Guyanese researchers lead new study into the hidden mental toll on the world's merchant seafarers

(Kaieteur News) – Every year, hundreds of thousands of men sail out on cargo ships to keep the world supplied with everything from fuel to food, spending months at a time at sea, far from wives, children, and parents. Most will never tell a doctor, a co-worker, or their own family when the job becomes too much to bear. Not because nothing is wrong, but because the culture on board teaches them that staying quiet is the only way to cope.

That silence is the focus of a new study led by two Guyanese researchers. Roy Naipaul is a Guyanese American social worker and psychotherapist known for his work with vulnerable communities. Dr. Rita Persaud is a Guyanese Canadian professor at Wilfrid Laurier University in Ontario, Canada, who studies human resources and mental health. Working with maritime executives Captains Aung Moe and Myo Thant, both PhD candidates at the International Executive School in Strasbourg, France, they looked at how men who spend months at sea, cut off from their families, cope with that isolation, and what toll it takes.

This is not new ground for Naipaul and Persaud, who have focused their careers on communities whose struggles rarely make headlines. This time, that work has taken them into shipping.