Report from EPPSI Workshop in Frankfurt
14 July 2018
EASA are imminently to publish their directive regarding the provision of pilot peer support, following the Germanwings crash, and this will require all AOCs in the EU to ensure their pilots have access to peer support. The European Pilot Peer Support Initiative (EPPSI) was set up two years ago to assist in the development of pilot peer support programmes and a two-day second training event was held in Frankfurt 20-1 June. This event attracted more than 80 airline managers, safety officers, doctors, pilots and psychologists from across the EU and from further afield to consider models of peer support services, governance, peer selection and training, and also had presentations from both pilot peers as well as a pilot who had accessed such a service. The event was dynamic, informative and reflected best practice, in a non-prescriptive and non-doctrinaire context. There was opportunity for discussion, reflection and networking. The EU is taking the lead in the global airline industry in putting pilot wellbeing to the top of the health and safety agenda and EPPSI is foremost among organisations promoting this. Pilot peer support is of course underpinned and facilitated by mental health professionals and EAAP members are heavily active in this regard to ensure that pilots and pilot peers have access to such specialists. By the time the next EPPSI meeting takes place in 2019, EASA will have published their regulations and more airlines will be planning or have set up peer support services and will seek to share experiences. Pilot peer support is a specialist and sensitive context in which aviation psychology is active and thriving.
Please go to the EPPSI website for all details.
eppsi.eu/
Related link
Next Featured by EAAP:
14/7/2018 6th ECAM 20-23 September 2018 Prague (Czech Republic)
Previous Featured by EAAP:
7/6/2018 Updated agenda: EPPSI Workshop 20-21 June 2018 in Frankfurt