News & Features

World Suicide Prevention Day, 10th September 2011

World Suicide Prevention Day is held on September 10th each year. The purpose of this day is to raise awareness around the globe that suicide can be prevented. Disseminating information, improving education and training, and decreasing stigmatization are important tasks in such an endeavor. The theme in 2011 is "Preventing Suicide in Multicultural Societies".

http://www.iasp.info/wspd/index.php

International Suicide Prevention Week: 4th Sept - 10th Sept 2011

Around two people die from suicide in Scotland every day and it is the biggest killer of young Scottish men, yet suicide is still one of society's remaining taboos. International Suicide Prevention Awareness Week (ISPAW), running from 4th Sept - 10th Sept, aims to tackle this.

Choose Life will be using the week to raise awareness of the issue and what is being done across Scotland to tackle this hidden killer in society, but most importantly what the Scottish public can do to help, urging that: 'talking about suicide can save lives'.

http://www.chooselife.net/

Sexual Health Week 2011: September 12 - 18

Facts of Life: Talking to your children about puberty, relationships and sex

Health and parenting professionals

The Facts of Life campaign is targeted at parents of children in the 4 to 14 age range.

It offers advice and encouragement to help them handle those important conversations about relationships, puberty and sex with confidence.

FPA Sexual Health Week 2011 is supported by Morrison’s supermarket and will run in 120 in-store pharmacies from September 12–18.

http://www.fpa.org.uk/campaignsandadvocacy/sexualhealthweek/facts-of-life/parenting-professionals

PlanB Money & Debt Advice Support Services

With men regularly saying that they feel pressure to be the provider for their families, and youth workers telling us that many young men are struggling with dept issues, it's great to see this new service up and running!

PlanB Money & Debt Advice Support Services is a unique issue-focused advice service tailored specifically to the needs of people who are considered vulnerable or isolated. It offers a range of money, debt & finance advice as a one-stop-service and is based on an outreach service model: they even do home visits within 2 days of initial contact! Every advice service & solution they offer is free, except their own Training For Trainers debt intervention skills course, as they are a social enterprise. PlanB are different to other advice agencies as they can work with everyone who needs money or debt issues addressing & do so quickly & efficiently using a skilled professional debt counsellor, they are not tied to targets or funding boundaries: hence their equal access ethos. PlanB takes both self referrals & partner referrals from organisations who use them. PlanB has a strong financial inclusion ethic and as such they also offer a wide range of community focused, fun & interesting training and workshop activities focused on enhancing financial capabilities for referrers (and volunteers) and also members the wider communities they engage with. Lucy at PlanB would like to hear from any organisations, charities, health centres or community groups, who would like to use the service, to enhance the lives of the people they support.

If you would like help yourself and wish to self refer contact Ian our advisor through either Lucy (Marketing & Engagement Coordinator on 07887551466 or lucy@planbadvice.co.uk) or visit their website http://www.planbadvice.co.uk/ if you need advice and information NOW you can contact PlanB's advisor, Ian, directly and confidentially on 07881581488 and he can call you back.

The Men's Health Information and Resource Centre (MHIRC) is now on Facebook and Twitter!

If you'd like to keep up to date with the latest developments here at MHIRC please like us or follow us at the links below. We'd love to have you and your organisation on-board.

Visit MHIRC on Facebook

Follow MHIRC on Twitter (@MHIRC)

If we’re not following your organisation’s Tweets or Postings then please let us know!

Life-extending Prostate Cancer drug in sight for UK Men

The Institute of Cancer Research (ICR) and The Royal Marsden welcome the European pharmaceutical regulator’s recommendation that abiraterone acetate (trade name Zytiga™, manufactured by Janssen Pharmaceutical Companies) be approved for use in men with castration-resistant metastatic prostate cancer.* This positive assessment by the European Committee for Medicinal Products for Human Use (CHMP) is now referred to the European Commission for sign-off in what could be the final step before UK men suffering from this very advanced form of prostate cancer can access the drug.

For more information go to:

http://www.everyman-campaign.org/News/Press_Archive/2011/21371.shtml

EMHF warns of Europe's black hole: the deaths of men of working age

The European Men’s Health Forum is warning that unless a fundamental change is made in the whole approach taken to men’s health, the EU will suffer both socially and economically.

The Forum are responding to The State of Men’s Health In Europe Report, a summary of which was given a low-key launchin the European Parliament last week.

The Report shows that every year twice as many men of working age (16-64) die as women with some 630,000 male and 300,000 female deaths across the EU27 countries in this age group. The Forum are calling for this group of men to be explicitly targeted. Read more

Fear is the killer not the cancer

Cancer is a word we are all brought up to dread.  What must it be like to be told you have it?  And how do people cope when they are told they have it and there’s nothing that can be done?

It’s all about fear.   Especially for blokes.  Don’t ask me why, it just is.  Men are also embarrassed when things they’re responsible for go wrong, especially themselves.  Read more

News Release: MHFS Organisational Changes

MHFS has undergone some massive changes lately, with some of our staff being made redundant and some finishing, as the Self Management for Men project has come to an end.

We would like to say a huge thank you to those staff who worked really hard right up until the end of March through what was a very difficult time for them. They will be missed.

MHFS continues as an organisation - we have the 10k for Men to run! We will also continue in our efforts to do the things we have always done in the pursuit of improving men's health: sharing information, networking, putting on events, etc... So watch this space.

MEN RUN FOR THEIR LIVES AND OTHERS

On Father’s Day, 20 June, more than 3,000 men took to Bellahouston Park for the fifth annual Men’s Health Forum Scotland (MHFS) 10K for Men, raising a staggering amount estimated at £400,000 for charities across the country.

Recent evidence has revealed that men in Glasgow have the lowest life expectancy in the UK and MHFS is trying to change this by encouraging Scotland’s men to take a healthier approach. 

The 10k event, which is UK’s first men-only 10k, seeks to raise awareness amongst men about the importance of improving their health by highlighting that simple lifestyle changes, like increasing your activity levels by joining a men’s jogging group, can have a positive impact on their emotional and physical wellbeing. Read more