Maria Carrera Arce

• World Maritime University

This special collection encompasses 10 articles that delve into the pressing aspects of seafarers’ well-being, mental health, and the workplace. The articles are categorized into 2 broad topics. The first topic, comprising 6 articles, scrutinizes the contributory factors to seafarers’ psychological well-being on board, covering sleep problems, food...

The COVID-19 crisis locked sea workers on their ships for extended periods. They have been deprived of their right to repatriation or shore leave. Their employment agreements were extended, medical assistance failed, and financial challenges affected them. The crisis revealed the lack of care for seafarers, which may have mid-term and long-term con...

Introduction: Mandatory work/rest hours regulations guarantee a base level of fatigue management at sea while ensuring an even playing field across the industry. Although studies have highlighted concerns regarding the accuracy of compliance reporting and enforcement efficacy in detecting non-compliance, a gap remains in understanding the extent of...

Highlights •Twelve primary sources demonstrate the widespread adjustment of work-rest hours records. •Insufficient crewing levels and inconsistent enforcement justify work-rest records adjustment. •Persistent seafarers’ work-rest hours policy neglect since 2004 keeps this issue unresolved. •Naming consistently the work-rest records adjustment ph...

Seafarers spend more time at sea than on land, which makes them a hard-to-reach community. Since their mental health and well-being is usually addressed from a land-based perspective, dedicated and validated methods incorporating maritime specificities are lacking. During the COVID-19 pandemic, research into seafarers’ mental health and well-being...

The specific nature of the seafaring occupation keeps seafarers away from partners and shore life for long periods at sea. Therefore, seafarers suffer many challenges in the workplace including frustration of their sexual needs. This study aimed to investigate the relationship between work-induced sexual abstinence, psychological health and job sat...

Background: Just culture aspires to prompt organizational learning from enhanced feedback by frontline operators. Just culture requires mechanisms to eliminate fear and sanction but not accountability when reporting safety-related issues. Adopted in sectors such as aviation, just culture remains an underdeveloped field in the maritime sector. Obj...

Background: Seafarers' psychological health is seriously affected by COVID-19. The pandemic could act as a catalyst for change with respect to seafarers' mental health protection and promotion. Objective: The study explores the main factors contributing to the mental health and wellbeing of seafarers. Moreover, elements to help seafarers lessen...

The research is an insightful exploration into what contributes to the deterioration of seafarers’ wellbeing. It unveils the determinant factors and their impact on wellbeing, further exploring the perception and awareness levels of the maritime society on the issue. Moreover, the effectiveness of main regulatory instruments to address seafarers’ w...

Maritime Organization (IMO) governance. The critics suggested that the industry and a handful of countries captured IMO's regulatory development. To verify NGOs' claims, the paper introduces a quantitative methodology to assess the most influential stakeholders in IMO's debates. The study quantified twenty-two years of written evidence of participa...

SAFEMODE is an EU-funded project under the Horizon 2020 programme. The project brings together experience from the whole safety value chain including manufacturers, service providers, regulators, academia, and small-medium enterprises. This paper focuses on two core aspects the project is addressing: 1) the systematic collection, analysis, and cate...

Background. The issue of mental health of seafarers is extremely important in relation to their health and to the occupational safety onboard. The safe operation of the shipping industry is crucial not only for its workforce but for the international economic and environmental order and safe delivery of goods. However, the mental health of seafarer...

Objectives: This study aimed to assess the effectiveness of solution-focused group therapy (SFGT) for psychological distress and mild to moderate depression in a routine clinical practice setting. Design and methods: A naturalistic pre/post-study involving 132 mental health service users was carried out. Clients received seven structured session...

Resumen Objetivos: 1) Examinar y describir los nuevos modelos de familia que emergen ante los cambios recientes tras pasar las parejas por Técnicas de Reproducción Asistida (TRA), 2) Proponer las limitaciones que generan en su representación mediante el genograma clásico así como propuestas para dicha representación, y 3) Analizar los retos que no...

Resumen Objetivos: 1) Examinar y describir los nuevos modelos de familia que emergen ante los cambios recientes tras pasar las parejas por Técnicas de Reproducción Asistida (TRA), 2) Proponer las limitaciones que generan en su representación mediante el genograma clásico así como propuestas para dicha representación, y 3) Analizar los retos que no...

To explore the relations between personality traits using the Big Five model and presence of agoraphobia, clinical severity and short-term outcome in an unbiased clinical sample of never-treated panic disorder patients. Panic disorder (PD) patients (n = 103) in the first stages of their illness were evaluated using the Neuroticism-Extraversion-Open...

An abstract is unavailable. This article is available as HTML full text and PDF.

To analyse the quality of life (QoL) of patients with panic disorder of recent onset and to find related clinical variables. Panic disorder patients with and without agoraphobia (N=125) in the first stages of the disorder (median of 8 months since the first panic attack) were compared with a community control group. Quality of life was evaluated by...