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

Behaving badly or a mental health issue?

25/08/16 . Partners

A new evidence review suggests that it is how boys behave rather than how they are feeling that society tends to respond to.

The review Gender and Children and Young People's Emotional and Mental Health from the National Children's Bureau shows that mental health problems are more frequently identified in school-age boys than girls, and boys are more likely to be identified as having multiple different difficulties. However, boys and young men appear less likely to access mental health services overall than girls and young women. 

This suggests existing services and attitudes are not meeting boys needs. Boys are more likely to have behavioural problems than emotional problems recognised by parents, carers and professionals including teachers. Report author Emily Hamblin says 'mental health needs underpinning behavioural problems in children and young people are under-recognised'. If boys needs are not being met, it is perhaps no wonder that, as the report also makes clear, young men are over-represented in acute services.

Emily Hamblin says: 'There are high levels of unrecognised and unmet emotional and mental health needs among young people at risk of offending or in contact with the youth justice system. Young males are massively over-represented within this system.'

Tracy Herd, deputy CEO of the Men's Health Forum said: 'Society still tends to see boys in terms of how they affect others – as disruptive, badly-behaved or dangerous – rather than as individuals in their own right who may be emotionally-disturbed. If we are ever going to arrive at a situation where boys feels as comfortable asking for help as girls, this attitude simply has to change.'

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).