Thank you for a beautiful and well thought out article.
The knowledge of the effects isolation can have seems to fall on deaf ears until something profound happens.
A few years ago a crew mate ended his life in a dramatic way after a relationship breakdown.
Communication from ship was limited with only a ten minute phone call allowed once per week.
Since then Internet communications has been provided to all crew along with the understanding that a number of factors, like a loss of seagoing allowances if anyone was off work work due to an illness, meant that some very unwell people were exacerbating conditions due to financial obligations.
Sadly, the systems that were provided were already fitted to the ship. It took a man’s life to have them turned on and isolation to be taken into consideration.
Thank you for this story, I really appreciate you being open and sharing. This must have been a devastating experience for all involved. And how awful it took a tragedy to have the systems enabled that might have prevented loss of life.
Thank you for a beautiful and well thought out article.
The knowledge of the effects isolation can have seems to fall on deaf ears until something profound happens.
A few years ago a crew mate ended his life in a dramatic way after a relationship breakdown.
Communication from ship was limited with only a ten minute phone call allowed once per week.
Since then Internet communications has been provided to all crew along with the understanding that a number of factors, like a loss of seagoing allowances if anyone was off work work due to an illness, meant that some very unwell people were exacerbating conditions due to financial obligations.
Sadly, the systems that were provided were already fitted to the ship. It took a man’s life to have them turned on and isolation to be taken into consideration.
Thank you for this story, I really appreciate you being open and sharing. This must have been a devastating experience for all involved. And how awful it took a tragedy to have the systems enabled that might have prevented loss of life.