The Forum has warmly welcomed Wes Streeting's announcement of a Men's Health Strategy.
After years of campaigning, we finally have what we have been asking for on behalf of men for many years. At the government's first Men's Health Summit at Arsenal Football Club's Emirates Stadium, the health secretary said the strategy would address how to prevent and tackle the biggest health problems affecting men of all ages, which could include cardiovascular disease, prostate cancer and testicular cancer, as well as mental health and suicide prevention. It will form a key part of the Government’s 10 Year Health Plan to fix the NHS.
He said the next step would be a call for evidence on the strategy to seek views on what is working and what more needs to be done to close the life expectancy gap between men and women.
Streeting said:
Just as we are determined to end the injustices women face in healthcare, we won’t shy away from the need to focus on men’s health too. This government will publish a men’s health strategy to tackle these problems head on.
Nothing frustrates me more than when men’s health and women’s health are somehow pitted in opposition to each other, as if by focusing on a men’s health strategy we are in any way detracting from the brilliant work that successive governments have been doing on women’s health and actually much more work we need to do.
A major step
The Men's Health Forum was at the summit alongside its campaign partners for a men's health strategy, such as Global Action on Men's Health, the Men and Boys Coalition and Prostate Cancer UK, as well as Movember, other voluntary sector organisations, men's health experts and the Premier League.
Chair John Chisholm, who also addressed the summit, said:
Today is a major step towards success. We've been campaigning for some time for a Men's Health Strategy. It's now vital that all in the sector - and men themselves - submit evidence so we can get it right. For over twenty years now, the Forum has been highlighting premature male death - we have the statistic that one man in five dies before the age of 65 at the top of our website. We now, at last, might have a chance to change that.
Thank you everybody
We're celebrating today but it has been a long and winding road. Often health policy is piecemeal and disease-specific rather than strategic. Doing the research, talking to men, building the case, developing a campaign, persuading politicians and even other men's health organisations… it's been quite a journey as Martin Tod, who has been leading the Forum's work in this are reports in his blog.
Thank you very much to everybody who has supported this campaign. Everything you've given or bought has helped us to get here. And there is still a lot of work ahead to make sure we share all the latest research and information with government. Please support us again if you can.
