Based on the text, answer question.
What the Ever Given can tell us about mental
health at sea
Captain Lee Clarke from Tapiit Live on one of the
overlooked aspects stemming from last month's Suez
blockage.
Thirty days ago,
a ship named Ever Given was
sailing in relative anonymity. Twenty-nine days
ago, that same ship found itself splashed across the
front cover of every national newspaper from
London to Lima.
In
a matter of hours, the ship and its 25 strong
crew went from highly skilled seafarers to media
targets. In the maelstrom of social media memes,
newspaper cover stories and “special reports”, one
major thing was forgotten, more likely ignored: the
crew”'s mental well-being.
In
a world of social media, everyone is an
expert, and never has that been felt more in the
maritime industry than now.
A frenzy of blame
erupted almost instantly with little or no merit or
fact-checking, as evidenced by the naming of
a
female officer as the Ever Given's Captain,
regardless of the fact she was over 200 miles away
on another vessel.
Being
a seafareris
a stressful job, irrespective
of
a global incident, especially when you factor in
being away from family for extended periods and
working contract to contract with little job security.
You also have to cope with fatigue, extreme weather conditions and intense time pressure placed
upon the crew and its Master by multiple state and
global agencies as well as the ship”s own charter.
So, add to that taking the “blame” for halting $9.6
billion of trade
a day, understandably, stress levels
rise astronomically.
As an industry, mental health appears still to be
very much
a taboo topic. Seafarers are more likely
to be signed off and dismissed for being deemed
“unfit to serve” than they are to receive any form of
support. Whilst onboard, the mood will feel
somewhat supportive with the crew banding
together to keep the ship operating, internally, each
and every seafarer, from deckhand to Master will be
worrying about their reputation and thus, their
employability.
I- __________ my experience as
a Captain, your
crew is your first line II- ____________ defence III- ____________any major incident. As soon as
something goes awry, they burst IV- _____________ action,
they're trained to do so, it's instinctive. I have no
doubt, everyone aboard the Ever Given did
everything V- _________ their power to protect that
ship and avoid
a major incident, but some things are
VI- __________your control. In reality, they will
never be praised for saving the ship, only criticised
for grounding it.
This crew is acutely aware of the issues the
incident has caused and they are reminded of it
every time they open their phone or computer to
read the news or speak to their families, and I feel
for every single one ofthem.
They”re now stuck in an Egyptian lake, further
away from their families, without the ability to
defend themselves with the threat of civil and
criminal charges looming. This downward spiral
will undoubtedly be taking its toll on their mental
health and in the past, there hasn't been much of
a
support system in place to help.
Based on my experience offshore, working for
a
company that provides mental well-being training,
and from all of the feedback, Tapiit has garnered
from its live-streamed mental health awareness
courses, seafarers want and need this support. Yet,
there's
a deep-rooted fear that admitting they're
struggling and asking for help will be the end of
their careers.
Of course, the conversation has advanced
significantly, however, it's still not where it should
be. The harsh reality is, the Ever Given and its crew
will be forgotten about in
a month or two”s time,
but this crew is hurting and will continue to struggle
with the mental health issues caused by the incident
for years to come.
(Adapted from https://splash247.com>what-the-ev...)
