Health Minister Marjorie Michel says Canada needs to take action on men’s health, as she launched the first step toward a national strategy today.
The federal government is seeking feedback from people across the country, starting March 2.
Michel says the consultations are important to help the government understand the priorities as it looks to tackle the issues that lead men to poor health outcomes.
Data released by Movember Canada last summer shows men are three times more likely than women to die by suicide, and are less likely to ask doctors for help with a range of symptoms.
Movember has called for Canada to launch such a strategy, and is an independent partner in the work.
Michel made today’s announcement along with colleagues from other political parties, and says the issue is a non-partisan one.
This should be fun to follow as it gets strangled into the ground.
LOL… maybe start by funding research grants at higher than 10% success rates?
There better be something about regulating toxic social media platforms cough cough
The problem is much older than toxic social media.
Why not just provide mental health services to people regardless of gender? Why even bring gender into it?
Also, where is this data? Global unhelpfully, as usual, just says that it’s been released. Where? Why not link to it?Most of it is from statcan and the rest is from ngo’s, published papers and … the CDC?
Why even bring gender into it?
Because everything has sex and gender into it in Ottawa.
Not sure this thread knows the difference between sex and gender.
I do think we need to make concerted efforts to address both types of gender-coded stigma that prevent men, women and nonbinary folks from seeking help with mental health. Phrases like “man up” or “you should just tough it out” for men, versus “don’t make a fuss” or “you’re being hysterical” for women are similarly harmful, but each deserve individual intervention, attention and care.
but each deserve individual intervention, attention and care.
That’s the important part.
One size does not fit all when it comes to mental health services (or a lot of other things for that matter).
Men and women (and LBGTQ+ people) all have different mental health challenges and deserve mental health services that are tailored to each group’s specific needs.
Yeah. It isn’t a zero sum game. Both genders need targeted approaches for our unique problems.
I was mostly referring to the upfront cost of seeking help or if there is help available it’s almost exclusively focused on substance use. I’m lucky in that I was able to find the help I needed at my uni but when I graduate I will no longer have access to it and I don’t know of any equivalent that isn’t privately owned.
*To add on, the health care centre I attended had many therapists and you would book a session with whomever would likely have things in common with you. So if you were a guy you would likely book a session with another guy as their would be more common ground there. Thus I don’t understand why they are focused on mens mental health, when anyone accessing mental health services would be able to book an appoinment with a professional that would suite their needs.
Of course this assumes these facilities are as diversely staffed as mine. Maybe the actual issue is that men aren’t able to get the help they need even if they have access or rather, can afford it.
Well, I think I’ve written more then the actual article now, so who knows.
This. Fix the problems, regardless of gender.
(Interestingly enough I’ve been accused of sexism or similar for suggesting the same thing when the genders are swapped. Interesting how things work)
Ha yes! Let’s throw money at a problem that is very little but have been blown out by the conservatives and other right wing fringe and, in the same time, let’s forget that women suffer way more
Do they though?
Get with THE AGENDA.
I’d rather them throw money at this than the stupidly failed gun buybacks and bans that have yet to produce a single positive result (and instead have been a money sink for decades).
I think you are misunderstanding the goal of this. The article says that men “are less likely to ask doctors for help with a range of symptoms”. Addressing this is a part of addressing toxic masculinity and historic inequities, and a part of the broader work of finding the appropriate healthcare intervention for each person instead of the traditional one size fits all approach.
I would rather that men go to doctors for health advice instead of trying to fix it on their own, or worse, going to online influencers for advice. Figuring out why that happens is a step towards changing it for the better. If this work actually produces results, it will be good for both men and women.
This.
Also we need a real way of countering incel propaganda and bullshit. Many young men are going into shit like this for decades without a single program to help them and steer them away from it. The polytechnique shooter in 1989 was a proto-incel before incels were a movement, and since then they have been producing more and more mass murderers and other criminals and all fueled by grifters profiting off this shit.
So many problems and so far only cuts to vital infrastructure and laws that violate people’s privacy and well-being instead of actual help.
