Tackling a silent mental health crisis

Just one suicide among seafarers is one too many

By Felicity Landon

It is, says maritime healthcare company VIKAND, “a silent mental health crisis that demands urgent attention”. Between 2019 and 2023, 11% of all seafarer deaths were due to suicide – but probable underreporting means that figure is likely to be higher. More recently, data in Gard’s 2025 Crew Claims Report shows that suicide now accounts for more deaths at sea than accidental injuries. Research for the ITF Seafarers’ Trust reported that 20% of seafarers surveyed had experienced suicidal thoughts.

Seafarer suicide numbers spiked during the Covid pandemic and this was a turning point, says Martin Hedman, director of Mental Wellness Practices at VIKAND. “Ten years ago, it was like talking to a wall when we started to discuss suicide rates. Unfortunately, the industry needed some sort of wake-up call to take it seriously. Now, we do see more awareness on all levels.”

There are particular mental health challenges for seafarers – isolation being the most obvious. “You can’t work from home, you can’t go home; isolation has always been and still is the greatest challenge,” says Hedman. “Isolation is part of what being a seafarer is. However, there are a lot of things that can be easily changed – food, social engagements and activities on board that make people feel valuable, leadership that is more inclusive, communication on board. A proactive, caring approach that is genuine from the companies would help tremendously. If you have a company investing in their crew, putting in place preventative measures onboard with a clear policy on what to do if there is harassment or bullying, with a report line, that would solve so many things. “We should not be looking at it from the bottom and asking ‘should we have more barbecues?’. It is looking from the top, asking how can we change the attitude from companies towards how they treat the crew members? Then everything else will fall into place.” Many mental health issues are triggered by conflicts on board, being threatened or not being respected, and behaviour that is, or is close to, harassment, he says. In this respect, good leadership is crucial. “In the cases we see, isolation is not the main cause [of suicidal thoughts] – it is more explosive issues, relationship issues that trigger problems.”

Top-down approach

Hedman is concerned that standard responses can put too much onus on the person who may already be in crisis. “When we have a problem on an individual level – whether harassment or mental health issues – we often try to push the solutions and changes and help towards the individual, giving them support, trying to help them, etc. But we cannot push the responsibility on to the seafarer alone to change this. Even if they want to speak up, there are repercussions.

“We need the engagement and buy in of the companies, so the seafarer can see that the company genuinely cares. Not just that ‘they are giving me support and it is up to me to reach out’, because they won’t act unless they believe the company will really help and support them.”

Companies must take real responsibility and give seafarers the tools they need, Hedman insists. “Unless it is on their agenda, then the stigma is not going to change, and it is going to be very difficult for the seafarer to reach out. There is a disjoint between how we deal with these cases and how we can make it easier to report. There must be a plan, there should be involvement from higher levels that really sets the tone – that we take this seriously and have a procedure, policy, structure, to deal with things. If they don’t, the seafarer will not trust the process and will try to hide their problems.”

VIKAND has seen good intentions from companies and stakeholders, says Hedman, but ‘voluntary goodwill’ is not enough. “This industry tends to be very reactive, waiting until something happens and then they act. Proactiveness only comes when you have a genuine understanding.”

Hence, he believes that regulations are needed to drive industry action on seafarer mental health. “In order to create a change where companies invest fully, there needs to be some sort of regulatory approach. Just as we have seen with environmental issues – first there was lobbying, then it was regulated, and now emissions and the environment are on every agenda – we need to go the same way to raise the awareness of mental health.”

He would like to see regulation – through the MLC or STCW, for example – requiring every company to have a policy and emergency plan on board for dealing with bullying and harassment and putting in place clear strategies and interventions to mitigate any kind of mental health issue. “And then, we need it to be enforced. Yes, it’s another rule and some might ask why we need regulations. But we need to overcome the unwillingness to change.”

Well-being focus

The Gard report’s findings underscore the importance of having a stronger focus on mental health and well-being at sea, said Lene-Camilla Nordlie, vice president and head of people claims at Gard. “While some stressors can be handled by seafarers themselves, many factors are controlled or influenced by companies and authorities,” she noted. Gard said that the troubling increase in crew deaths “emphasises the need to further prioritise mental and physical well-being at sea”.

Talking about suicide isn’t easy. How many people would feel comfortable asking a colleague directly whether they were having thoughts of suicide? In 2021, recognising the need for a comprehensive suicide prevention programme, the Mission to Seafarers adopted the LivingWorks SafeTALK course as part of the broader WeCare Programme – later adapting the content to address the specifics of seafaring and officially launching the SafeTALK MtS last year.

