Posted inTravel & HospitalityIndustriesLatest NewsTransportUAE

Aviation industry needs to prioritise mental health of pilots while tackling post-Covid threats: experts

In addition to physical troubles, the pandemic affected pilots’ cognitive abilities such as situational awareness, working memory, concentration, reaction time, and multitasking, experts said

pilots generic mental health

Mental health issues among pilots and post-covid threats were among the key topics discussed at the second Burjeel Medical Aviation Congress (BMAC) organised by Dubai’s Burjeel Hospital, which is a unit of VPS Healthcare.

With the aviation industry back on the path to recovery, top aviation medicine experts have urged airlines to prioritise the mental health of their employees.

The two-day aviation event, held under the patronage of the UAE’s General Civil Aviation Authority, saw healthcare professionals and experts discuss the latest developments in aviation medicine.  

Impact of the pandemic on the aviation industry

Working in the aviation industry comes with specific health-related challenges. The long work hours, erratic sleep patterns, and circadian rhythm disruption can cause fatigue, mood changes, anxiety, and more.

Medical experts believe the pandemic and the subsequent crisis in the airline industry have had a profound impact on aviation employees’ physical and mental health.

The psychological stressors during Covid-19 included job insecurity, pilot proficiency, financial concerns, fear of contracting Covid-19, among others.

Experts have asserted that the pandemic has affected the cognitive abilities of pilots such as situational awareness, working memory, concentration, reaction time, multitasking, and more.  

Aviation psychologist, Dr Edma Naddaf, said: “The pandemic has had a double impact – physical and psychological – in aviation employees. We started seeing problems in very competent people.

“The more confident they were, the more scared they were to appear weak. As many as five in 10 patients were being referred for post-traumatic stress disorder (PTSD) treatment.”  

According to Dr Naddaf, while pilots who lost their jobs were under tremendous stress, those who were retained by their employers were equally stressed out.

She referred to the case of a patient in his late 30’s who suffered from panic attacks because he felt he was being treated like an outcast during the initial phase of the pandemic.

Another pilot was diagnosed with adjustment disorder with anxiety and a depressed mood. He was triggered by the changes due to Covid-19 and experiencing a lot of insecurities.  

“In the UAE, we had support from the authorities. We did a lot for front-liners such as setting up call centers. But I’m not sure if that was the case everywhere,” she added.  

Stronger support systems for aviation employees

Strengthening mental healthcare systems is the need of the hour. Pilot mental health is a safety risk according to experts at the conference who exhorted healthcare providers to make company-level changes to prioritise the mental health of aviation employees.

Experts suggested solutions such as regular workshops on coping strategies, providing a non-judgmental listening ear, and setting up an incentive for self-reporting.

They also advocated a stronger collaboration between aviation medicine and psychology to develop new strategies to mitigate the risk associated with long Covid. 

The two-day conference provided an update on all medical specialties related to aviation medicine.

High-profile speakers including Dr Sally Evans, the deputy secretary of the International Academy of Aviation and Space Medicine, participated in the event.

Elaborating on the focus areas of the conference, Dr Erik Hohmann, who is the chairman of the medical aviation congress, said: “More than 100 aviation and healthcare experts from the Middle East attended the second edition of the conference.

“We hope the deliberations that took place on the important aspects of mental health, cardiovascular, cancer, and orthopedic risks of the aviation workforce will guide the industry in making considered decisions.”

Follow us on

For all the latest business news from the UAE and Gulf countries, follow us on Twitter and LinkedIn, like us on Facebook and subscribe to our YouTube page, which is updated daily.

Abdul Rawuf

Abdul Rawuf