This month of November is Men’s Health Month, and so here on The Informed we are going to focus on men’s mental health briefly for this month.
We know in mental health that men account for approximately twice the amount of suicides as women, boys account for 52.5% of reported eating disorders, girls are 80% more likely than boys to seek professional support and in adulthood women 50% more likely than men, and the coping mechanisms men implement such as gambling, drug use, misuse, and abuse are not recognised by society as calls for support.
Therefore, kicking off this small series I had the great pleasure of chatting with leading men’s mental health expert Dr Zac Seidler. Zac holds dual roles as Director of Mental Health Training at Movember and Research Fellow with Orygen at the University of Melbourne.
Zac has dedicated his professional career as an academic and clinical psychologist towards the further understanding of men’s mental health and masculinity. His ultimate goal is to help reduce the staggering rate of male suicide worldwide.
This goal has lead to the fully-funded project, Men in Mind – a world first training program to help mental health clinicians better understand and respond to men’s distress and suicidality.
Over our conversation we traversed a great deal of topics in men’s mental health, from origins, stigma, help-seeking, clinical support, the inseparable role of masculinity, and the need for an approach overhaul. This chat was enlightening from assumption, we often all fall prey to, of how far we have actually come in definitions of masculinity.
In this episode we discuss general mental health and covid 19. If you or someone you know needs help in their mental health journey, please contact Lifeline on 13 11 14.
MUSIC | Sampson
EDIT | Podlike
