It’s long been recognised that men can be harder to reach when it comes to their health. They may not want to talk about it, or seek help if they do identify a potential problem or symptoms. With Men’s Health Week taking place 13-19 June, we look at five ways employers can encourage men to seek health support.
Employee health and wellbeing – five ways to encourage men to seek health support
According to the website NetDoctor, the top five health risks faced by men are heart disease (including high blood pressure), testicular cancer, depression or suicide, bowel cancer and diabetes.
Yet, too often, men either ignore their health or don’t seek out support. That’s where awareness-raising events such as Men’s Health Week, run by the Men’s Health Forum, can be invaluable for employers. It’s an opportunity to share health education, run campaigns and encourage more conversations about men’s health and seeking support.
This year’s event is promoting the importance of NHS Health Checks, which are health checks offered by GPs to those aged over 40. These were paused during Covid but were restarted from last month (April).
The campaign leads with a message that getting a ‘health MOT’ is vitally important to detect warning signs of conditions such as prostate cancer, which predominantly affects men.
The forum points out that prostate cancer diagnoses fell by 29% between 2019 and 2020, as men stayed away from seeing their GP and NHS capacity was under pressure because of the pandemic.
Equally early-stage cancer diagnoses fell by a third in the first lockdown. It is not that there is less cancer, it is that cancers are no longer being picked up as early, so potentially storing up real problems and poorer outcomes further down the line.
It is also important to recognise that mental health continues to be a key health issue. In England, roughly one in eight men have a common mental health problem such as depression, anxiety, panic disorder or obsessive-compulsive disorder (OCD). There were also 5,691 suicides registered in England and Wales in 2019, out of which 75% were among men – which has been the case since the mid-1990s.
Loneliness has also been highlighted in recent findings, with The Jo Cox Commission estimating that 8 million men (of all ages) feel lonely in the UK at least once a week, and nearly 3 million on a daily basis.
With this in mind, below are five things employers can do to help encourage more men to seek support for different health conditions.
Encourage open conversations to help break down stigma
One way to do this is simply to promote events such as Men’s Health Week to encourage people – men and their partners – to think about and reflect on men’s health. This is especially important when it comes to understanding the possible warning signs of male-predominant conditions such as prostate and testicular cancer. Other campaigns to watch out for include Testicular Cancer Awareness Month in April and the ‘Movember’ campaign in November which includes a focus on mental health and suicide prevention.
Another great way to raise awareness is to encourage your senior leaders to open up and share their own personal health stories. This can help to break down barriers and stigma, especially ‘embarrassing’ health problems. It can also give ‘permission’ for others to think about, and talk about, their own health.
Be proactive around internal campaigns
As well as working to generate conversation around external campaigns, think about what you can do internally. As an employer, you can run targeted health promotion and education events, focusing for example on specific male health conditions.
Men will often respond positively to health promotion that uses humour and/or blunt speaking, for example, the ‘check your balls’ campaign by the support group It’s in the bag.
Bear in mind that while men may be your target, it can often be effective to target key messages at partners or loved ones.
Develop a network of male health champions
As well as using your senior leaders to kickstart dialogue around men’s health, it can be valuable to encourage peer-to-peer conversation and awareness. This could be through establishing or facilitating employee-led networks or groups where people can share stories and get advice.
It could be by having specific health promotion ‘zones’ or hubs on your intranet containing tools, resources, guides and signposting. Another way is to create a network of male health ‘champions’ that employees can reach out to confidentially to be signposted to further support.
Embed diversity and inclusion into your approach
It is important to be considering diversity and inclusion within your approach around male health.
This is to ensure that, for example, you are not forgetting to address the health needs of, say, younger or older men or men from ethnic minority backgrounds within the wider male health mix, both of which were recently identified as needing support.
Equally, it is important not to overlook the health needs of trans employees who identify as male (or who identify as female yet still retain male organs).
The key here is to be working with the diversity and inclusion teams or networks that exist within your organisation to ensure that messages are reaching and resonating with the relevant cohorts and use appropriate, inclusive language.
If you’ve been alerted to key health risks within your organisation (such as through employee health checks) you could also look at running focus groups to help target specific awareness across clusters of employees.
Improve training for line managers
No one expects a line manager to be able to replace a GP or medical specialist. What is vital though is to give managers the tools and confidence to know how to manage or respond to health conditions affecting their teams, whether mental or physical. This can include training on how to spot potential warning signs as well as awareness on what support is accessible through the organisation.
For example, if you have an employee assistance programme (EAP) in place, employees can be signposted here if they wish to speak to someone in confidentiality. Occupational Health can also help your organisation through a range of different interventions, such as health surveillance programmes, which can help to identify risks across your employees so that awareness and interventions can be put in place.
You may also have tools and resources on your company intranet that staff can be signposted to. Ensuring your staff have the flexibility and support to get seen by a GP or medical specialist is also key to encouraging more people to seek out support when they need it.
Andrew Kinder, Professional Head of Mental Health Services at Optima Health comments: “Men are less likely to seek help for a health condition than women, and there is still a lot of stigma surrounding men and reaching out for support.”
“Employers are in a key position to help, and some of the interventions mentioned in this blog are a great starting point for organisations looking to put a strategy in place to target men’s health and help encourage more men to reach out. I think it’s worth highlighting that this is not a ‘one-off’ campaign, and something that needs to be drip-fed continually throughout the year to help inspire real change in attitudes.”
Interested in running a workshop on men’s health for your team?
Our workplace wellbeing team offer a range of workshops you can book which focus on the essential skills and knowledge needed to manage occupational mental health and wellbeing effectively. These wellbeing interventions help to increase resilience in your staff and are a preventative and restorative measure. For more information, register your interest in a wellbeing intervention by contacting workshoprequest@optimahealth.co.uk