the toughest phases of the pandemic – setting up hotlines, ensuring they could contact their families at home, and so on, says Frank. “Now we are focusing on good long-term solutions on the physical health side, including healthy eating.”
Thome is working with two specialist companies to develop health programmes encouraging seafarers to take more exercise.
“A big challenge is, of course, that a ship has limited space so the chance to do something physical has never been good – but we are looking to motivate seafarers by having competitions and having some fun around this. Our ambition is not to create health fanatics on board – that would be totally unrealistic – but to take smaller steps in a direction towards something more healthy.”
For example, health apps can motivate individuals or entire crews to compete on the number of steps they take in a week.
Fun in fitness
Making fitness fun is also one of the steps taken by Columbia Shipmanagement to promote health and welfare on board. There have been fleet-wide fitness campaigns and a fitness video competition – crews were encouraged to post their own fitness videos online, with a prize for the one voted the best.
“We try to put some fun into life on board,” says Capt Faouzi Fradi, group director of crewing and training at Columbia. He also emphasises listening to what seafarers want. “Every seafarer has the mobile number of the CEO; they are invited to text or WhatsApp and encouraged to make contact. It has become like a culture in the company – I get a lot of calls and emails from the crew. It helps to always see both sides of the story.”
Columbia has received ideas from the crews which have also been implemented, he says. “We reshaped the gyms using very professional equipment; we knew what was liked most, so that was provided. It was interesting how much the crew wrote about fitness. These days, a gym on the ship is as important as having the internet and communication on board – the gym is one of the most utilised spaces on the ship.”
Feedback has also included a lot of ideas about menus and cooking, and Columbia is working with international maritime catering management and training business MCTC on these, said Fradi. “When Covid was at its peak, crew were asking for a lot of vitamins and nutritional food to help their immune system. Now their requests for healthy food are mainly about calories; they want to know how much they are eating, and this is a new trend.”
A nutrition service plan has been set up, designed to give seafarers individual guidelines and nutritional advice, and the intention is to scale this up soon. “We want seafarers to have better services than a regular person onshore can have,” he says.
While it is easier to motivate younger seafarers to be active and eat well, another competition set up by the CEO gives awards to seafarers who can demonstrate that they have made a significant change to their lives in terms of fitness and sport.
Fradi says that Columbia’s Crew Matters magazine, written by crew, is also an important tool for improving life on board. “We get a lot of input from the crew, including their photos, competitions and so on. We also did a culinary competition on board.”
Pre-pandemic, Columbia already had mental health support in place, with online consultations with psychologists provided for seafarers – this proved vital during the crisis. During the pandemic, it also engaged a telemedicine company to provide a direct online consultation, free of charge, for any seafarer falling ill or with an injury or any medical problem on board.
“We still offer this free of charge to crew – access to a company doctor who can follow their cases sometimes over a long period of time, leading to necessary treatment onshore if needed.”
Without proper medical attention during Covid-19 restrictions, a seafarer could be suffering for a long time before getting treatment, he points out. On the other hand, having doctors taking care of the crew on board has meant that in many cases the seafarer does not actually need further treatment onshore.
“We have also enhanced significantly the list of medicines on board – we are now not limited by the WHO minimum list but have our own, which is based on the WHO list but improved.”
Support for wellbeing
Anglo-Eastern Ship Management, meanwhile, has recently published We Care, a booklet for its seafarers high- lighting the various initiatives it has set in place to support wellbeing and engagement.
These initiatives fall under three headings – ‘building trust’, ‘driving performance’ and ‘shaping a better maritime future’ and range from a newsletter providing nutrition guidance to ‘Social Sundays’, dedicated to interacting, socialising and bonding with fellow seafarers.
On the topic of emotional and mental health, Anglo-Eastern’s Reach programme is a confidential service for seafarers facing any issues. In-house psychologists are available to listen and help, there are regular programmes on mental wellness and resilience, and there is a guidance booklet on suicide prevention. A ‘buddy system’ provides emotional support for new joiners, and interaction and engagement sessions are organised under a ‘Let’s Meet – Trusting Teams’ initiative, to build trust between management and seafarers.
