The MEntal Health for Aviation SAFEty (MESAFE) conference, held at European Union Aviation Safety Agency headquarters in Cologne, Germany, brought together more than 200 interested parties from Europe and further afield to hear and discuss the outcomes from the MESAFE research carried out by Deep Blue.
The research project assessed new medical developments for the early diagnosis as well as treatment of mental health conditions which could pose a safety risk for aviation and consequently lead to pilot and air traffic controller (ATCO) unfitness or the limitation of their medical certificate for safety purposes.
Currently, there are no specific, validated mental health assessment methods for aviation use, incorporating the specific operational needs, to address the issues identified.
Work is needed to detail the specific needs, and to develop and validate assessment methods or to assess the applicability of existing methods for use in the aviation environment.
The output of this research project has provided:
- 44 recommendations and associated impact assessments:
- evidence-based recommendations for updating the mental health requirements in Part-MED and Part-ATCO.MED in line with the medical developments;
- evidence-based recommendations for mental health assessment methods suitable for aeromedical fitness assessments;
- guidance material on the updates to the fitness assessment of applicants for aeromedical examiners and medical assessors;
- guidance material on mental health assessment and the updates to the fitness assessment of applicants for peer support groups and the trained peers involved in the peer support programs; and
- material to support the management of the proposed changes, e.g., presentations of the results obtained under this contract and training material suitable for professional audiences.
The most significant part of the work proposes a move from the traditional diagnosis path of ‘labelling’ the condition(s) affecting the individual to a safety risk basis that will be understood better by the aviation environment.
As part of this it proposes some new concepts of Mental Incapacitation Events (MIE) that, combined with likelihood of occurrence, form a Mental Incapacitation Risk Assessment. There is also a proposed toolkit to allow self-assessment, under the working name MINDSAFE.
The fundamental premise is to get the pilot or ATCO operational again following a mental health crisis.
Being at the research stage, this topic has a fair way to go before any regulatory or administrative action takes place but goes some way towards taking a holistic approach to physical and mental well-being.
This press release was prepared and distributed by the European Helicopter Association.
