News

Mental Health Awareness Week highlights the importance of our services for the next generation of seafarers

19 May, 2023

Mental Health Awareness Week has prompted Sailors' Society CEO, Sara Baade, to reflect on the importance of our services for the next generation of seafarers - a generation with high rates of anxiety to start with.

Anxiety is one of the most common mental health problems we can face, and this week it’s under the spotlight through Mental Health Awareness Week. Anxiety is, of course, a normal emotion in us all, but sometimes it can get out of control and become a mental health problem.

A recent mental health survey showed two-thirds of adults suffer from anxiety stemming from the strain of personal finances and relationships. Add long periods of separation from family and top that with a fear of piracy and storms and no wonder seafarers show even higher levels of anxiety and mental health issues.

Now add in first-job stress and a generation where more than 90 per cent have higher levels of stress and anxiety than their forebears and it’s clear our Gen Z maritime cadets will benefit from knowing how to take care of their own, and others wellbeing.

That’s why we launched our Wellness at Sea Maritime Schools Conferences, now in their third year.

So far, more than 5,000 cadets from across the world have benefitted from these day-long virtual events, where industry leaders and experts in mental health and wellness come together to create a toolkit to help identify issues before they become problems and ensure cadets know where to turn for help and support should they need it.

Surveys carried out at these conferences have also helped us to understand some of the issues and concerns this generation has. Last year, we published this insight in our first in-depth report on cadets - ‘Passport to the Future: Investing in Cadets Today’. It reveals that missing home and family was the biggest fear our Gen Z cadets have, but that a fear of loneliness and isolation was also causing exceptionally high levels of anxiety.

Cadets are the lifeblood of the maritime industry. It’s their passion for a career at sea that keeps the engines running, but this is also a generation that has grown up in an age of increased anxiety and a generation that sees everything through the lens of technology with its pressure to obtain impossibly high standards.

It isn’t surprising that our report also reveals that even before they had boarded their first ship more than 57 per cent of the cadets surveyed showed signs of anxiety.

Wellness and mental health support is going to be vital for this generation to become productive happy seafarers and future leaders and it is why our maritime schools’ conferences have received such plaudits from industry and maritime academies alike. They proved a hit with cadets too, with the consensus that these conferences should form part of the curriculum at all maritime schools.

This year, we have expanded our reach wider, with conferences now covering North Asia, South East Asia, as well as Africa and, for the first time, the UK.

It’s the beginning of our circle of care for seafarers that lasts from the beginning to the end of their maritime journey.

Share this article: