Male victims of rape and sexual abuse need support

18/05/15 . Blog

Shock cut to grant for Survivors UK counselling service reduces London funding to £0.

The Men's Health Forum is backing Survivors UK's campaign calling on the Mayor of London, Boris Johnson, to recognise and support male victims of rape and sexual abuse and to appropriately and proportionately fund services that support them to heal and recover from their experiences.

Survivors UK is running a petition in support of their campaign, it highlights:

The rape and sexual abuse of men and boys is one of the least recognised, discussed or reported crimes in our society. Despite this stigma, more men in London are coming forward to report sexual assaults and taking the courageous step of asking for help:

In 2014, in London, 307 men reported being raped to the Metropolitan Police – an increase of 120% over 2012 figures
In 2014, in London, 518 men reported experiencing a serious sexual assault to the Metropolitan Police – an increase of 80% over 2012 figures
In 2014, in London, 20%+ of all reports of serious sexual crimes were against men
In London, in 2014, it is estimated that there are more than 300,000 adult male survivors of childhood sexual abuse
In 2014, in London, The Mayor spent £1,292,666 providing specialist support services for victims of sexual assault in London.
Of that, £32,666 (2.5%) was spent on specialist services supporting men and boys.

Support Survivors UK's campaign.

The Men's Health Forum's Men's Health Manifesto calls for action to tackle under-reporting, stigma and discrimination against male victims of sexual violation.

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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