Don’t miss out on the only National Male Health Conference in 2017. Early Bird Rate $450 now available.
NEW MALE NATIONAL MALE HEALTH CONFERENCE
Present Challenges and Future Solutions
March 2 & 3, 2017
SPECIAL ADD ON EVENT Wednesday March 1 STOP MALE
SUICIDE TRAINING DAY only $100 for Conference Participants
Holiday Inn Hotel, 18 – 40 Anderson Street, Parramatta

Are you concerned about or interested in improving the health and wellbeing of men and boys? If so, you may want to take part in the NEW MALE: National Men’s Health Conference.

Held over two days, our packed program will be of interest to men and women working in men’s health and related fields. We’ll be exploring issues like male suicide, family violence, trends in men’s health, working with ATSI males and GBTI males as well as exploring the challenges facing our boys and young men. We’ve got a great line up of speakers who will inform, inspire and help you navigate the rapidly changing world of masculinity, manhood and men’s issues.
SPECIAL ADD ON EVENT Wednesday March 1 STOP MALE SUICIDE TRAINING DAY only $100 for Conference Participants
Glen Poole has 20 years experience working with men and boys in the UK and Australia. He is a leading authority on men’s issues, founder of the Stop Male Suicide project in Australia and author of the book
You Can Stop Male Suicide. The Standard price is $225 ($205 concession) but if you register for the NEW MALE Conference you receive this training program for only $100.

HARD SELL is a one hour session on Friday March 3, giving selected presenters the change to hard sell their ideas for improving men’s health in a series of back-to-back, 10 minute presentations. You can only have 10 mins and use 5 PowerPoint Slides. To present in this session you must be a NEW MALE registered participant. Click here for a HARD SELL Information & Application Form.

There are limited places so make sure you secure your place at the NEW MALE: National Men’s Health Conference 2017 today. Check the website for the latest information.

Registration includes Conference Satchel and Program, Conference Folder with a free copy of “Regular Joe vs. Mr Invincible” by Dr. Elizabeth Celi, PhD, all refreshments and lunches. Click here for Registration Form
EARLY BIRD RATE DEC 26 – FEB 3 $450 FULL PRICE FEB 4 – FEB 28 $500, One Day Registration $260, Add On Stop Male Suicide Training only $100
CONFERENCE DINNER Thursday March 2 6.30 pm, 3 course buffet dinner, tea, coffee, soft drinks, entertainment and Guest Speaker $65
ACCOMMODATION: Please contact Holiday Inn Hotel Parramatta for the Special NEW MALE Conference Accommodation Rates

During Men’s Health Week, communities across Australia reach out to men, boys and their families to promote health and wellbeing through engaging activities, events and promotions.

These events create the right setting for conversations about the elements that make us healthy – life, purpose, health and wellness and everything in-between – because they are locally tailored to the needs of men and boys and their local communities.

That’s why our 2016 theme ‘HEALTH ELEMENTS’ is about encouraging communities to start those conversations about the elements of life that build health and life’s purpose.

The purpose of life is to contribute in some way to making things better.

Robert F. Kennedy

This idea of ‘purpose’ is about deciding what matters most – and only local people can take the lead in deciding what that is. Our belief is that by working together with a focus on local action, we can improve the outcomes for the health of our men and boys and their families and communities.

Men’s Health Week is your week of conversation, reflection and action on what issues impact on the health of boys and blokes in your community – and doing something that makes things better.
And for over a decade, this idea has shown itself to be a great way to start having those conversations about what it means to be healthy in the different areas of our lives.

Find out what’s on near you at www.menshealthweek.org.au.

Buddhism, a religion followed by over 400 million people , was founded in India by Siddhartha Gautama. It was developed sometime between 550 and 480 B.C. and its leader became known as “the Buddha,” which means “the Enlightened One.” Followers of Buddhism acknowledge The Four Noble Truths or key pillars of their belief system. These are followed by women and men, with unique roles for each gender.

According to Buddhist philosophy, the sum of all household responsibilities is to be equally split between the man and woman in a marriage. Duties may be distributed based upon a man’s ability to accomplish a task better than a woman. At the time Siddhartha Gautama began teaching in India, these duties may have included running the family business or negotiating sales with neighbors.

