When the Emergency Ends but the Shock Remains - and some BIG NEWS!

World Mental Health Day 2025 — Mental Health in Catastrophes and Emergencies

When something goes wrong at sea, we all know what to do.

We run the drill. We assess. We act.

We’re trained for chaos — but only the kind we can see.

What happens when the incident is over, the person survives — but the crew can’t stop replaying it?

When the captain who performed CPR can’t sleep?

When everyone returns to work as if nothing happened, yet no one feels quite right?

That’s the part of an emergency we rarely talk about — the psychological aftermath.

And this year’s World Mental Health Day theme — “Access to Services: Mental Health in Catastrophes and Emergencies” — could not be more relevant to life at sea.

The Invisible Wound

At sea, we’re trained to treat burns, fractures, hypothermia — but not the invisible injuries that follow trauma.

Critical incidents leave deep neurological and emotional imprints.

The body may be safe, but the nervous system hasn’t caught up.

I’ve seen captains lose focus after a serious medical emergency, stews break down days after a crisis, engineers replay near misses for months.

These aren’t signs of weakness — they’re the physiological echoes of trauma.

Yet, because we don’t talk about it, many crew suffer in silence.

We Train for Emergencies. It’s Time We Trained for the Aftermath.

The WHO reminds us that mental health care must be part of every emergency response — not something added later, or accessed only on land.

On yachts, that means:

Training captains and medics to recognise early stress reactions.

Including psychological first aid in safety drills.

Making telemedical and mental health support part of every contingency plan.

When we treat emotional injury with the same urgency as physical injury, we prevent burnout, protect crew cohesion, and save careers.

What Psychological First Aid Looks Like

After a critical incident, people need calm, safety, and connection.

It’s not about therapy — it’s about leadership.

Acknowledge what happened. Don’t brush it off.

Normalise reactions. Stress is expected; it’s biology, not weakness.

Check in quietly over the next 48–72 hours.

Model calm. Your tone and breathing regulate everyone else’s.

The goal isn’t to fix — it’s to stabilise.

When the leader is grounded, the crew follows.

Access at Sea

The WHO theme — Mental Health in Catastrophes and Emergencies — is a wake-up call for every high-stakes environment.

Access shouldn’t depend on geography.

At sea, support looks like:

Rapid access to telemedical mental health professionals.

Leaders trained in PFA and debriefing.

Time to process before diving back into routine.

The most resilient teams aren’t the toughest — they’re the most supported.

A Personal Note

After years of teaching marine medicine, I’ve learned that a crisis doesn’t end when the bleeding stops.

It ends when the body and mind are both safe again.

That’s why I’m thrilled to be now, as of this week, working with MedAire, delivering Emotional Health and Wellbeing Training for yacht crews and captains worldwide, along withEmma Kate Rossand the crew atseasthemind(I am still doing regular medical training too, of course!)

Together, we’re bridging the gap between medical care and mental health care — helping leaders recognise, respond, and recover from the hidden impact of emergencies at sea.

The Takeaway

We’re all trained to handle the mayday — but the real test comes after.

If we can normalise emotional recovery the way we normalise safety drills, we’ll build a maritime culture that’s not only skilled, but truly resilient.

Because leadership in a crisis isn’t just about saving lives — it’s about protecting the people who keep them safe.