Mental Health Week - 9th to 15th October 2016

Yesterday was World Mental Health Day. SANE Australia are highlighting the issue of mental health for men in direct response to recent and startling statistics for suicide rates of men in Australia, particularly men between the ages of 15-54.

As SANE rightly state: 'We think its important to get men talking about mental illness'. 

There are approximately 2500 suicides per annum in Australia with 75% by men. An average of 6 men per day are taking their own lives. We as a community cannot continue to remain passive in the face of such terrible realities.

​In my 25 years working in mental health, I have seen a slow, incremental increase of men accessing mental health services. This is great but clearly it is still not enough. As I have observed in my private practice, men continue to struggle against the tide of unhelpful stereotypes around men expressing feelings, for example, I heard a sports commentator on the weekend say this exact line in relation to a young sports driver: 'He needs to drink some liquid concrete and harden up'. These types of statements and unhelpful beliefs are still strong in our society but they do need to be addressed and hopefully changed. Alcohol and other drugs are often part of the overall story and can provide the terrible 'dutch courage' that can increase a man's thinking towards awful and dire actions. 

The ABC commence a program tonight called 'Man Up' which appears to be about the attitudes of men towards mental health and why men struggle to open up about what they are thinking and feeling. I urge people to have a look at what I think will be a wonderful and helpful program.

I think these statistics do show that we all need to support the men in our lives better. Whether it is our son, brother, partner, boyfriend, husband, father, grandfather, uncle, co-worker or neighbour, we need to be asking them how they are and if they do appear to be struggling, to gently guide and support them to receiving the care and treatment they might need.

Some good resources to keep in mind include:

Mensline Australia - 1300 78 99 78
SANE Australia - 1800 18 72 63
Suicide Call Back Service - 1300 659 467
Lifeline - 13 11 14
Beyond Blue - 1300 22 46 36