“‘Health for All’ became the slogan for a movement. It was not just an ideal but an organizing principle: Everybody needs and is entitled to the highest possible standard of health.” — Former WHO Director General Lee Jong-wook

LIFESPAN GENDER GAP

Strategies and Solutions

  • Courageously speak out when men’s health issues are shortchanged or ignored. Counter falsehoods such as, “Women were routinely excluded from medical research.”
  • All-Party Parliamentary Group: The Case for a Men’s Health Strategy
  • 10 Policy Steps:
    • Collect, analyze, and publish wide-ranging and regularly updated data on men’s health to provide a guide to where action is needed and to its impact and effectiveness.
    • Engage senior decision-makers, including politicians, to achieve faster and more significant progress.
    • Listen to men’s voices to understand better what their needs are and how best to meet them.
    • Introduce men’s health policies that address their health needs and integrate men’s health into other health policies, all with clearly identified and realistic deliverables.
    • Develop outreach services that engage men ‘where they are’, such as local communities, sports venues, faith organisations, or online.
    • Recognise the differences between men and focus attention on those groups facing multiple layers of disadvantage and who experience the worst health outcomes.
    • Take account of gender norms by using appropriate ‘male’ interests and language to engage men in health.
    • Ensure that the needs of boys and young men are reflected in the development and delivery of health policies and services.
    • Use International Men’s Health Week, observed the second week in June, and other health weeks and days as opportunities to promote men’s health.
    • Take a ‘male-positive’ approach which builds on men’s strengths and is more likely to engage men and achieve changes in their health practices and the use of services.
  • Blog:  Ment’s Health Network
  • Article:  English councils call for national men’s health strategy

SUICIDE

“In today’s social climate, boys and men are bombarded with conflicting messages. On one hand, we encourage them to express their emotions and ‘open up!’ On the other hand, we tell them to ‘shut up! and ‘act like a man.’ This contradictory messaging has contributed to the significant mental health crisis among boys and men today.” — Lisa Britton

Strategies and Solutions

  • Participate in World Suicide Prevention Day, observed every year on September 10.
  • All-Party Parliamentary Group: Tackling Male Suicide
  • Global Action for Men’s Health:
    • Build a robust, nuanced and diverse research evidence base about the problem.
    • Work to make this evidence base accessible.
    • Leverage interest in existing areas of concern.
    • Build a robust, nuanced and diverse evidence base on promising interventions.
    • Consolidate and build from emerging best practices for men and mental health.
    • Leverage the growing number of national and global men’s health policies and advocates to develop integrated and holistic
      strategies.
    • Leverage parallel policy development for women, or for men and other health issues.
    • Build long-term coalitions and networks with individuals and institutions working on issues indirectly related to men and/or
      mental health.

EXTREME WEATHER DEATHS

  • Weather-related mortality in the United States:
  • Global:
    • Men are more likely than women to die during famine.

Strategies and Solutions

  • Correct falsehoods such as this statement from a UN Women Fact Sheet: Females experience “increased morbidity and mortality due to heat waves, floods, storms, fires, and droughts” — a claim that is not supported by extensive research conducted around the world.