You may be aware that today (10th October) is World Mental Health day, a day normally used to raise awareness of and bring focus to the importance of mental health and wellbeing.
Whilst days like this are important, I often think they run the risk of becoming merely a box ticking exercise for organisations and prominent individuals to show they care about mental health, when they spend little of the other 364 days of the year bringing attention to it.
Despite this, it is important to try to use days like World Mental Health day to encourage everyone to consider the importance of mental health and wellbeing, not just for one day, but for life. The theme this year is “Mental health is a universal human right”, a bold and ambitious theme that I think we can all agree is far from the reality of what many individuals suffering from poor mental health are experiencing.
Globally, poor mental health remains one of the leading causes of death, especially in the non-communicable diseases category, and is attributed to billions of pounds worth of yearly losses due to reduced productivity. None more so is this the case for than men. As highlighted on our website, suicide remains the single biggest killer of men under the age of 45 in the UK. In fact, around 75% of suicides each year are males, with industries such as construction having a particularly staggering suicide rate for men. Staggeringly, despite being such a significant cause of harm, funding for mental health on a global scale makes up only roughly 1% of health spending, which itself only makes up around 1% of overall spending.
Despite these shocking facts however, progress is still slow in turning rhetoric and hopes into tangible goals and funded programmes to address men’s mental health. There has been an increasing number of individuals and organisations talking about the importance of mens mental health, however talking the talk is no longer enough, men need us to walk the walk as well.
Too often, we place the burden and expectation on men to do the hard work in addressing their poor mental health, stating that “men don’t engage” or “don’t want to talk”. I attended a conference last year, run by the Men and Boys Coalition, where an attendee asked a speaker “how do we encourage men to attend our service when they don’t want to engage”, to which the speaker replied “perhaps you should be asking why we are creating a service men don’t want to engage in”. Sadly I cannot remember the names of the individuals mentioned, but the conversation has stuck with me as this simple reframing completely shattered my view that men don’t engage, it’s us who are the ones who aren’t trying hard enough to be engaging.
So why is men’s mental health so often overlooked? Why is it still so challenging to encourage service providers, funders and professionals to understand the importance of bespoke services created by and for men? To be honest, I can’t quite tell you. What I can say is that having run MWT for over 18 months now, I have seen firsthand the lack of understanding many services have regarding men, many of which still frame the lack of engagement as a problem for men to solve. I’ve also seen that at the grass roots of psychology and mental health there is still a shocking lack of male representation in service design and delivery, with male psychologists often being a “token” hire, or overburdened in creating whole services because they have lived experience of being male. When we fail to place the experiences of men at the centre of our mental health service design, we risk creating services that no one wants to use.
The big question is: how do we change this? If mental health is truly a universal human right, how do we ensure that men have the support they need? I think it starts with understanding. Doing the hard work of sitting and learning, asking men what they need, and creating services to meet said needs. It starts with understanding that men are not one large homogeneous group where only “manly” men are true men. In fact there are many types of man, all of whom deserve to have services they feel they can safely access, to receive support and encouragement for their mental health and wellbeing. Finally it comes from investment, both in terms of time and money. This work is hard, and extends far beyond just awareness days. I often think about whether a mens mental health day, or even a mens mental health month, would help. In the short term maybe, but as already said, we need more than platitudes and awareness, we need real change and proper services. We also need the trust and faith of funders and policy makers to invest in services that may not be perfectly formed, but are willing to put the work in to help improve mens mental health and wellbeing.
At Men Who Talk, we’ve been constantly working on the services we provide and the organisation we want to be. We’re a long way from getting it perfect, but the continual process of change, placing men at the heart of our service design and delivery, has been one that has had profound benefits, not just to our service, but to all those who have used them. We’ve understood that the best thing we can do right now, with the resources we have, is create open spaces where men can talk, and we can listen. Spaces where men are able to be in control of how much they share, or how they approach a session. And spaces where all types of man are accepted and welcomed. Our online groups may seem like a simple concept, but I cannot stress enough the power of talking in a space that is supportive to help boost your mental health and wellbeing. Often it’s the smallest things that can make the biggest difference.
We’ve a long way to go before mental health is a universal human right for every man, however I’m confident that we can at least give it our best shot to make it a reality. At Men Who Talk we’ve already begun this journey, and are working one conversation at a time to achieve our vision of positive mental health for all men.
If you’d like to join a group to come and talk, listen and socialise with other men who may be experiencing something similar to you, why not check out our online groups, the first of which is happening tomorrow. You can signup for free here.