The course is based on the TALK steps – Tell, Ask, Listen and KeepSafe – training suicide alert helpers to recognise people with thoughts of suicide and connect them to a suicide first aid resource.

“We have trained 2,000 suicide alert helpers worldwide and trained nearly 1,000 seafarers this year,” says Tom O’Hare, Mission to Seafarers programme manager. “We have trained seafarers already working, cadets at university, port chaplains and volunteers in port welfare centres across the world. We have also run public courses in Australia, Hong Kong, India, the Philippines, Singapore, the United Kingdom and the United States – these have been open to anyone who wanted to register, including participants from P&I Clubs, academic institutions and welfare institutions. We have invited the local community, explaining the course is fully funded and they can come along.”

The community involvement recognises that a seafarer coming into port isn’t just going to meet the chaplain; they may go into a local town, visit a bar, go to the shopping centre and even approach some of the local charities, says O’Hare. “It’s a community-based approach where anyone can learn how to provide suicide intervention skills to a person with thoughts of suicide and connect them to a person who can help – health services, clinician, port chaplain, or another professional.”

The first part of the SafeTALK training helps people recognise the signs of suicide in a person and how to address this. “What signs are you seeing that might make you think something’s not quite right? However, once we have the ability to see the signs, the greatest taboo is asking if someone has thoughts of suicide. We teach a method. We also teach participants that if they see the signs but are too nervous to ask, they should think about who else they can ask to have a chat with the person.”

Asking the difficult question

The course looks at the reasons why people miss, dismiss or avoid talking about suicide. “Avoidance is the greatest obstacle. It is fear – fear that we might make it worse. But you can’t make it worse; if the person is thinking about the worst scenario possible, you have nothing to lose by helping them in some kind of way. It’s better to feel glad you said something rather than wonder ‘what if?’.”

Across all cultures there’s a reluctance to be ‘nosy’ and a feeling of awkwardness, says O’Hare. “SafeTALK allows them to reconsider – are you being nosy, or are you doing someone the most important service of their life?”

Suicide is taboo in almost every culture, he emphasises, and as a result many people keep their thoughts silent, “maybe saying in their own subtle ways they want to talk about it, but people not recognising the signs or not wanting to talk about it”.

O’Hare is reluctant to discuss statistics – “as long as there is one suicide in the industry, it is something that needs to be addressed,” he says. “We are taking a proactive approach to suicide prevention, and we are hoping that in ten years’ time, the stats from Gard will be lower because people have acted.”

Ten people were trained on the first MtS Train-the-Trainer course in Hong Kong last year and more have been trained in the US and Australia. The programme is supported by donors – The Seafarers Charity, Cargill and the UK P&I Club – and delivery partners include Pacific Basin, the Indian Maritime University, the City of Glasgow College and Warsash Maritime School. In all, SafeTALK MtS courses have been delivered in more than 20 countries.

Meeting requirements

Within the industry itself, suicide prevention can be about managing the expectations of crew but also companies abiding by the welfare provisions they sign up to under the MLC, says O’Hare. “It is making sure there is adequate rest time, making sure there is shore leave provision or, where it isn’t available, a chaplain or welfare organisation is allowed to go on board. It is making sure contracts are fair and wages are paid, and it is allowing leaders on board to understand their direct reports’ circumstances and needs, and to spot something has gone wrong before it becomes a major issue.”

As he points out, seafarer suicide is not necessarily triggered by onboard issues. It could be the prospect of going home to face a relationship breakup, debt crisis or other family pressure. While at sea, a seafarer may welcome being able to connect with home from his or her cabin but can’t control what is happening in their absence.

The creation of the MtS version of SafeTALK has made the learning experience more relatable to seafarers’ and cadets’ lives, says O’Hare, and he believes the delivery of the SafeTALK MtS training at cadet level is particularly valuable. “At some universities, cadets might spend three years’ studying before going on board a vessel. From a training point of view, there should be sensitisation to what the environment is going to be like on board. People can tell you what it is like, but you won’t experience it until you are actually there.

“Also, many of these cadets will be future officers, so we are trying to embed this idea of kind leadership, where they are able to lead by example but also see every individual’s needs within their team, and think of SafeTALK when delivering that leadership. If we can, through SafeTALK and other programmes, instil in these young people the idea that you are the person who gels the team, then hopefully in ten years’ time we will have these leaders on board vessels, and this awareness will be more widespread.”