What is Seafarer Mental Health

This chapter will review the environmental and social stressors that seafarers face regularly and the associated risk of significant behavioral health impact with a particular focus on the risk of traumatic stress impacts. It will present research suggesting that such impacts have economic and performance impacts, in addition to their human impact, and research demonstrating that such impacts can cost-effectively be mitigated by relatively simple behavioral health interventions. Finally, it will propose a “before, during, and after” strategy that manning agencies and shipowners can adopt to equip seafarers with the appropriate tools to mitigate the impacts of maritime stressors.