The Marine Health Programme includes all of those responsibilities and duties, which are the responsibility and specific to the Social Marine Institute regarding health care for sea workers at sea or abroad. In order to implement this programme it starts from an all-encompassing understanding of the concept of sea worker health, that is, as indicated by the World Health Organization (WHO), not only the absence of disease but also having perfect mental and social well-being.

The fact that the social and working environment in which sea workers operate is much more exposed to "risk factors" than that of the general workers justifies the need for a Specific Health Programme for all workers at sea and abroad as a means of minimising the factors that impact on the health of sea workers and their accident rates.

In short, the overall and primary objective of the Maritime Health Programme is to implement a practical model, based on both support and preventive mechanisms that, in a comprehensive and structured manner, offer and provide the health care and support resources required by workers in the sector to carry out their duties.

This comprehensive support programme is founded on two support pillars that are both different and interconnected: disease prevention and medical care.