Focus on Mental Health During COVID-19
Journal of Emergency Management ®
Webinar Series

Mariner Mental Health During COVID-19
and Beyond

.....U.S. Mariners worked through the COVID-19 pandemic, providing essential services and goods. U.S. Mariners hold stressful jobs—spending long periods of time away from home often with disrupted communication while working long hours at sea. The COVID-19 pandemic has made it more challenging for U.S. Mariners to come ashore and has added additional stressors to their work and personal lives. There are 95,471 +/- miles of U.S. coastline, numerous rivers, and other seaways, and 90%+ of the population is served by this critical field!

Please forward this invitation to your colleagues who may be involved in the maritime
or marine emergency management professions.

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Abstract
.....The COVID-19 pandemic has further emphasized the impact work has on mental health, particularly for essential workers. U.S. Mariners are an essential occupation who have continued sailing throughout the pandemic, and many aspects of their work could make them prone to adverse mental health outcomes including spending long periods at sea with limited access to shore leave, limited ability to communicate with home, and often long and physical work hours. Between January and July 2021, an online survey developed in collaboration with U.S. Maritime Administration (MARAD) and the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) was deployed to U.S. Mariners to assess their mental health, barriers to accessing mental health care, concerns, worries, and experiences when sailing during the pandemic, job satisfaction, and safety climate. The survey was completed by n=1,384 U.S. Coast Guard-credentialed mariners who had sailed during the COVID-19 pandemic. The prevalence of likely depression and anxiety were 20.7% and 22.7%, respectively, among survey respondents; 8.9% of respondents had feelings of suicidal ideation. Worse mental health outcomes were seen in mariners who identified as female and in younger mariners. Results from this study will help to prioritize interventions to minimize the mental health impacts of the pandemic in this population and make evidence-based recommendations to improve the mental health of mariners going forward.

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Learning Objectives
  1. Describe how work can impact mental health.
  2. Describe how the COVID-19 pandemic impacted the work of mariners.
  3. Summarize factors that may have contributed to adverse mental health of mariners during the COVID-19 pandemic.
  4. Suggest interventions to improve the mental health of mariners during a public health emergency and beyond.

(Note: A recording will be made but you need to be registered to get notice when the recording is available.)
Presenter:
Marissa Baker, PhD

Dr. Marissa Baker is an Assistant Professor in the University of Washington (UW) Department of Environmental & Occupational Health Sciences (DEOHS). She also serves as program director of the industrial hygiene training program. She is an affiliate faculty in the Harry Bridges Center for Labor Studies at UW.

Dr. Baker's current research mostly centers on occupational experiences of vulnerable or under-represented groups. During the COVID-19 pandemic, she has been working closely with a variety of worker organizations, government, and industry partners to characterize physical and mental health outcomes experienced by workers due to the pandemic. Dr. Baker also develops and evaluates occupational interventions to protect worker health and well-being and studies the experiences of women in the workplace.

Trained as an industrial hygienist, Dr. Baker has expertise in workplace exposure assessment, using techniques such as air sampling, biomonitoring, exposure modeling, and surveys. In 2021, Baker was appointed by the administrator of the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency to the Science Advisory Committee on Chemicals.
Moderator:
Sonny S. Patel, MPH, MPhil
Sonny S. Patel, MPH, MPhil, is a Presidential Fellow at Georgia State University and a Visiting Scientist at Harvard University. Patel is a Public Health Executive who serves on advisory committees and board of directors of organizations creating positive social and community impact. Patel is a former National Institutes of Health Fogarty Global Health Scholar and has developed protocols, programs, and training to build capacity and knowledge in communities worldwide - from subject matters in Public Health, Community Health, and Mental Health to specialized topics in Emergency Management, Community Resilience, and Disaster Risk Reduction. Patel was recently recognized as a top 40 under 40 Public Health Catalyst by the Boston Congress of Public Health and named by USAID in India as one of the top DevDistruptors in Mental Health.
Funding for this training/webinar has been provided by The National Institute of Environmental Health Sciences (NIEHS) of the National Institutes of Health (NIH) under award number U45ES019350, in association with Nova Southeastern University.
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