Psychoactive Substances
Volotea Airlines, requested the Learning Design department develop eLearning training material for their pilots and cabin crew in Spain, Italy & France, to meet the regulatory requirements of CAT.GEN.MPA.170 for psychoactive substances.
The course is aligned to the ICAO guidelines on the Prevention of Problematic Use of Substances in the Aviation Workplace.
The aviation industry has an obligation to ensure all safety-critical staff complete this course regularly to develop attitudes that discourage psychoactive substance use in the industry. This is a compliance course; All AOC holders must comply with the EASA regulations outlined in CAT.GEN.MPA.170 by the 14th February 2021.
Statistically, misuse of psychoactive substances by safety-critical airline staff in the UK and EU member states is low, and we were concerned that aviation employees may not see the relevance of this course to themselves.
We felt it important to challenge common misconceptions and give airline staff awareness of exactly what the pitfalls are, using actual examples, realistic scenarios, and myth-busting questions.
We also wanted to emphasise the importance of mental health awareness. Life events and working in stressful environments can affect everyone’s psychological wellbeing.
The course aims to provide aviation sector employees with relevant information on how using psychoactive substances as a coping tool can affect their lives, jobs, and public safety.
The welfare of aviation workers, and the lives and property entrusted to them are paramount.
There is a focus on how safety management, health promotion, screening, treatment, advice, support from peers and health care professionals, and rehabilitation will benefit employees.
We also felt it would be beneficial to explain the purpose of and processes for regulatory drug & alcohol testing of pilots and cabin crew for all European and foreign airlines who fly into the territories of the European Union.
We’ve covered common causes for concern, like airline operator’s legal requirements responsibilities, aviation employee’s rights and responsibilities, confidentiality, data protection, test result reliability, what could cause false positives, standards, and accreditation of those conducting the tests and the processes to be followed in the case of a positive result, including appeals and support programmes.
We have aimed to ensure that those taking the course find it immersive, interactive, and completely understand the relevance and importance of this topic to themselves, the safety of the public, and the reputation of the aviation industry.
