Community Lost at Sea

Building a sense of community at sea is a major part of the mental health challenge.

A community is dependent on the quality of relationships and most have common interests and perspectives. There can be few interests more common than being on a ship together, so what are the answers to ensure that seafarers see themselves as a team who act jointly to make life better?

Social

Sit down together

Try to find a time and place for people to be able to regularly drop by.  If others know that someone is likely to be in the lounge, saloon, tv room, or wherever, then others will go visit.

So, try and make it a social hub, even if it’s only for half an hour a day.

Online Offline

Connect online to connect offline.

It may seem counterintuitive, but people are shy and are increasingly used to connecting online.

So, let them. Even if it is within a small shipboard community, if we can have a social intranet onboard, then people could be encouraged to interact, which will likely mean positives for the group, not just virtually.