Tristar urges companies to address mental health at inaugural ‘Safety at Sea’ conference
Tristar Group CEO Eugene Mayne urged regional shipowners to address and tackle the mental health issues facing seafarers at the inaugural Tristar ‘Safety at Sea’ conference held last Sunday, November 10. Mr. Mayne highlighted the importance of managing the emotional wellbeing of crew at sea when he addressed over 150 attendees at the One&Only Royal Mirage Hotel in Dubai.
Mr. Mayne shared the findings of the P&I Club that the rate of suicide amongst seafarers has more than tripled since 2014. He further highlighted the report from the Sailors’ Society that 26% of seafarers show signs of depression. “Nearly half of them said they had not asked anybody for help,” Mr. Mayne added.
“The irony is that despite such high rates of suicide amongst seafarers, the topic of mental health is still considered to be a taboo in our industry,” Mr. Mayne explained. “We need to change this mind-set as leaders in our industry and we need to collectively pay attention to this growing trend and come together to do something about it.”
The conference also covered critical topics such as preventing mooring rope failures and restricting cargo tank entry. The sessions were live streamed to over 500 seafarers in crewing centers in India and the Philippines.
Tristar Group is an integrated logistics services provider to the downstream oil and gas industry. It owns and operates chemical, oil and gas tankers and bulk carriers trading globally, mostly with Oil Majors. Six 50,000 DWT MR Tankers were delivered in 2016 by Hyundai Mipo Dockyard. Six more new build 25,000 MT DWT, IMO Type 2 Oil and Chemical Tankers will be delivered by the same dockyard starting next year.
