Mariner Mental Health Research: Study aiming to characterize mental health risks and reduce suicides

Researchers from Yale University School of Medicine's Occupational and Environmental Medicine Program first started investigating injury and illness risk among water transportation workers in 2012. At that time, they found it quite challenging to gain access to seafarers and mariners who often work far from routine medical care, in locations scattered throughout the country or the world. In the years since, these researchers were able to address this challenge by partnering with seafarer welfare agencies including Seaman's Church Institute (SCI) in the United States and Sailors' Society in England. Through these partnerships, researchers have been able to board ships with port chaplains to speak directly with working seafarers and collect data while observing them in the work environment. The researchers expanded their scope to include mariner mental health research following an alarming number of suicides in the inland mariner population in 2016. Seafarer welfare agencies, maritime employers, researchers, and other interested parties came together to discuss the problem and develop action plans to prevent additional suicides.