ISWAN Workshop in Paris – In October 2024, IMHA organised a 10 person workshop with ISWAN and representatives from the French Ministry for Public Health regarding health messaging that improves the wellbeing of seafarers and secondarily educates about known diseases. Dr. David Lucas will represent IMHA in the project steering committee moving forwards. The workshop is a continuation of revising the SHIP Health Promotion Materials. Support for the workshop was provided by the ITF Seafarers Trust.
The following report was provided by IMHA Board Member Dr. David Lucas:
ISWAN Health Resources – workshop outcomes and initial project brief
This brief was developed following a day-long workshop between ISWAN and the International Maritime Health Association (IMHA), held in Paris in October 2024.
Participants:
Glennda CANLAS MD Philippines IMHA (online)
Katie EARNSHAW ISWAN (present)
Andra ERGLE MD Latvia IMHA (present)
Kris LEMMENS IMHA Secretary (present)
Tarik GAHILAN MD Morocco IMHA (present)
David LUCAS MD IMHA(present)
Simon GRAINGE ISWAN Director (present)
Rob VERBIST MD IMHA President (present)
Guests:
Justine AVENEL Santé Publique France
Jennifer DAVIES Santé Publique France
About the Seafarers’ Health Information Programme (SHIP)
In 2003, IMHA partnered with what was at the time the International Committee on Seafarers’ Welfare (ICSW) to create the Seafarers’ Health Information Programme (SHIP), which was designed to support seafarers to take better care of their health at sea. The project aimed to address the lack of high quality, tailored health information that was designed for seafarers’ specific needs and employment situations.
Feedback received by ISWAN indicates that these resources have been widely utilised and are well regarded in the maritime sector.
Overall aim
There are substantial health challenges amongst the seafaring population and evidence suggests that seafarers’ health is not substantially improving, despite many educational initiatives and improvements in maritime medical care.[1] Much existing health guidance for seafarers is top-down or company-led, which carries the risk of being consumed passively and, as a consequence, having little measurable impact on seafarers’ behaviour or on their health.
Primary objective to improve well being of seafarers, secondarily how to prevent non communicable diseases in seafarers.
Next steps
Research and engagement:
- What existing health resources are available and to whom?
- What do seafarers want and need?
- Where are the gaps in existing provision?
- Who are the key stakeholders/partners and how can we collaborate most effectively?
- What initiatives are already under development? E.g. Marine Benefits is currently working with the ITF Seafarers’ Trust to explore the avenues to optimise the integration of health promotion in pre-employment medical examinations.
- What works in terms of maritime health promotion? This could include input from health providers; desk research and insights from outside the maritime sector.
Defining project scope:
The core resources should be freely available to all seafarers. However, there could be scope to increase the impact of the project by developing a wraparound campaign that could be purchased by maritime stakeholders. In line with the original SHIP project, this could include:
- Staggered release of new resources
- Targeted communication materials to promote each resource
- Guidance about how companies can make small changes in their onboard environment to support change – this can be very important in making change as easy as possible for seafarers
- Suggested interactive campaigns, e.g. awareness months, fitness competitions, online challenges etc.
- Women in maritime industry – make up 2% but health promotion should include and focus more on gender identity etc
- IMHA advocated for neutral position of medical advice in health promotion materials
- IMHA must have single final editor on medical issues
- Focus on gain that individual seafarer will have in engaging in looking after themselves, not to focus on benefits to ship and operations.
Agreement that ISWAN is leading project with IMHA as partner with medical expertise. Steering committee to be established with addition of ICMA, ICS and ITF.
ISWAN to produce report from meeting, further meeting to follow in March or April and first steering group meeting to also be arranged in first half of 2025. ISWAN to apply for further funding for project.
[1] For example, according to data from Nordic Medical Clinic, between 2018 and 2022, just under half of Filipino seafarers were consistently found to be in the highest risk category for health.