Mental Health FAA Committee Releases Recommendation Report
The Mental Health & Aviation Medical Clearances Aviation Rulemaking Committee (ARC) recently released their Recommendation Report. The ARC was formed in December 2023 to mitigate potential aviation safety risks due to mental health.
The ARC provided a forum for the U.S. aviation community to discuss the barriers preventing pilots and air traffic controllers (ATC) from reporting and seeking care for mental health issues. The forum included the ARC members, observers and contributors consisting “of a broad representation of people, including aerospace medicine, psychiatric and psychological medical experts from the Federal Aviation Administration (FAA) Office of Aerospace Medicine (AAM), FAA Flight Standards Service (AFS), the National Transportation Safety Board (NTSB), U.S. aviation industry trade associations, pilot/controller representative organizations, academia and international aviation industry associations and civil aviation authorities (CAAs).”
The ARC also reviewed mental health guidelines and procedures in place at other international regulatory agencies, acknowledging their experiences can help inform revisions to FAA’s approaches. Other potential barriers identified by the committee include culture, trust, fear, stigma, financial, knowledge and information gap.
“In total, the ARC report includes 24 recommendations to the FAA and aviation stakeholders,” said Mark Larsen, NBAA’s director for safety and flight operations and an ARC member. “If fully implemented, these recommendations would help ensure those in the aviation community seek out appropriate resources and treatment to address mental health concerns.”
A summary of the ARC’s recommendations:
- Create a non-punitive pathway for disclosing mental health conditions and treatments.
- Revise and evaluate the requirements for reporting and certification/qualification of psychotherapy (talk therapy), depression/anxiety, attention deficit hyperactivity disorder and post-traumatic stress disorder.
- Ensure that aeromedical screening protocols and requirements are based on Safety Management System principles (i.e., proportionate, relevant and risk-based), and appropriately communicated to applicants.
- Expand the use and promotion of Peer Support Programs.
- Develop mental health literacy, education and awareness campaigns.
- Increase mental health training and improve quality assurance for Aviation Medical Examiners (AMEs).
- Modernize the FAA’s Management Information System/Aviation Medical Certification Subsystem.
Larsen also noted the report and its recommendations were adopted unanimously by ARC members. “This shows a deep understanding and broad desire from the aviation community to reduce the barriers that keep pilots, air traffic controllers and others from seeking mental health care,” he said.
“We applaud the FAA, and specifically the Office of Aerospace Medicine, for convening the ARC to bring industry and government together to address this important safety issue,” Larsen added.
The FAA said it is assessing the report and “will determine next steps after reviewing the recommendations.”
FAA Releases SMS Final Rule
The FAA recently released a final rule expanding FAR Part 5 requirements which calls for certain certificate holders to develop and implement a safety management system (SMS). The new rule requires all Part 135 operators, certain Part 21 certificate holders and §91.147 air tour operators to implement an SMS, as well as adding some new mandates to Part 5.
The rule explains, “a safety management system (SMS) provides an organization-wide approach to identifying safety hazards, assessing and managing safety risk, and assuring the effectiveness of safety risk controls. An SMS provides a set of decision-making processes and procedures that can improve safety by assisting an organization in planning, organizing, directing and controlling its aviation-related business activities.”
According to the National Business Aircraft Association (NBAA), in response to specific input given from their organization, the rule ensures scalability for the smallest operators, eschews unduly burdensome Part 5 mandates for single-pilot operations and provides a more reasonable timeline for implementation of SMS requirements, from 24 to 36 months.
The FAA is publishing this rule in part to address a Congressional mandate as well as recommendations from the National Transportation Safety Board.