Psychological Health of Sailors Needs Urgent Rescue

Reporter Liu Xiao

The tragedy of “Lu Rongyu 2682”shocked the world, 11 sailors killed 22 companions. The case was fi nally closed in July. 5 sailors were sentenced to death,1 was sentenced to death with reprieve. The other 5 were given fixed-term imprisonment ranging from 4 to 15 years. A crew trainer indicates that before this “grand Chinese ocean murder” which is more legendary and can be termed as “the American thrillers” was given a verdict, most domestic shipping companies have not realized psychological problems of sailors are so serious. The reason is simple, we have heard that sailors may have con fl icts on the sea, but it is seldom that violent accident happens.

Once a research institute has made experiments to test mental health of ordinary high-sea sailors, offshore sailors and surviving sailors according to symptom checklist(SCL-90). The results show that sailor mental health is in poor condition. With sailing time and stressful events increasing, it is easier to show positive symptom and obvious mental disorders, such as summarization,forcing, anxiety, antagonism, bigotry and higher psychotic factors.

Reporter had the chance to interview an expert of the experiment, he indicates that there is a critical point of SCL-90. Nearly about 80 days on the sea, sailors do repetitive works, interpersonal relationship turns bad.They feel lonely, impatient and scatterbrained. Then this psychological state breaks through to a critical point again, another psychology dominates the sailors, followed by insomnia, anorexia and headache. If sailors could not drain off these harmful factors in time, it makes things worse.

Some reasons for sailor mental problems are inevitable,such as small space, poor information, boring life, ship swing, mechanical noise and uncertain risk factors, which pose a challenge to sailor psychological endurance. But some problems can be intervened.