Preliminary Guidelines for Post-Piracy Care
by Dr. Michael Stuart Garfinkle, Clinical Researcher, Center for Seafarers’ Rights

January 27, 2010*

I am pleased to announce the release of Preliminary Guidelines: Post-Piracy Care for Seafarers by the Seamen’s Church Institute (SCI). This publication represents SCI’s latest efforts to provide practical guidelines to the maritime industry, based on cutting-edge mental health research and ongoing discussions with shipowners, manning agencies, representatives of foreign governments, and other stakeholders in the industry. Read more about SCI’s Post-Piracy Trauma Assessment and Treatment study and view/download the Preliminary Guidelines here.

On December 8, the Rev. David M. Rider, Douglas Stevenson, and I convened a roundtable on piracy at SCI’s headquarters, where we presented a draft of these guidelines and received helpful feedback from those assembled. These Preliminary Guidelines also reflect input from key researchers in post-traumatic stress, emergency psychiatry, and international psychology. We intend to continue those dialogues as we move forward in our study of the effects of piracy on seafarers and in my continuing task to develop an evidence-based assessment and intervention system to be used in improving the care offered to seafarers who endure the trauma of piracy at sea.

Because the success of this project depends on tapping the aggregate knowledge and experience of industry members and seafarers, I encourage interested parties to email me or telephone +1-212-349-9090 x240.

* Since the publication of this article, SCI has updated the Guidelines.