VAI Spotlight on Safety: Are you mentally fit to fly? USHST program offers free, confidential counseling to members of the vertical aviation community. By Mark Huber In the vertical aviation industry, we pay substantial—and fully warranted—attention to a pilot’s physical ability to fly. But how often do we focus on an equally important aspect of fitness: mental health? Confidential peer counseling has been around for centuries as a proven and cost-effective mental health tool. More recently, it’s attracted greater interest from the international aviation community, propelled in part by a trio of high-profile airline crashes that killed more than 600 people between 1999 and 2015—accidents that were associated with flight-crew mental health issues. The most notorious of these events occurred in 2015, when a Germanwings copilot locked himself alone in the cockpit and intentionally flew into a mountainside, killing all 150 aboard. While widely adopted by the fixed-wing community, peer-to-peer counseling has been slow in coming to the vertical aviation community. Until now. Peer Pilot Program At this year’s VERTICON, which took place in March in Dallas, Texas, VAI and the US Helicopter Safety Team (USHST) launched the Peer Pilot Program, a confidential, no-cost, nonjudgmental resource available to mentally stressed or distressed pilots and other members of the vertical aviation community. The program matches participants, including pilots, maintenance technicians, and support personnel, with trained, volunteer peer counselors. The counselors have relevant experience in various sectors of vertical aviation, including offshore, air ambulance, air tour, corporate, and charter operations. The Peer Pilot Program offers “nothing but assistance for you,” USHST industry cochair Chris Baur said at a recent FAA safety webinar. He noted that members of the vertical aviation community often face unique stressors, such as grisly scenes during search-and-rescue or air ambulance missions, that have the potential to trigger a mental health event that could have been mitigated with the proper peer support. The FAA Is Onboard In its 2023 recommendation report, the FAA’s Mental Health and Aviation Medical Clearances Rulemaking Committee (ARC) recommended expanding “the use and promotion of peer support programs,” emphasizing the need to create “a nonpunitive pathway for disclosing mental health conditions and treatments.” But pilots have been reluctant to self-report mental health issues to colleagues, employers, or aviation medical examiners (AMEs) for fear of being grounded. “Why aren’t they seeking out mental health support when they need it most?” asks clinical and organization psychologist Aedrian Bekker, cofounder of the Somerset, England–based Centre for Aviation Psychology, which is administering the Peer Pilot Program for the USHST. “Well, it’s pretty obvious [why]: there is jeopardy attached. If I were to raise my hand [for help] when I was going through a difficult time in my life, my life could get even more difficult because I may be grounded and it may take me a long time to get back in the air.” Bekker says the FAA considers that perspective to be an impediment that “prevents the aviator” from “seeking help.” He says the agency is now pursuing a “groundbreaking” approach based on recommendations in the ARC report that encourage people to get the assistance they need without risking their careers. A peer program is integral to this approach because, Bekker adds, peer counselors are “not licensed mental health professionals. They’re not intended to be. They’re there to support a colleague,” and their presence and availability in and of themselves “lower the barriers and really encourage people to ask for help.” Peer counselors can also be the gateway to getting additional help and resources, Bekker notes, though, according to Jessica Auslander, 80% of the time talking to a peer can resolve the issue. Auslander, an expert in addiction psychology who specializes in working with pilots and aviation organizations, is the lead mental health professional for the Centre for Aviation Psychology in the United States. “We know that 80% of the calls that come to a peer support group stay at that level,” she says. “The most valuable thing they can give you is that [peer] connection. They get it. They’re living this too.” Auslander stresses that while participating peers are trained in topics including psychological first aid, suicide identification and response, and active listening, “When you call them, they’re not going to judge you. They don’t know you, your friends, or your family. So you feel free to talk to them about anyone you want. They’re going to help you figure out what’s going on and what your next move could be.” Sometimes, it takes as little as one call. Occasionally, one or two follow-up calls. But if more is needed, those resources are available. “That’s where I come in,” Auslander says. “I can help you figure that piece out. Aviation mental health is important not just as viewed through the safety lens, but for your quality of life. The brain is an organ of the body, and like any other organ, it needs care and support. Peer support is great for prevention, but if you need more support, that’s OK too.” Auslander stresses that the FAA has been more progressive in its mental health thinking since the Germanwings crash and that AME guidelines now allow for up to 2 of 11 different mental health diagnoses as well as psychotherapy on topics including work/life balance, relational stress, and other things that “people typically talk about in peer support. “We want you to get that [mental health] support early on,” and “peer support is a great place to start,” Auslander says. And although seeing a mental health professional is reportable, she says most AMEs check it off for her clients in private practice “because it’s not a safety issue.” Still, fear surrounding getting professional mental health remains, says Bekker. “The moment you ask for help and start claiming it through your health insurance, you expose yourself to a world of pain.” Both Auslander and Bekker say the FAA is looking to address that concern. “The FAA is taking a completely different stance on mental health,” insists Auslander. “The peer support services are free and completely confidential. When you talk to a peer, everything stays between you and that peer” unless the guidance seeker shares that they’re going to harm themselves or someone else. By law, the latter situation must be disclosed to ensure that “everybody stays safe,” she says. Helicopter Pros Need Support Too “It’s great that we’ve been able to reach out to the helicopter community,” says Bekker, noting that the vertical aviation industry sometimes feels like a forgotten child in the larger regulatory scheme of the fixed wing-world. Alluding to the particular missions and characteristics of helicopter operations, he says the community has unique “stresses and strains.” Marc Struckmeyer understands those stresses and strains better than most. Which is why the pilot decided to become one of the Peer Pilot Program’s first peer pilots. Struckmeyer currently flies a Bell 407GX air ambulance. “It’s really good to be able to vent, get things off your chest with no repercussions.” After his 13-year-old son committed suicide, Struckmeyer and his wife, a flight nurse, had only a few short weeks of personal time off. Then, it was back to work. “There was really no support for myself or my wife. And now it’s 2:00 in the morning and I’m on a scene flight.” With his son’s death still very much top of mind, Struckmeyer worried about how to keep his patient and crew safe “with all this stuff going on [in my head] and not having anyone to talk to about it. “We all have outside-of-work issues,” Struckmeyer says. “It’s important that pilots have an outlet, a place they can go, a safe place. We’ve [the program participants] all gone through significant peer support training, and it’s recurrent every year. It’s just something I really wanted to get involved with. I am honored to be one of the program’s peer support people.” But the Peer Pilot Program isn’t just for pilots, Struckmeyer emphasizes, noting that flight nurses, mechanics/engineers, dispatchers, and others are all welcome to take advantage of the resource. “It’s open to everybody.” For more information on the Peer Pilot Program, visit ushstpeer.org. Mark Huber is an aviation journalist with more than two decades of experience in the vertical flight industry.
