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

Recommendations

Recommendations for Local Authorities and Clinical Commissioning Groups

Improvements are needed to JSNAs in order to implement more action on men’s health. Gendered measures as part of the JSNAs will create more effective health care commissioning for local populations for men and women alike. There are certain measures local authorities and clinical commissioning groups should include in their JSNAs in order to ensure the health needs of men (and women) are taken into consideration as part of their JSNAs.

Local authorities and clinical commissioning groups should ensure they use the data available to establish the needs of men in their local population. (A list of data sources is available on our JSNA Sources webpage)

Although few local authorities will be able to conduct thorough research of its local population, the Department of Health has a core data set which provides references and links to statistics which can be used to establish the level of men’s health need in the local population. Additionally, local council members should scrutinise action on men’s health in their area. This will provide the focus needed to tackle the high rate of premature death in men.

Recommendations for NHS England and Public Health England

As well as improvements in local authorities, there also need to be some changes at national level.

Firstly, data should be collected and published by gender. Currently, a significant amount of data on men’s health needs is either not accessible or not collected altogether. Data should be collected on men and women so that local authorities can use this information to commission services for the provision of men and women’s health care.

Secondly, national bodies should create a more standardised guideline of measurements and metrics to be included into the JSNA. There is a core dataset produced by the Department of Health and the Association of Public Health Observatories which gives useful links and references where data on local populations can be accessed. However, there is no obligation to use gendered measures.

Finally, a model JSNA should be created for local authorities to follow. Currently there is no set format for a JSNA which means that comparing them is difficult as well as scrutinising them. This would also make the JSNAs more accessible to the public and the local Voluntary and Community Sector.

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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Contact
Address
  • The Men's Health Forum
  • 82 Tanner Street
  • London, SE1 3GN

Charity registered in England and Wales (no. 1087375). Company limited by guarantee registered in England and Wales (no. 4142349).