Buddhism teaches that men and women are of equal value. The worth of a man’s life is equal to that of a woman’s life. Men are taught to respect their wives as partners and friends, not slaves to be commanded. Karma, a key belief of Buddhist teaching, states that a person’s actions have consequences that affect him and many others. Therefore, it is with great love and respect that a man should treat his wife, not with anger or hatred.

According to Steve Biddulph (1994), the central problems of men’s lives are loneliness, compulsive competition and lifelong emotional timidity. British psychiatrist Anthony Clare (2000) points out that throughout North America, Europe and Australia male suicides outnumber those committed by women by between three and four to one. Clare also suggests that men are increasingly subject to a variety of health problems including cancer, anxiety, depression, circulatory problems and HIV-related disorders. Among the many factors that account for this is the tendency for men to be more isolated psychologically and socially than women.

The place that men hold in the world is increasingly uncertain. Until recently, we have taken our position in the social order as men for granted. We did not need to ask ourselves what it meant to be a man or how men should behave. This is not to say that we did not ask questions about ‘the meaning of life.’ Rather, it is to suggest that these questions and their answers were not posed in terms of being a man. The current period is the first in which we are being forced to ask about what it means to live as a man.

Men now have to confront questions about masculinity because the ground of prior certainty is being cut away from them by a series of social and cultural changes. A sense of loss and disorientation arises as men recognize the need to change – or are forced to do so – but have not yet forged new secure ways to be. Of particular significance here are the changes associated with work and the conduct of relationships.

Late-Modernity involves a loss of personal meaningfulness leading to rising levels of depression, addiction and a loss of purpose in life. Many western men have found that there experiences and a desire to seek out meaning in life have led them to embrace Buddhism as a way of structuring their life and meeting their sprituality needs. Buddhism offers men emotional self-awareness, mindfulness, self-discipline, community, increased calmness of mind and a sense of self-worth and social connectedness. In that context the discourses of Buddhism provide a narrative of hope, structure and a transformed masculinity.

There is now a growing body of western scientific evidence showing that meditation and mindfulness have positive psychotherapeutic value and these techniques are a growing part of what is seen as “mens work”. Perhaps the attraction of Buddhism for western men lies in its combination of individual growth in the context of emotional distress – a rather Western emphasis – and the sense of community that it engenders – a traditional Buddhist strength – that appears to many people to have been lost in the West.

Buddhism, a religion followed by over 400 million people , was founded in India by Siddhartha Gautama. It was developed sometime between 550 and 480 B.C. and its leader became known as “the Buddha,” which means “the Enlightened One.” Followers of Buddhism acknowledge The Four Noble Truths or key pillars of their belief system. These are followed by women and men, with unique roles for each gender.

According to Buddhist philosophy, the sum of all household responsibilities is to be equally split between the man and woman in a marriage. Duties may be distributed based upon a man’s ability to accomplish a task better than a woman. At the time Siddhartha Gautama began teaching in India, these duties may have included running the family business or negotiating sales with neighbors.

Buddhism teaches that men and women are of equal value. The worth of a man’s life is equal to that of a woman’s life. Men are taught to respect their wives as partners and friends, not slaves to be commanded. Karma, a key belief of Buddhist teaching, states that a person’s actions have consequences that affect him and many others. Therefore, it is with great love and respect that a man should treat his wife, not with anger or hatred.

According to Steve Biddulph (1994), the central problems of men’s lives are loneliness, compulsive competition and lifelong emotional timidity. British psychiatrist Anthony Clare (2000) points out that throughout North America, Europe and Australia male suicides outnumber those committed by women by between three and four to one. Clare also suggests that men are increasingly subject to a variety of health problems including cancer, anxiety, depression, circulatory problems and HIV-related disorders. Among the many factors that account for this is the tendency for men to be more isolated psychologically and socially than women.

The place that men hold in the world is increasingly uncertain. Until recently, we have taken our position in the social order as men for granted. We did not need to ask ourselves what it meant to be a man or how men should behave. This is not to say that we did not ask questions about ‘the meaning of life.’ Rather, it is to suggest that these questions and their answers were not posed in terms of being a man. The current period is the first in which we are being forced to ask about what it means to live as a man.

