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In honour of our upcoming bicentennial on 8 March 2021, we'd like to tell you about the history of #Seafarers Hospital Society to give you a sense of our legacy and the principles we continue to hold dear and work towards to date. A thread:
At the end of the Napoleonic Wars in the early 19th Century, London’s docks were teeming with discharged, unemployed seamen from many different countries, who often had limited to no resources, no friends or family to support them, and were often suffering from diseases 1/16
Though seafarers who were part of the Royal Navy had access to medical care, others had limited to no options available to them. Among the small group of philanthropists who decided that something needed to be done to help this vulnerable population was William Wilberforce. 2/16
William Wilberforce was already a renowned figure. He was a member of Parliament for Hull and was one of the most prominent voices calling for #abolition and an end to the slave trade in Britain and her colonies. He was key to the 1807 and 1833 Acts abolishing slavery. 3/16
This group of philanthropists felt that there needed to be an organisation to aid these vulnerable seafarers with their medical needs. And so, on March 8, 1821, the founders met at the City of London Tavern, Bishopsgate to establish the Seafarers Hospital Society. 4/16
William Wilberforce was appointed one of the first Vice-Presidents of the Society & they immediately set about creating free clinical facilities to be made available to seafarers of all nations without the letter of recommendation usually required for admission into hospital 5/16
Unusually for the time, all seamen based in the Port of London could access the Seaman’s Hospital regardless of race, religion or nationality. This has remained a constant in the history of the Seafarer's Hospital Society to this day, 200 years later. 6/16
From 1821 to 2021, the SHS strives to help seafarers of ANY nationality based anywhere in the UK. We offer priority NHS medical treatment for working seafarers on the Deadnought, one of the original hospital ships set up after the Napoleonic wars: https://seahospital.org.uk/help-for-you/dreadnought-special-medical-facility-for-seafarers/ 7/16
We also offer free physiotherapy to address working injuries that need rehabilitation, working with the Seafarers Physiotherapy Network and @Connect_Health_: https://seahospital.org.uk/help-for-you/fast-track-physiotherapy/ 8/16
We've also expanded our ethic of care to consider what seafarers might need to be less vulnerable overall. The Seafarer's Advice and Information Line ( @SeafarersAdvice) offers practical advice on debt, immigration, employment, housing, relationships: 9/16 https://seahospital.org.uk/help-for-you/seafarers-advice-and-information-line/
We also offer #MentalHealth and #Wellbeing resources by funding sessions with trained counsellors from @Togetheralluk for FREE, confidential online services for seafarers who need help. These are also available for family members: https://seahospital.org.uk/help-for-you/mental-health-and-wellbeing/ 10/16
To address emergencies and stress, we offer financial grants (with support for the application process) that gets seafarers and their families supplies for food, housing, debt and respite breaks, medical and disability aids, etc: https://seahospital.org.uk/help-for-you/grants-to-seafarers/ 11/16
We also fund respite care, which offers caregivers short term funded breaks to alleviate stress and allow them to recentre. We also have certain arrangements with @CareAshore's Springbok Estate: 12/16 https://seahospital.org.uk/help-for-you/respite-care/
Perhaps most important right now is our multilevel response to #COVID19 which collates our various systems to offer support to seafarers, fishers, and their families: 13/16 https://seahospital.org.uk/help-for-you/coronavirus/
200 years after William Wilberforce and a group of determined individuals set up the Seafarers Hospital Society, we continue their work to the best of our ability. Our aim remains to ensure that all seafarers have access to safety & support they need when they need it.14/16
If you would like to know more about our projects, please feel free to contact us or sign up for our mailing list here: https://seahospital.org.uk/contact-us/
If you would like to donate towards our cause, we would be very grateful: https://seahospital.org.uk/donate/ 15/16
If you would like to donate towards our cause, we would be very grateful: https://seahospital.org.uk/donate/ 15/16
Learn more about the history of the Seafarers Hospital Society by visiting our website for further written information (and a video!): https://seahospital.org.uk/about-us/our-history/.
You can also follow this twitter for more forthcoming stories drawn from our archives. 16/16.
You can also follow this twitter for more forthcoming stories drawn from our archives. 16/16.
