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National Men's Health Week 2007 - Resource Pack
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- About the Resource Pack
- "How to . . .†Guides
- Future Plans and Up-dates
- Evaluation
NMHW was first held in June 2002 and since then grown in size and impact, firmly establishing itself as a key part of the health improvement calendar. Each year NMHW focuses on a different area of policy relevant to men's health. Previous weeks have looked at:
- Male health in general (2002)
- Men and sexual health (2003)
- Men and cancer (2004)
- Men and obesity (2005)
- Men and mental health (2006)
You can find out more on all of the previous weeks by clicking on the link below and following the relevant options on the left hand menu:
Or there is a short history available by clicking on the link below:
National Men's Health Week 2007 will be the sixth such event in England and Wales. As in previous years, NMHW will take place between 11-17th June, which is the week that ends on Father's Day (which this year is on the 17th of June).
NMHW2007 will also form part of the fifth International Men's Health Week with activities again taking place in Australia, Canada, Hong Kong, USA as well as throughout Europe. Links during NMHW, within Europe will be particularly strengthened due to the work of the European Men's Health Forum (for more information please go to: www.emhf.org). The EMHF are for the first time holding an event in Brussels, highlighting the week to MEPs. Importantly, the theme for Men's Health Week throughout Europe is also long-term conditions. The Week is also supported by the International Society for Men's Health, Vienna.
National Men's Health Week 2007
NMHW 2007 will highlight the specific issues affecting men with long-term medical conditions. These include men's increased risk of developing a condition because of risk-taking lifestyles, delays in diagnosis due to men's late presentation to health services, and men's reluctance to take appropriate care of themselves and to access support services once diagnosed.
Health services have been slow to recognise the particular issues affecting men in relation to long-term medical conditions. The lack of 'male-friendly' primary care services can delay diagnosis and inhibit men's use of ongoing care and support services. Pharmacy services are not yet sufficiently engaged with men to provide advice and information about self-care. Published health information is rarely designed to appeal to the male reader. Just one-third of participants in courses run by the Expert Patients Programme to help people with a long-term condition control their symptoms are male.
Policy about long-term conditions has not properly taken account of gender differences and issues specific to men. The Department of Health report Supporting people with long term conditions to self care does not contain a single reference to gender or men. The National Service Framework for Long-term Conditions, which deals with neurological conditions, and the Our Health, Our Care, Our Say White Paper, which contains many new ideas for improving services for people with long-term conditions, are similarly 'gender-insensitive'.
This approach will have soon have to change — not only because health services that are truly responsive to individual needs must take account of gender as well as age and ethnicity but also because the Equality Act will, from April 2007, require health services at all levels to promote equality of opportunity between men and women. The Act, especially its new 'gender duty', has major implications for the development of both policy and practice.
Men are affected by a wide range of long-term conditions:
- About one-third of all men report a longstanding illness.
- Musculoskeletal problems are the most common longstanding health problem for men. 16 per cent of men report experiencing back pain over the whole of the previous 12 months.
- Cardiovascular disease is the second most common problem. Over 1.5 million men living in the UK are estimated to have had either angina or a heart attack.
- About one third of men have raised blood pressure (more than 140/90mmHg) or are being treated for it. Almost 80% of men with hypertension are not receiving treatment.
- Over 4% of men have diagnosed diabetes but an estimated additional 3% of men aged 35 and over have undiagnosed diabetes.
- Over 40,000 males in the UK are living with HIV or AIDS, over twice the number of females.
- Over 30,000 men in the UK are diagnosed each year with prostate cancer, many of whom live with it for many years with or without treatment.
- Many men live with long-term mental health problems such as anxiety or depression.
There are a wide range of other long-term conditions affecting large numbers of men, including chronic glaucoma, deafness, haemophilia, incontinence and epilepsy.
There are significant inequalities between different groups of men. In general, older men are more likely to be affected — the proportion rises with age and almost two-thirds of men aged 65+ report a longstanding illness. Significantly more unskilled men report a longstanding illness than their professional counterparts. Asian men are more likely to develop cardiovascular disease or diabetes than the general population. Gay men are much more likely to be living with HIV or AIDS than heterosexual men.
NMHW will seek to raise awareness about these and other issues. However it will not be a negative event focusing on the problems that exist but will instead seek to promote a positive view of how the problems can be tackled by highlighting — and encouraging — good practice in a wide variety of settings, including primary care, the workplace and the local community. It will signpost how health professionals and others working with men can seek to improve their health outcomes.
The MHF's plans for NMHW 2007 are supported by the Long Term Medical Conditions Alliance (LMCA). The MHF is an LMCA member.
About the Resource Pack
The current web-based format of the resource pack is yet another step in the development of the provision of resources by the Men's Health Forum. This builds on the previous years online version, in reducing costs even further therefore saving on limited resources. We hope that the resource pack will be easier to use and have more features than in previous years. We would welcome your thoughts and comments on the resource pack, please email these to: mhw@menshealthforum.org.uk
The NMHW2007 resource pack broadly follows the same structure as the 2006 version. However, there are several important new aspects to this resource pack, including an improved section on diversity and an area in which some relevant research has been collated. We will also be developing a template to assist in the evaluation of your activities. These changes have been made in response to the comments made during the NMHW2005 and NMHW2006 evaluation processes.
We do not want to exclude anyone from receiving this information, because of the new format. Therefore, if you or a colleague would prefer certain sections sent to you in hard copy, please contact Matthew Maycock at mhw@menshealthforum.org.uk or 08701453815.
