Fusion CRM

Going Far Beyond Traditional CRM Training

Most professional pilots and aircrew have received dozens of CRM training sessions and are proficient in the basic skills, yet few have received any training on how to manage their own mental health, which leads to a situation where many of them are not bringing the “best version of themselves” onto the flight deck, aircraft cabin or mission compartment. This White Paper proposes a short-term solution that guarantees everyone with a need receives some valuable knowledge, skills, and processes for managing their own mental state, while simultaneously, building the psychological wellbeing for those who are already well adjusted but might need these skills in the future. And this is all integrated within the existing Crew Resource Management (CRM) objectives and requirements.

Psychosocial Strength Training + CRM

The program is designed to help individuals build strength, resilience, and coping skills in different areas of life through five components, all integrated across the CRM regulatory requirements, and beginning with helping individuals develop a meaningful life purpose. This is a critical foundation for mental health and well-being, as it provides individuals with a sense of direction, meaning, motivation, and resolve to weather the storms of life. This foundation is reinforced with techniques to build psychosocial strength across four areas: cognitive, behavioral, emotional, and spiritual strengths. This comprehensive approach to promoting mental health and wellbeing is blended with the core CRM concepts, including:

• Communications processes and decision behavior
• Team building and maintenance
• Distraction avoidance
• Individual factors/stress reduction
• Situational awareness
• Aeronautical decision making

Given the high stress and demanding nature of the 21stCentury flight operations worldwide, it is imperative that all aircrews receive effective mental health resources to support their well-being. Now that these elements are aligned with existing CRM training requirements, we have created an entirely new generation of CRM designed to address this serious challenge. We call this training Fusion CRM, and it’s ready to be put into practice wherever aviation professionals meet with the real world.

The program’s focus on developing strengths such as mental agility, emotional intelligence and regulation, and teamwork are closely aligned with current CRM objectives and assure the behaviors and skills necessary for effective CRM. By providing pilots with training in psychosocial strength building tools to supplement their previous CRM training, we can create a more comprehensive and effective experience that promotes both well-being and operational safety performance.

We recommend that this blended CRM/mental health approach be accepted as your new version of existing CRM training for pilots as well as other members of the flight and support team.