Health & Wellbeing

Mind Matters at Sea – Mental Health & Emotional Wellbeing at Sea

The mental health and emotional wellbeing of seafarers is an important issue and North has a range of resources aimed at supporting Members and their crew:

My Mind Matters at Sea website

A resource directly for ship’s crew – providing information and resources for the emotional welfare of seafarers. The site looks at the common causes of mental health problems, how to keep well at sea and provides information on where to find additional help and resources.

Please visit: www.mymindmatters.club

Mind Call at Sea Helpline

Through ISWAN, North has funded a confidential and dedicated emotional support helpline for seafarers on North entered vessels. The Helpline is available 24/7, 365 days a year. The Mind Call team speaks: Arabic, Chinese, French, Hindi, Russian, Spanish and Tagalog as well as English and crew can request a call back, use live chat or send an email instead.

Please visit: www.mindcall.org

Pre-Employment Medicals

Although crew illness claims do arise, many may have been avoided if the seafarer had undergone a comprehensive pre-employment medical examination by a reliable specialist clinic.

In order to reduce incidents and ensure the good health of crew North has, for a number of years, been successfully running two enhanced pre-employment medical programmes, one in the Philippines and one in the Ukraine. Further details regarding the programmes can be found in North’s PEME briefings which also provide Members with advice on effective pre-employment medical screening and the selection of suitable clinics in their other crew supply areas worldwide.

For further details regarding our PEME programmes please contact: Lucy Dixon or Abbie Rudd at: PEME@nepia.com

Crew Health and Welfare

Our Loss Prevention Briefing series on ‘Crew Health and Welfare’ looks at the most frequent crew illness claims, crew fitness and the duty of care that ship operators have towards their sea staff in matters of health and welfare.

Fatigue

Fatigue is a reduction in physical and/or mental capacity as the result of physical, mental, or emotional exertion which may impair nearly all physical and mental abilities including: strength, speed, reaction time, coordination, decision making or balance.

Our fatigue Loss Prevention Briefing is intended to review legislation, examine enforcement, discuss non-compliance, look at fatigue studies and suggest remedies.

Post Repatriation Medical Scheme for Filipino Seafarers

The Post Repatriation Medical Programme (PRM) was introduced in February 2013. North is working with Ship to Shore Medical Assist and Shiphealth Inc., both of which are recommended Post Repatriation Medical facilities in Manila, in order to assist seafarers who have been repatriated to the Philippines as a result of injury or illness.

The aim is to provide efficient, high-quality treatment for filipino seafarers whilst at the same time avoiding excessive costs, in particular by avoiding unnecessary treatment for additional medical conditions for which members were not legally or contractually responsible.

For further details regarding our PRM programmes please contact: Lucy Dixon or Abbie Rudd at PRM@nepia.com