A former soldier, who now works as a North Sea derrickman, has released a new video highlighting the need to remove stigma around mental health offshore.
Steve Beedie, who runs the Unspoken Wounds platform to help people with mental health issues, released the video to coincide with World Mental Health Day 2018.
The 38-year-old, who developed PTSD while serving in war zones such as Kosovo and Iraq, has worked offshore for the last decade.
Mr Beedie, who recently spoke to Energy Voice about his hopes to open up the conversation on mental health offshore, has called for the North Sea to be “leaders” on removing stigma.
In the video, he said that similar issues he saw in the army, such as depression and anxiety, are creeping into the offshore sector.
He said: “Mental health is the very fabric of how a person handles, copes and deals with the everyday ongoings of his or her life, and how they feel at home greatly affects how they operate whilst stepping off the chopper to spend half their life on our rigs.
“There is no stigma in mental health, not if we don’t want there to be.
“Let’s have the courage to change the game and be the leaders in this.
“Let’s show the world that the North Sea is a place where we care about the family we are and the family we can be.”
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