Getting the word out on mental illness

摘要

Getting information to seafarers on the touchy subject of mental illness can be done if the right people are involved. In 2008 the international committee of the Rotary Club of Melbourne South visited the Mission to Seafarers in Melbourne to learn more about the mental health of seafarers on ships calling into Melbourne. The Mission's Chaplain told us of a Chief Engineer two months earlier: "We don't know what caused it, but the Chief Engineer became so depressed that he found a niche in the engine room and hung himself. This is not too common, but it is not unusual."