Men's Health Week 2014 - a look back

The Men's Health Forum leads Men's Health Week in England and Wales. You can get involved.

Men's Health Week 2015

Men's Health Week 2015 will take place 15 - 21 June across England and Wales. More about Men's Health Week 2015.

Work and Health - a look back

Men's Health Week 2014 focused on work and health, including stress and unemployment. With so many men experiencing unemployment, and statistics suggesting major health impacts from the recession, the subject was clearly important, yet far too often ignored.

Norman Lamb, Care & Support Minister

The Men's Health Forum and the Work Foundation launched 'Sick of Being Unemployed: The health issues of out of work men and how support services are failing to address them. Minister for Care and Support, Norman Lamb MP spoke at the launch event, highlighting the need for a more integrated work and health support system.

The Men's Health Forum shared a number of resources for the week:

Local Events

Men's Health Week Football Tournament at Greenwich

Activities and events organised by local groups form the backbone of Men's Health Week. This year was no exception, with hundreds of events across the country. A few of our favourites included:

The Royal Borough of Greenwich ran a number of Men's Health Week events, including a men only cookery club and their annual Men's Health Week 5-a-side football tournament.

Trim Down Shape Up brought a spinning bike challenge to the local shopping centre in Wigan, with Shadow Secretary of State for Health Andy Burnham taking part!Andy Burnham at Trim Down Shape Up's event in Wigan

Age UK Leeds offered ping-pong sessions, a health walk and a gardening and food growing club for men.

In Bolton, Get Active Bolton held a 'Keepie-Uppy' tournament as well as talking to men about work and health. 

The Houses of Parliament Outreach Service held an event in Barnsley focusing on how people can work with Parliament on men's health issues

Liverpool Community NHS Trust handed out free 'health packs' to men across the week - including the  Lord Mayor! 

Press Coverage

As ever, Men's Health Week generated a lot of media attention, including BBC News and local newspapers across the country. Here is just a small selection of links:

MHF ceo, Martin Tod, interviewed on BBC News

Blogs from our Partners

Many organisations carried news and blogs about their involvement in Men's Health Week.

 

The Men’s Health Forum need your support

It’s tough for men to ask for help but if you don’t ask when you need it, things generally only get worse. So we’re asking.

In the UK, one man in five dies before the age of 65. If we had health policies and services that better reflected the needs of the whole population, it might not be like that. But it is. Policies and services and indeed men have been like this for a long time and they don’t change overnight just because we want them to.

It’s true that the UK’s men don’t have it bad compared to some other groups. We’re not asking you to ‘feel sorry’ for men or put them first. We’re talking here about something more complicated, something that falls outside the traditional charity fund-raising model of ‘doing something for those less fortunate than ourselves’. That model raises money but it seldom changes much. We’re talking about changing the way we look at the world. There is nothing inevitable about premature male death. Services accessible to all, a population better informed. These would benefit everyone - rich and poor, young and old, male and female - and that’s what we’re campaigning for.

We’re not asking you to look at images of pity, we’re just asking you to look around at the society you live in, at the men you know and at the families with sons, fathers and grandads missing.

Here’s our fund-raising page - please chip in if you can.

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