Tailoring messaging to improve men's engagement with mental health services

November is #Movember, or #MensHealthAwarenessMonth, designed to raise awareness of three key health issues: mental health and suicide prevention, prostate cancer, and testicular cancer.

When it comes to mental health, men are less likely to seek help. This is important because:

• Four in five suicides are by men, with suicide the biggest cause of death for men under 35
• Over one in ten men in the UK experience some form of common mental health condition
• Nearly three-quarters of adults who go missing are men
• Men are nearly three times as likely as women to become dependent on alcohol and three times as likely to report frequent drug use

Med Comms has a key role to play in encouraging men to engage with mental health services – we’re all about tailoring messages to the audience, so what can we do to ensure our messages resonate with men? Research suggests the following for improving help-seeking attitudes, intentions, or behaviours in men:

• Use of role models to convey information can make problems appear more acceptable and reduce stigma
• Action-oriented, solution-focused approaches can help motivate behaviour change
• Use of content that builds on positive male traits (e.g. responsibility and strength) can help reframe help-seeking to align with male values
• Raising awareness of and signposting to appropriate services encourages engagement

To find out more about Movember and how you can get involved, visit uk.movember.com.

#medcomms #clinicallyrelevantthinking

Sources

UK Parliament, 2023. MPs to examine men’s mental and physical health in new inquiry – Committees. Accessed November 2024 at committees.parliament.uk.

Men’s Health Forum, 2017. Key data: mental health. Accessed November 2024 at menshealthforum.org.uk.

Sagar-Ouriaghli I, et al. American Journal of Men’s Health. 2019;13(3):1557988319857009.