Suicide tragedies continue

21/05/14 . Blog

A story in today's Independent is another sad reminder of the high rate of suicide in men and how men's relationship with work can kill.

A 20-year-old unemployed gardener killed himself after he was turned down for up to 40 jobs in 12 weeks, his family have said. Martin Hadfield was found dead in his flat in Tottington, Greater Manchester, a day after meeting with staff at his local Jobcentre. Unknown to him, he was being considered for a job in a factory.

Government figures show that between 2008 and 2010 there were 800 extra male suicides that could be linked to the recession. We know that 3 in 4 suicides are male. Our work with men has highlighted that unemployed men are even more likely to have mental health related worries that those in work.

In Men's Health Week the Men's Healh Forum and The Work Foundation will publish a new report Sick of being unemployed: the health issues of out-of-work men and how support services are failing to address them.

For more on why we are looking at this in Men's Health Week see Men's Health Week: why work and health?

 

The Men’s Health Forum need your support

It’s tough for men to ask for help but if you don’t ask when you need it, things generally only get worse. So we’re asking.

In the UK, one man in five dies before the age of 65. If we had health policies and services that better reflected the needs of the whole population, it might not be like that. But it is. Policies and services and indeed men have been like this for a long time and they don’t change overnight just because we want them to.

It’s true that the UK’s men don’t have it bad compared to some other groups. We’re not asking you to ‘feel sorry’ for men or put them first. We’re talking here about something more complicated, something that falls outside the traditional charity fund-raising model of ‘doing something for those less fortunate than ourselves’. That model raises money but it seldom changes much. We’re talking about changing the way we look at the world. There is nothing inevitable about premature male death. Services accessible to all, a population better informed. These would benefit everyone - rich and poor, young and old, male and female - and that’s what we’re campaigning for.

We’re not asking you to look at images of pity, we’re just asking you to look around at the society you live in, at the men you know and at the families with sons, fathers and grandads missing.

Here’s our fund-raising page - please chip in if you can.

Registered with the Fundraising Regulator