New Crew Wellbeing Portal Needs Your Help

An appeal was launched seven months ago in response to a growing awareness of industry suicides and the fact that we had lost some very good people. The appeal was to raise funds to enable the ISWAN maritime charity to create a website,  www.yachtcrewhelp.org, that would be an instant point of contact for anybody suffering overwhelming stress and needing help within our industry. 

Unfortunately the response has not been as strong as expected, especially in an industry with over 50,000 people on board and the same, if not more, shore-side. Mental health is now raising its ugly head again as the results of the lockdowns are becoming apparent. Please, if you can afford to help now, click here to make a donation.

By donating you can make it a reality that every crew member on every yacht has access to a website that will give them confidential mental health information, emotional support tools and an emergency helpline. Don’t sit back and wait for someone else - be a part of the solution today.

In order to bring awareness to the issue, Captain Brendan O’Shannassy and Colin Squire will be holding a webinar entitled ‘Mental Health in Professional Yachting’ this Wednesday 6^th May with a goal of raising £20,000. The webinar is open to everyone, using the following login details: 

Time: Wednesday May 6, 2020 03:00 PM London

Join Zoom Meeting: https://us02web.zoom.us/j/85383416833?pwd=QXpsRE9KQ3dqRDA0NkJ6ajBvWUNwZz09

Meeting ID: 853 8341 6833

ISWAN needs to raise these funds to build this website that will provide online access to free mental health information and support for yacht crew, and the support it will offer is three-fold:

• Signposting organisations and the specific help that they can offer. This will include direct access to information about SeafarerHelp as well as contact details for the Mission to Seafarers’ Palma-based Chaplain, Nautilus, the PYA, port welfare organisations and more.

• Cataloguing the port-based facilities which exist for superyacht crew as an extension to seafarerhelp.org/en/seafarers-directory

• Guidance on various issues affecting superyacht crew, including the promotion of good metal wellbeing

For all supporting companies, publicity and website branding opportunities will be offered.