NBAA’s safety committee is exploring ways to aggregate peer resources to support individuals with mental health concerns. Moderating a panel on mental health during the NBAA Regional Forum last week in White Plains, New York, Mark Larsen, director of safety and flight operations for the association, told attendees such a program would be released “ideally in a few months,” providing resources for business aviation professionals to obtain support.
The initiative is in line with the recommendations of the Mental Health and Aviation Medical Clearances Rulemaking Committee, which called for expanded use of peer support programs. The FAA in April released nearly two dozen recommendations from the committee, saying they build on the agency’s priorities for pilot mental health.
Quay Snyder—co-founder, president, and CEO of Aviation Medicine Advisory Service and member of the mental health ARC—said FAA officials are actively supporting efforts to increase access and break down barriers to obtaining and reporting mental health issues and are taking steps such as increasing the number of conditionally acceptable medications.
As far as peer support, Snyder noted that international studies have shown that between 80% and 90% of issues surrounding mental health struggles can be resolved by speaking about it with peers. “In the regulatory environment, there’s no requirement to report [peer] discussions, and it's extremely effective.”
The airlines and their associated unions have the resources to create peer-support programs. “It’s a little bit more of a struggle for general aviation,” Snyder said.
Laila Stein, a certified flight instructor who has conducted research on student mental health perceptions and was a contributor to the ARC, pointed to the effectiveness of what she called a groundbreaking peer support program pioneered by the University of North Dakota and modeled after those used by the airlines. “We’re very excited to see that program get up and running and we look forward to hopefully seeing some programs at other collegiate universities and other training flight programs,” she said, “because ultimately everyone deserves to be able to talk to someone, especially when we see such high success rates.”
But Larsen, who also was a member of the ARC, said the business aviation community is looking at how to adapt this. “[It's] one thing for an airline that has thousands of pilots to properly train up peers who are ready to be there and engage with their fellow pilots," he said, noting that in business aviation, "the majority of our membership operates a single aircraft, maybe two, and is a much smaller population. We're going to have to find ways to aggregate those resources overall.”
That is what the NBAA safety committee has been exploring, he explained.