Wireline Magazine Issue 50 - Spring 2021

arena to be flying in.” As with many offshore workers, becoming an offshore pilot might also mean moving away from family or friend support networks to be nearer your working base, or occasionally residential rotations in more remote locations. Combined with the potential pressures of paying back training debts and living up to the expectations of the role, pilots may feel they have a lot of weight on their shoulders. He emphasises how important it is for staff to be able to draw on a support system outside of formal corporate or medical settings, if those pressures start to build. “We are in a society still, where acknowledging mental health issues is still difficult for many... We’re trying to open that up and bring it to the surface by working with peers – not with management or HR departments – to work through issues with their own colleagues and people who will understand what they do and how they work,” he adds. Managers from across the companies have all been trained in mental health first aid, but will not be directly involved in the network. The peers can then decide what information is fed back to the companies, giving them a general picture of workforce health and alerting them if any other broader issues need addressing.

Above: Pilots training in a Sikorsky S-92 simulator in Aberdeen. Source: Bristow

“We can offer this to pilots as a network and a service they are able to trust, because it stands outside of any of the four operators."

w ire lin e | S p r in g 2 02 1 | 3 5

Made with FlippingBook Annual report