Men's Health Manifesto launched

05/11/14 . News

National action plan needed to tackle high rate of premature death in men.

Following the publication last week of new mortality data showing:

One in five men still dies before 65
men are 71% of premature deaths from cardiovascular disease
men are 80% of suicides

the Men's Health Forum is calling for a national action plan to tackle the problem.

The Men’s Health Forum’s call for action came in the Men’s Health Manifesto launched today.

Other countries, such as Australia and Ireland, facing high rates of men dying young have developed national men’s health policies to tackle the problem.

With 71% of premature deaths from cardiovascular disease being men, the Men's Health Forum has also called on Public Health England to ensure at least 50% of those receiving a NHS Health Check are men. Currently only 35% of local areas running NHS Health Checks know how many men they see, according to figure released to the Men’s Health Forum under the Freedom of Information Act.

The Men’s Health Manifesto was launched in parliament by the Men’s Health Forum at a meeting of the All-Party Parliamentary Group on Men’s Health.

Martin Tod, chief executive of the Men’s Health Forum, said:

So many men die young and it continues to be ignored. Men deserve better. We need an explicit men’s health policy to tackle this. Last month, both NHS England and Public Health England published plans for their own work but these will not put in place the action we need.

Too many men who do seek help find that drug or alcohol problems act as a barrier to getting mental health treatment. We must invest in integrated care for dual diagnosis.

We need the NHS to sort out opening times and access so they work for full-time workers. They must improve online access, booking and other interaction.

The Men’s Health Manifesto includes challenges to:

NHS England
Public Health England
CCGs and local authorities
GPs
Men

Read the Men's Health Manifesto

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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