"How to . . .†Guides
We have deliberately dispensed with the usual idea of supplying you with prescriptive guides on how to organise events. We are confident that most people who will explore this Resource Pack are perfectly capable of running successful events in their local areas without any help from us. However, by following the link below you will find a number of documents that give some background advice on running an event (this includes advice on working with the media and a guide to fundraising for local activity):
Advice on running a successful event
Future Plans and Up-dates
Plans for NMHW will continue to develop right up until the date of the Week itself. In particular, at time of writing this Resource Pack, we have not yet finalise the plans for launches of NMHW, the policy formation process or the Haynes Brain Manual. We will ensure that you are kept up to date with developments by e-mail, when new areas are added to the resource pack. We will also post notices from time to time on the Men's Health Forum website at www.menshealthforum.org.uk
The Haynes Mini Manuals
The Forum will use NMHW 2007 as a means of creating resources that can be used on a long-term basis. A series of 'mini manuals' in the now well-established Haynes' format will be produced, focusing on various long-term medical conditions. It is also planned to produce mini-manuals that deal with 'cross-cutting' issues such as dealing with pain or how to access sources of information and support.
These booklets are 16-page/A5-sized and are well-suited to a male audience. Large numbers can be produced relatively cheaply. Various mini-manuals have already been produced, including one on cancer for Royal Mail and BT for distribution to their staff. 40,000 mini-manuals on sexual health were distributed to customers of Ladbrokes' betting shops during NHMW 2003.
The mini manuals are a flexible resource, capable of being designed for specific male audiences as appropriate. They can provide information about particular conditions, including symptoms, diagnosis, treatment options and information about sources of support. They can help men become more informed and empowered about their condition. Health professionals can use the mini manuals as a health promotion and education resource.
The Haynes' format has been chosen because it is 'male-friendly': many men are used to using information presented in this way; the 'body as machine' metaphor resonates with the way men tend to think about health issues; and, of course, the concept introduces an element of humour (which helps to break down men's 'internal barriers' to accessing health information and advice).
The Forum was a partner in the production of the Haynes' Man manual, a general men's health book, which has been both critically acclaimed and popular (over 120,000 copies sold since November 2002).
In NMHW 2004, the Forum produced the Haynes' Cancer manual which aims to provide a practical, step-by-step guide to preventing, detecting and beating cancer. The book was produced in close and unique collaboration with 16 other organisations and has won a Plain English Award. Over 25 organisations were involved in producing the HGV manual on men and weight. These ranged from the Department of Health to the FA to regional police services. Some 40 organisations helped compile the Brain manual for NMHW 2006.
The Forum are able to make copies of mini manuals on cancer and self-care available for free to registrants (until they have been allocated). These have been funded by the Department of Health. Furthermore, all of the mini manuals produced for NMHW2007, will be available in the factsheet section of the resource pack.
For more information on the Haynes Self-Care Mini Manual, and how to order copies please click on the link below:
If You're in Scotland or Ireland
In accordance with the ethos of NMHW, the MHF is working closely with Men's Health Forum Scotland (MHFS) and Men's Health Forum Ireland, where activity will also focus on men and mental wellbeing. However, please note that the MHF is organising NMHW in England and Wales only. Events in Scotland are co-ordinated by Men's Health Forum Scotland, for more information please contact:
Maureen Dunn - Information and Network Development Worker<?xml:namespace prefix = o ns = "urn:schemas-microsoft-com:office:office" />
Men's Health Forum <?xml:namespace prefix = st1 ns = "urn:schemas-microsoft-com:office:smarttags" />
Unit 16
Wellpark Enterprise Centre
G31 1JF
0141 550 7515
For the second year MHF Scotland are organising a 10k run on Fathers Day. If you feel like taking part, please click on the link below:
http://www.mhfs.org.uk/mhfs/10K07.php#register
Men's Health Forum Ireland
While events in Ireland, are being organised by Men's Health Forum Ireland. For more information on activity in both Northern and the Republic of Ireland during NMHW2006, please contact:
Mary Sheehan
Manager of Flexible Training Unit
Tallaght Partnership
Killinarden Enterprise Centre
Tallaght
Dublin 24
Republic of Ireland
Tel: 003531 4664280
Email: mary.sheehan@tallpart.com
The Evaluation of NMHW
The internal evaluation of NMHW2006, has now been completed, and can be viewed by clicking on the link below:
A great deal of organisational learning has been done as a result of the 2006 evaluation process. Key areas of improvement that the evaluation process highlighted include; the remaining problems associated with the resourcing of NMHW (and the related problem of people's perception of the MHF in relation to resources) as well as problems associated with the lack of lead-in time during NMHW. A concerted effort has been made to alleviate these problems during NMHW2007.
We would welcome your thoughts on the organisation and content of NMHW2007, including this resource pack and other pieces of work relating to the week. You can feed your thoughts back to us very quickly and easily by clicking on the link below:
Contacting Us
As you can imagine, we anticipate being very busy in the run-up to NMHW2006 and especially so during the Week itself. We will endeavor to answer all enquiries as quickly and efficiently as we can but it would certainly help if you could contact us, in the first instance at least - by e-mail. The address to use is:
It might also be that the answers to some of your questions can be found on our website at:-
or at our sister site:
Finally . . . .
We suggest that you go next to the "How to Use this Resource Pack†guide before moving on to look at the "Contents†section. The latter should enable you to choose and print out the various individual sheets that you need to help make your local planning a success.
Thank you for your continuing commitment to this important work - and good luck with whatever you decide to do!
Matthew Maycock NMHW Development OfficerMen's Health Forum
The Men's Health Forum is a registered charity (no. 1087375) and a Company Limited by Guarantee (no. 4142349 — England. Its registered office is at Tavistock House, Tavistock Square, London WC1H 9HR
In This Section
Men's Health Week 2012
MHF shop
Mini-manuals