Men now have to confront questions about masculinity because the ground of prior certainty is being cut away from them by a series of social and cultural changes. A sense of loss and disorientation arises as men recognize the need to change – or are forced to do so – but have not yet forged new secure ways to be. Of particular significance here are the changes associated with work and the conduct of relationships.

Late-Modernity involves a loss of personal meaningfulness leading to rising levels of depression, addiction and a loss of purpose in life. Many western men have found that there experiences and a desire to seek out meaning in life have led them to embrace Buddhism as a way of structuring their life and meeting their sprituality needs. Buddhism offers men emotional self-awareness, mindfulness, self-discipline, community, increased calmness of mind and a sense of self-worth and social connectedness. In that context the discourses of Buddhism provide a narrative of hope, structure and a transformed masculinity.

There is now a growing body of western scientific evidence showing that meditation and mindfulness have positive psychotherapeutic value and these techniques are a growing part of what is seen as “mens work”. Perhaps the attraction of Buddhism for western men lies in its combination of individual growth in the context of emotional distress – a rather Western emphasis – and the sense of community that it engenders – a traditional Buddhist strength – that appears to many people to have been lost in the West.

Greg Millan

Everyday lately we hear more about the increase in street violence and the shocking injuries and death of young men. Now in Sydney there are calls to raise the legal drinking age to 20 or 21 or take other measures to cut back opening hours of venues. But I think we are missing the point with the focus on alcohol. It is really about young men learning that violence is not on and developing new ways to settle disputes with others.

There is little doubt that we live in a more violent world, on TV, in movies, games, with bullying at school, elder abuse and intimate partner abuse and violence on the increase. Popular culture elevates violence and young men and women are being raised in a community that wants them to be more assertive but dangerously lauds in its own way different kinds of aggression and violence. We need a cultural change to address the violence in our society and we need to educate people to engage in non-aggressive resolution of problems. We need to treat the cause of violence, not symptoms like trying to restrict alcohol to young people or limiting opening hours of licensed premises – these are band aid measures only. Many young people drink at home before they go out. We need to consider social inclusion and youth unemployment as many overseas studies show that the most marginalised young men and women are those most likely to engage in street violence.

A recent Deakin University study suggests that alcohol fuelled aggression amongst young men is linked to abusive fathers. The study explored a connection between father-son relationships and barroom violence between men. There results indicated that young men who had an abusive relationship with their father could turn to alcohol as a coping mechanism and when they did drink they consumed substantial amounts of alcohol, enough to impair their judgement leading to misinterpreting situations and increasing their likelihood of being involved in violence. For many other young men growing up in Australia today there are very few male role models for them, as many are raised in single parent families largely headed up by women. With less males in teaching, youthwork and other “helping professions” in Australia many young men do not develop a set of logical knowledge and skills around how to behaviour when some conflict with others arises and how to walk away or avoid escalating the situation to one of violence.

Some degree of street violence has always been part of Australian culture but is clearly changing is the rules of engagement. There appear to be no rules, no restraint and use of greater violence that causes permanent damage to the victim or death. Situations escalate quickly and mates can be summoned by mobile phones for a bigger all in brawl. Once no one kicked a man when he was down – that rule doesn’t hold now. Young men people need to be taught to have more concern for the greater wellbeing of the community and learn new skills in how to shoe compassion for others beyond their immediate circle of friends.

I recently looked for educational programs for boys and young men around preventing street violence in Australia and found there are very few. There are a quite a number of programs for young males on preventing domestic or intimate partner violence, but very few dealing with violent behaviour in general, including street violence.  But one excellent program is the Step Back Think campaign that was formed in Victoria in the wake of the horrific injuries sustained by James Macready-Bryan in 2006. James was assaulted in the Melbourne CBD on his 20th birthday on October 13th, 2006. A single punch knocked James to the ground where his head smashed against the pavement, resulting in catastrophic brain damage from which he will never recover.The sole mission of Step Back Think is to educate people on the catastrophic consequences one punch can have, and from this, reduce levels of street violence. Over the past three years Step Back Think has garnered support from former Prime Minister Kevin Rudd, Victorian Premier John Brumby, Eddie McGuire, Neil Mitchell, Steve Bracks and Peter Costello. They are doing a great job and their website describes them as “a team of students and professionals, doers and thinkers, young and… less young. Since 2008 we’ve tried to encourage young people to step back and think of the consequences of throwing a punch, in hopes of overhauling their attitudes towards street violence.” They are a great example of what we need to do here in NSW.

