September 18th, 2019 2 min read

Poor Mental Health In Men: The Hard Truth

Mental Health

Harrowing Figures: 75% of suicides are by men, and the biggest cause of death for men under 50 in the UK Is suicide.Although mental health can impact anyone at any stage in someone's life, men tend to have more of a stigma surrounding mental health due to gender stereotypes that men ‘don’t cry’...

Harrowing Figures: 75% of suicides are by men, and the biggest cause of death

for men under 50 in the UK Is suicide.

Although mental health can impact anyone at any stage in someone's life, men tend to have more of a stigma surrounding mental health due to gender stereotypes that men ‘don’t cry’ and should be ‘strong’.

In recent years many organisations have started to break down these stigmas, however, it is still common for mental health literature across the board to both by written by and aimed at women.

If you consider that 73% of adults who go missing are men and 87% of rough sleepers are men, the overall picture of mental health of men begins to look vastly different to that of women. Additionally, due to cuts in mental health services there are very little prevention schemes available across the board, including in schools as university data shows UK students are waiting up to three months for mental health care.

Perhaps the scariest part of mental health is the invisibility, young boys and men tend to be much less vocal and open regarding their mental health problems than girls and women are.

The male suicide rate rose for the first time in the UK in 2018 with 4,903 men losing their lives to suicide - this is a huge increase of 521 suicides that occurred among men in 2017.

However, the general stigma towards mental health issues are slowly being lifted, with the help of celebrities coming forward and sharing their own mental health experiences, (such as Prince William, Dwayne “The Rock” Johnson and Stormzy) but we cannot deny that there is a mental health crisis in this country and keep leaving men out of the conversation.

The more mental health is spoken about and recognised at an early age, the higher the likelihood there is for prevention of self-harm, drug and alcohol abuse, eating disorders and in extreme cases - suicide.

Our fully funded courses can enable you to recognise the symptoms and reach out to a young person who you believe may be suffering in a constructive way, and perhaps prevent further negative mental health implications.

We have an array of courses, but two are specifically designed to give you an overview of various mental health topics from depression, anxiety, cyber-bullying and more.

If you would like to know more about our nationally accredited courses please call us on 01245 505226 or email us at enquiries@theaimgroup.co.uk.