One man in five dies before the age of 65.
TOGETHER we can change that.

Drink to new men's health report

15/08/16 . Blog

Written an excellent report that nobody's heard about?

Sadly, it happens all the time in public health and great intiatives full of great learning can be forgotten. So here's a question for you: which local Healthwatch launched their report into men's health with a pub quiz?

The answer is Blackburn with Darwen (BwD).

Their Men's Outreach report, based on visits to pubs and clubs over several months and talking to the men present, is a revealing insight into how local men feel and it's clear that the location of the interviews, places in which men felt comfortable speaking, enhanced the findings. More than one in five (21.5%) admitted to being lonely or isolated most or all of the time while nearly three quarters (72.5%) said that there was a stigma attached to mental health problems. The authors felt that 'fear of not being masculine enough was evident in many of the men' spoken to.

On services, 21.3% said that getting a GP appointment was a challenge – with many finding the so-called 'white jacket' image off-putting – and nearly a third (31%) said they didn't know how to find out about health and social care services.

The report was launched at Ewood Working Men's Club (opposite Blackburn Rovers football ground) with a pub quiz including questions based on the findings of the report. It was a brilliantly imaginative way of ensuring the findings are not forgotten and of meeting one of the expressed needs of the men interviewed: that men and women sometimes need to be communicated with in different ways.

So raise a glass to BwD for finding a novel way to turn a report into something real. Top marks.

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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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Charity registered in England and Wales (no. 1087375). Company limited by guarantee registered in England and Wales (no. 4142349).