Greg Millan, Men’s Health Consultant & President Men’s Health Forum NSW Inc. | Published Newcastle Herald January 15 2014

According to men and women working in helping professions like healthcare, social work and mental health services, the three main reasons men are less likely to get help from frontline services are:

• There are less support services targeted at men
• Services supporting men receive less funding
• Most help-giving services are female orientated

The survey was carried out in partnership between Helping Men in the UK and Men’s Health Services in Australia, two organisations committed to improving the health and wellbeing of men and boys.

While professionals in both countries agreed on the top three barriers that prevent more men and boys accessing support services, there were some notable differences.

Frontline workers in the UK thought that social barriers like the way men are conditioned and the way men cope differently from women were more significant than their Australian counterparts.

The Australian professionals surveyed felt that systemic barriers such as restrictive opening hours and the failure of services to market themselves effectively to men were more significant.

Workers in both countries agreed that issues like ‘male pride’ and the stigma that men may feel when needing help, were less significant that is popularly thought.

The results echo many of the findings of the Big Lottery’s INVISIBLE MEN report which found men were less likely to be benefit from social projects, that few projects target men and that “the lack of visibility of men in the social sector can be detrimental in engaging male beneficiaries if they feel that they are in a female environment”.

Glen Poole, Director of Helping Men said:

“We know that men are less likely to get help from a broad range of public services and social projects in areas like health, mental health, parenting and social care.

“We also know that there are lots of great examples of projects and practitioners who demonstrate by example that male service users do engage when services are specifically targeted at men and to respond to men’s needs.

Helping Men is the UK’s leading resource for professionals in the business of helping men get help and provides news, resources, information, training, research and consultancy services.

For professionals who want help making their services more accessible to men and boys there will be a Helping Men Get Help training day in Brighton & Hove on Tuesday 23rd May.

The Helping Men Survey took place online during January, February and March 2013 surveying 37 UK professionals and 44 Australian professionals.

For further information in Australia, please contact Greg Millan on 0417 772 390 or email greg@menshealthservices.com.au.

For further information in the United Kingdom, please contactg Glen Poole at Helping Men on +44 7981 334 222 or email glen@glenpoole.com.

Glen Poole
Helping Men
glen@glenpoole.com
+44 7981 334222

Follow Helping Men on Facebook or Twitter.

Men often get wrongly blamed for their ill health, but it is not their fault.

The voices of Australia’s leading experts all agree that one of the key causes of bad health outcomes for males is that we don’t have male-friendly health, welfare, community, legal or education systems in this country.

Women are more familiar with and at ease with these systems than men, which leads to men lacking basic information on health issues that can sometimes have devastating effects.

We need to work much harder to make these systems more male-friendly and accessible.

We have come a long way over the past 30 years in developing a National Male Health Policy and some examples of projects and programs to improve male health.

One of the key areas we now need to improve is developing and maintaining a well-trained, male- friendly workforce in the health, welfare, human services and education sectors.

On March 14 and 15 in Newcastle the Men’s Health Forum NSW Inc. took a major step forward in this direction with the launch of “Engaging Men”, the first national two-day men’s health, well-being and relationships training seminar.

Workers had the opportunity to learn new skills, gather knowledge and network to build stronger relationships to improve male health.

The program included training in sexual health issues, setting up men’s sheds, managing depression, suicide prevention, helping dads in distress, supporting men with cancer and working with male victims of intimate partner violence.

We have a large body of research that shows us men are concerned about their well-being and are doing more to improve their emotional and psychological health as well as their physical health.

Many men today are keen to talk with other men in specific men’s programs and in other man-friendly places where they feel comfortable.

Health promotion for men works when we go out to where men are in the community – it can be that simple.

Australian blokes are rapidly changing away from the old ethos of “if you’ve got a problem, don’t ask for help” to one of being comfortable in seeking out support and information from healthcare workers – when it is delivered in appropriate ways – and discussing their concerns with their mates.

Men today regard good health as necessary for living, working and enjoying life, and see beyond the need to just be physically fit and free of disease and illness.