Continuity of teams is highlighted: “Our system maintains most senior officers within the same pool of ships, allowing for strong bonds and effective teamwork at all levels,” says the company. It also focuses on training, safety guidance, and upskilling and reskilling to support career advancement. Specially developed promotion logs are designed to help seafarers advance to the next step with a clear progression.
Mentoring is important, along with ‘Engaging Saturdays’, when seafarers are encouraged to share their learnings and skills with their fellow crew.
Anglo-Eastern has also set out its policy on respect, anti-bullying and zero tolerance of harassment, and is encouraging all its crew and employees “to speak up and let us know if there are areas for improvement”.
Safety initiatives include the Rest Hour Monitoring Cell, a dedicated team that helps to monitor seafarers’ rest hours, to provide a better work-life balance for all on board.
Meanwhile, ‘I Make a Difference’ is a programme for seafarers to present innovation solutions to problems.
Holistic approach
It is important to take a holistic approach to mental health, says Charles Watkins, CEO and clinical psychologist at Mental Health Support Solutions (MHSS), which provides a 24/7 confidential mental health helpline for shore- based staff and seafarers.
“Mental health should not be seen as separate from other aspects of life such as diet, exercise and sleep, as well as positive relationships both on board and at home. In general, I see that seafarers are a lot happier when there is a conscious effort to educate them actively about their choices of diet and food and how this influences their mood, sleep and energy levels. If there is an effort on the company side to promote exercise – any type of movement, stretching, yoga, and so on – and that spills into other aspects like time out, meditation, reading, praying, etc., that is extremely helpful.”
Any type of mental focus that is purely for yourself and with the intention of getting away from work and into a restful state of mind will have an impact, he says. “It doesn’t sound like a lot but a little bit every day can have a drastic, very big impact on your life in terms of focus, sleep, how you process emotions and how you deal with other people on the vessel and off.”
The advance in communications technology is a double-edged sword, Watkins believes – it provides the benefit of connecting with family but leads to reduced social interaction on board because everyone just goes to their cabin to connect with people at home.
“Socialising on board is one of the most important aspects when learning to be a seafarer – because it is not just the work aspect but also learning how to deal with life on board, the philosophy and other aspects of it, daily life, how to deal with loneliness – things you should learn from your colleagues. Without social interaction, you are not getting that.”
MHSS works with clients to encourage seafarers to be more social on board, he says – offering more social get-togethers, from video nights to barbecues. “Joining together for offline time – playing card games or chess, playing table tennis – is really important for the on-board environment to grow.”
He says ships should make sure that gym equipment is good quality and well maintained, so people can really use it. “Seafarers who are healthier mentally and physically are more focused at work – and make fewer mistakes.”
MHSS has worked with nutritionists to help seafarers with mental health issues to change their diet, and run webinars explaining the types of food that reduce anxiety and improve mood, how exercise affects mental health, and meditation.
Time apart
It is often forgotten that seafarers are not just working but living on board, contained in a small space, says Wat- kins. “Everything that affects their work affects them on a personal level and it becomes exaggerated because they can’t leave the place – they are confined and have to deal with the issues. People who work ashore may have an extremely annoying supervisor but at 5 or 6 they can just go home and try to de-stress.”
Being financially dependent on the job is an added layer of stress and may make seafarers feel they have to put up with bullying or harassment, he says. Some feel they have to make a decision – do they report the issue and risk someone believing the officer or captain? They worry they could lose their job or get a black mark against their career progression.
“That is the most complicated part to overcome. A lot of people who call me really want to make sure it is private and confidential because they are afraid it is going to backfire. Many people still believe – I have heard this many times – that you have to silently suffer as you move through the ranks. That it is accepted practice. It’s an attitude passed on from the older generation and creates a horrible situation – but we are changing that.”
