Pilots ‘Mental Health, Shmental Health’

“Pilots are not the only ones facing mental health issues, you know?” True. But…

“Pilots are not the only ones facing mental health issues, you know?” True. But…

Cutting to the Chase: We are well aware that pilots are not the only ones within the aviation industry who face mental health challenges. It is also clear that others within the industry who face mental health issues need the same amount of support and help as pilots do. However, if resources are limited and attention span is also limited, we should focus on that part of the problem that has an outsized impact relative to the other segments. Therefore, the initial focus on pilot mental health is important for the following reasons:

• The impact of an adverse situation occurring because of a pilot’s mental breakdown during flight outweighs that of other aviation professionals.
• With finite resources, we should always look first at the part of the problem that has the highest risk impact and tackle that first.
• Finally, once we take care of the highest risk, lessons learned there can be applied to the other risk areas.

Get Involved: Do you believe that all other professions within the aviation industry should get the same amount of attention regarding mental health as pilots? Why or why not? Please share your thoughts in the comments below.

The possible impact on pilots’ mental health as it relates to safety, and overall risk is markedly higher than in other professions within the aviation industry.

• No doubt other aviation professionals such as air traffic controllers have jobs that can bring on a lot of stress as well. That being said, air traffic controllers operate in an environment where their work is limited by time and is heavily supervised and supported by many other colleagues in the same space.
• Other aviation professionals’ mental health challenges also lend themselves to risk such as flight attendants and ground support staff. While there is significant risk here as well, the level of support while tasks are being done is much higher when compared to two pilots in a cockpit who are for the most part isolated in that cockpit and are at 30,000 feet above the ground.
• Therefore, while there are important steps to be taken to support all aviation professionals on mental health issues, with limited resources, we need to focus on the area that can create the greatest impact in the event of a mishap due to their oversized risk profile.

On Aviation™ Note: Virtually all of us can agree that the point of risk at the pilots’ end produces the highest risk profile. We simply believe that we should mitigate this risk first, given limited resources.

Applying lessons learned across the entire aviation industry.

• Once the pilot mental health issue has been addressed and continues to be addressed effectively — along with other possible critical professions — we can then turn our sights to expand the approach across the board.
• This is important since lessons learned in dealing with the riskiest challenge can then be applied to the other professions within the industry.

On Aviation™ Note: With our approach, it is important to apply lessons learned in one area to another to ensure maximum effectiveness.

Conclusion

Many of us believe that there should be just as much mental health support efforts placed on other professions within the aviation industry as being placed on pilots. Undoubtedly, all other professions require the highest level of attention. However, we believe that it is best to focus on the area with the highest risk profile — that can lead to the greatest tragedy — if something is not done. Then we can work our way to the other relatively lesser risk problems. By trying to take on all these problems at once, we may find that it’s cost-prohibitive to do so through a simultaneous rollout of problem-solving on all fronts.

Thank you for reading this week’s On Aviation™ full article. Do you believe that all other professions within the aviation industry should get the same amount of attention regarding mental health as pilots? Why or why not? Please share your thoughts in the comments below. Remember to check out our On Aviation™ Podcast and continue the conversation on our Twitter and Instagram.

Orlando — On Aviation™