Threat to Leeds Beckett 'Centre for Men's Health'

28/06/17 . News

The Men's Health Forum is extremely concerned at the threatened closure of the Centre for Men's Health at Leeds Beckett University.

It is generally a a very challenging environment for men's health research and the loss of the Centre for Men's Health would be a massive blow.

Leeds Beckett UCU have launched a petition which you can sign here.

The Chairman of Trustees and Chief Executive have written to the Vice-Chancellor, Professor Peter Slee, as follows:

Letter to the Vice-Chancellor of Leeds Beckett University

Dear Vice-Chancellor,

We are writing to express our dismay at the proposed closure of the Centre for Men’s Health at Leeds Beckett University.

The Centre for Men’s Health and its leadership have gained an international reputation for their work on men’s health and have had a transformational role in England and across Europe in identifying and analysing the problems that men face with their health and well-being.

It is impossible to exaggerate the degree to which public policy on men’s health has changed since the foundation of the centre and its importance in making that change happen. The real risk to progress on men’s health in the event of the centre closing is also hard to exaggerate.

We have particularly appreciated their close collaboration with us at the Men’s Health Forum – on projects including a study of men’s health in the London Boroughs of Southwark and Lambeth funded by the Guy’s & St Thomas Charity – on a review of men’s mental health funded by Movember – and on a roundtable on the excess burden of cancer in men in collaboration with Cancer Research UK funded by the Department of Health. The Centre for Men’s Health has also helped raise the profile of men’s health with policy makers through their presentations to the All-Party Parliamentary Group on Men’s Health.

However, we also know from direct experience that men’s health is an area that receives less than its fair share of funding overall – and we would be keen to collaborate with Leeds Beckett University to address this. Areas that we are actively working include:

As a member of the Department of Health’s VCSE Health & Well-being Alliance, directly engaging with the Department of Health, NHS England and Public Health England on policy – and making the case that the new Health & Well-being Fund should include projects relevant to men’s health
Continuing to influence the Chief Medical Officer on the need for gender to be more fully reflected in Department of Health research funding priorities
Launching a campaign for ‘fair funding for men’s health research’ – alongside a new fund designed to generate funds for men’s health research.

The Centre for Men’s Health is a huge asset to men’s health – and to the reputation of Leeds Beckett. Its closure would be a tragedy – and if there were any opportunities to collaborate to help prevent or delay this, we would be very interested in doing so.

Yours sincerely,

John Chisholm
Chairman

Martin Tod
Chief Executive

Please help:

Things you can do include:

Sign Leeds Beckett's UCU's petition against the closure here.
If you are an academic researcher, sign the researcher petition here.
Write to Professor Peter Slee. His contact details are here.

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.

Support us

Support us