Men also want to achieve emotional well-being, communicate more effectively with mates and loved ones, and increase their skills in reducing stress in their lives.

Improving male health has a major impact on not only the individual man and boy but also on women, children, the whole community, employers and the economy.

Greg Millan is the President of Men’s Health Forum Inc, the peak body in NSW for improving male health. This opinion piece was published in the Newcastle Herald on March 18th 2013.

Image credit: Newcastle Herald/Fairfax

Why is it that Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander people make up just 3% of Australia’s population, yet account for 50% of the prison population? Why are worrying about a Mining Tax that isn’t paying when one prisoner costs our system $111,000 every year?

Many Aboriginal (and non-Aboriginal) families have a personal experience of dealing with the ‘justice’ system and the well-known cycle of jail time that this involves. So how can we as a society help Aboriginal men and their families break past this institutionalised cycle of jail and the barriers that places on leading a normal life?

One such program is the Gamarada Healing Program for Victims of Crime that operates out of Redfern in NSW. Director Ken Zulumovski runs the program to give men skills and healing with a real emphasis on understanding where they have been, what they have experienced and the effects of their lived experiences.

Ken describes the program as:

“The Gamarada Healing Program for Victims of Crime has been developed as a healing and empower-ing life-skills program to effectively support Aboriginal men who have been victims of crime. A 15 week group program will be adapted, based on the successful model of groupwork Gamarada has been recognised for. The program incorporates Indigenous-specific healing strategies developed to restore social and emotional wellbeing following the ongoing intergenerational effects of trauma among Aboriginal peoples, including being victims of crime. The program incorporates traditional Indigenous healing with Eastern and Western methods of self healing for daily living.”

Ken Zulumovski will present the program at Engaging Men from 9.00am until 12.30pm on Thursday 14 March.

A clearinghouse is a web-based resource that collates and profiles programs, publications and resources to build an evidence base of practices that work. This clearinghouse, termed MENGAGE, is about profiling resources that can help program managers, community health staff, Local Health District staff and others to get a real sense of what’s out there in a quick and accessible manner.

MENGAGE builds on the growing network of organisations and individuals in male health in Australia and will continue to raise the profile of male health work in Australia.

It’s All About…You

If your program or work in male health is something that could help a fellow colleague run something better for men and boys, please consider submitting a profile. Don’t worry, we’ll help you make it look good, and you too as well!

Tell us about it here…

Launching Soon…

The MENGAGE team would be very pleased to see you at a special launch event at Blacktown Hospital (UWS Clinical School) on Monday November 26th 2012 at 10.00am. We would love you to come along! Please fill in the form by November 19th and we’ll see you there!

Regards

David

But what is less visible is the ongoing strain on family members coping with depression and anxiety in their partners (male or female) or even their children.

I was really struck by the Family Focus resources provided by COPMI (Children Of Parents With Mental Illness). You can have a look at the program on the website.

Although it is a long video at nearly an hour, the DVD footage really captures the dynamics within family life of what depression in men looks like and how it plays out in a man who also has to balance unemployment (in the case of ‘Carl’ who is the subject of the first segment), being a husband, father and former soccer coach with all the expectations placed on him by his wife and children.

All credit to the folks who stopped to ask him if he was OK but to me, his interactions with the would-be helpers shows how the stereotype of ‘men won’t talk’ looks in real life.

The DVDs are available to professionals only after they have completed the e-learning course, as it is part of a professional program for clinicians.

You can view the DVD footage here.

• Cards with blue borders: Restrictive Solutions (negative coping strategies)
• Cards with green borders: Enabling Solutions (positive coping strategies)

Survival Cards support the idea that people’s lives are full of driving forces (hopes and dreams) and reactive forces that work against them (fears and anxieties). As a result of these forces, our actions or behaviours are either restrictive (less likely to achieve our hopes and dreams) or they are enabling (more likely to lead to greater achievement of hopes and dreams as long as we learn from the challenges we face). The resource includes:

• 34 different Survival Cards (Version 5) with images. Click here to view a sample of the cards.
• 7 exercises for creative use of these cards
• A guide for using these resources

For more information:

• PDF Downloadable Version
• Survival Cards Pack