Men's Mental Health
Message from Men's Mental Health Campaign Lead, Michael Nichols:
When you read the term ‘mental health’ what thoughts do you have? Confusion, fear, clarity, uncertainty, empathy?
Whatever thoughts you have around the term, we all experience mental health, just as we experience physical health and just like physical health, not all of us look after ourselves.
The major difference between physical and mental health is you can form a quick opinion of someone’s physical health by observing. But with mental health, forming an opinion is more difficult because we can’t see what’s going on in someone’s head.
Why is this important?
When tasked with coming up with an idea or focus around Men’s Mental Health, I wanted to raise the point of holding ourselves accountable because of the very nature of mental health I mentioned above. We have to be able to recognise when things aren’t going well and do something about it, as opposed to recognising something isn’t right and doing nothing about it. We can’t rely on others to identify when we are suffering because they simply can’t see in our heads.
So how do we keep ourselves accountable?
Let’s acknowledge that men aren’t the best at opening up about emotions and thoughts due to social constructs that exist and the beliefs we’ve been told and believed over our lifetime.
But…
Having heard many stories, and read many articles and stories, some of which will be available to you through this campaign, there’s a clear message that resonates with me.
Speaking up and getting the thoughts out of your head is important but often undervalued.
What can we do as men to find a balance for our mental health?
Read the stories and I’m sure the answer will become clear to you.
Mike
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Hear from your colleagues…
As well as our campaign lead Mike, other colleagues across the business have shared their own experiences with Mental Health. Please take the time to read their stories below – we encourage open conversations around Health & Wellbeing and welcome any experiences that you’re willing to share. If you would like to contribute your story please get in touch - healthandwellbeingnetwork@growthco.uk
- Finlay Callender-Wood, Business Development Executive
- Chris Jones, Executive Director - Centre for Assessment Limited
- Matthew Gale, Compliance Officer - Restart
- Dean Gibson - Internal Recruitment Specialist
- Richard Jeffery, National Director
- Matthew Richardson, Head of Leadership, Skills and Social Impact (BGH)
- Nick Shepherd, Business Development and Partnerships Manager (BGH)
- Michael Nichols, Learning Mentor (Education & Skills)
- Stephanie Boyle, Senior Events & Engagement Manager (Corporate services - Marketing)
In the video below, a few of our colleagues from across GC talk about what mental health means to them and what steps they take to stay mentally well:
Did you know…
- In England, around one in eight men has a common mental health condition such as depression, anxiety, panic disorder or obsessive-compulsive disorder.
- Three times as many men as women die by suicide.
- Men aged 40-49 have the highest suicide rates in the UK.
- Men report lower levels of life satisfaction than women according to the Government’s national wellbeing survey.
- Men are less likely to access psychological therapies than women: only 36% of referrals to NHS talking therapies are for men.
- Nearly three-quarters of adults who go missing are men.
- 87% of rough sleepers are men.
- Men are nearly three times as likely as women to become dependent on alcohol, and three times as likely to report frequent drug use.
- Men are more likely to be compulsorily detained for treatment than women.
- Men are more likely to be victims of violent crime (1.5 more likely than women).
- Men make up the vast majority of the prison population. There are high rates of mental health conditions and increasing rates of self-harm in prisons.
These STATs only tell us what’s been reported, they do not show the true extent and many mental health conditions go undiagnosed.
Please know that there is always help available and if you, or someone you know, needs assistance then the Growth Company, as well as many external organisations have this available!
- Growth Company EAP Line: 0800 030 5182
- Growth Company Online EAP: Username: Growth Password: Company
- Mental Health First Aiders.
- https://andysmanclub.co.uk/
- https://www.mentalhealth.org.uk/a-to-z/m/men-and-mental-health
- https://www.mind.org.uk/media/6771/get-it-off-your-chest_a4_final.pdf
- https://www.safeline.org.uk/mens-mental-health-a-silent-crisis/
- https://uk.movember.com/mens-health/mental-health
- https://www.samaritans.org/