Men’s Health Week

This week marks Men’s Health Week, an initiative started by Men’s Health Forum dedicated to encouraging open discussion of physical and mental health issues affecting men. One in five men in the UK pass away before the age of 65, with 75% of deaths from premature heart disease being from men. Speaking anecdotally, I never met either of my grandfathers, as both of them passed away from heart and respiratory issues in their early 50s. Additionally, there has long been a social taboo around the discussion of men’s emotional issues, allowing mental health issues to fester in the male population.

Men’s Health Forum was started with the mission of breaking the stigma around discussing issues of men’s health, especially mental and emotional health, and to encourage the public to take a proactive role in improving men’s health, while also drawing attention to gaps in data relevant to men’s health.

Men’s Health Week is just one of the ways they hope to achieve their goals, with each year seeing them partner with organisations across the UK to put a spotlight on these issues, as well as the resources that are available to anyone who needs them. This year, Men’s Health Forum is focusing on explaining why there is a need for a men’s Healthcare strategy, as well as urging the government to put more focus on tackling healthcare issues with the NHS. Additionally, the Men’s Health Top 5 is a handy list of resources created as part of prior men’s health weeks.

Napier Support

We at Napier take the issue of men’s health among our student body very seriously, just as we care for the health of all our students. As such, we have several resources available to any male student who requires support in this area. As part of our library catalogue, we have the Wellbeing Collection, available in all of our libraries, consisting of books that provide advice to our students who are in need of support with social, mental, or healthcare issues, as well as study tips and general life advice. In this collection are books such as Man Down: A Guide for Men on Mental Health (Available in our Sighthill Collection) which provides advice for men on how to tackle issues such as anxiety and depression, how to handle stress, and how to communicate with others, as well as Boys Don’t Cry (Available at Craiglockhart) which deals with the experience of suffering from depression as a man, and the social stigma associated with discussing one’s feelings. Although these books are housed on different campus libraries, you can use the Napier LibrarySearch to request for them to be reserved for you and sent to a different campus library.
Additionally, our Merchiston campus is now home to Andy’s Man’s Club, a charity dedicated to providing men with a space where they can openly discuss their experiences with mental illness. The club is hosted at Merchiston campus on Mondays from 7pm to 9pm in room A55. You can find out more about the club through the introductory video available on the university youtube channel.

We hope that the resources available through the university are able to provide support for any of our students in need, as they look after their physical and mental well-being. Several of our staff have been trained in providing support to those in need, or can provide contact details for those who are capable of providing support, so please don’t be afraid to approach them if you feel you need help.

By Matthew Ferrie

Photo by Dawid Łabno

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