a cool campaign on male suicide

tritium

Has anyone come across this before now? Seems like a pretty cool campaign so amazed I haven't heard more about it!

http://www.thirdsector.co.uk/calm/communications/article/1301986
The charity is asking for contributions to its online "man dictionary" to raise awareness of disturbing statistics about male suicide
What is it?

The male suicide charity is asking people to define what it means to be a man by adding words and definitions to an online "man dictionary". By doing this, Calm hopes to encourage men to eschew "harmful, boring and archaic" male stereotypes and describe themselves in their own terms, as well as raise awareness of its own work to support men in need.

How does it work?

Men are posting their definitions on Facebook and Twitter using the hashtag #mandictionary. These are then being gathered on a tagboard on the charity’s website. Some of the messages so far have included "Manicles (n.) The things in your head, or your life, that stop you from being you" and "Emancipate (v.): to free one's self of cultural conditioning & social stigma to seek help for mental illness".

Why now?

Male suicide accounts for 77 per cent of all suicides in the UK, and 12 men take their own lives each day. This means that suicide is the single biggest cause of death in men aged between 20 and 49 in England and Wales, and Calm wants to draw attention to these statistics. The charity says there is a cultural barrier preventing men from seeking help, and it wants to encourage communication because it believes this can help to keep them alive.

What else?

The charity is turning the best definitions into images, such as the one below. Posters about the campaign are being put up across the country, and the finished dictionary might also be published in a more permanent form, which is yet to be decided.

jellyboy

This is brilliant ,just had a quick look through and it ticks boxes for me

Anything that breaks the silence and gets people talking about the pain and devastation of suicide gets a massive thumbs up in my book

Thanks op

Gremlinertia

I like this, it's a casual approach without getting to jokey and best buddyish.. Bookmarked and will share.

Thanks op

Sunnyisland

A very important campaign, Unfortunally suicide is still well hidden in our society.

eviltwin

Excellent campaign. Wonder would a similar one work over here.

What a good cause. That stat is awful

Donkey Oaty

This is a good one:

ATTIDUDE noun./ The tendency to always say things are cool even when they're not.

Links234

This is very much needed.

UCDVet

I think suicide prevention programs are great and all; but I don't see any reason for it to be about 'male' suicide. Seems like an unnecessary distinction.

Links234

UCDVet wrote: »

I think suicide prevention programs are great and all; but I don't see any reason for it to be about 'male' suicide. Seems like an unnecessary distinction.

Because men have a very difficult time talking about their feelings, and may require a different approach to get them to do so? If current suicide prevention is falling short in one area, it makes sense to see why it's not working as well there, and tailor the campaign to that area.

catallus

I'd say that men or women who are thinking about killing themselves need more than "talk about their feelings".

Why would anyone think that talking helps. Too much talking about it could indeed make the problem worse.

limklad

realies wrote: »

A very important campaign, Unfortunally suicide is still well hidden in our society.

I would not say hidden.
It is wept under the carpet and every now again, the carpet is lifted sometimes or replace because of the stench, and others hide it again, because it is inconvenience for them (who are lacking in scruples), as it takes from their so call issues and take what they call, is their money and it takes from their narcissism.

I will not mention the group here as it inappropriate to give them the time of day ... or night for that matter, for they will hijack the more important issues.

The families and friends of those effected is what important here and to keep those who about to commit the horrible act in mind, to stop them committing an unfixable mistake, to give them breathing space and our ear and mindful and kind words to heal the pain, that wounds them inside and to share that pain, to lessen it. For those that is willing, sharing that pain, is caring.

eviltwin

catallus wrote: »

I'd say that men or women who are thinking about killing themselves need more than "talk about their feelings".

Why would anyone think that talking helps. Too much talking about it could indeed make the problem worse.

The idea is that people get help when things start to go wrong so it never gets that bad. Women in general are pretty good at seeking help, men not so much. There is still a huge stigma about men being emotional as its seen as being "weak".

UCDVet

Links234 wrote: »

Because men have a very difficult time talking about their feelings, and may require a different approach to get them to do so? If current suicide prevention is falling short in one area, it makes sense to see why it's not working as well there, and tailor the campaign to that area.

Surely there are women who have a very difficult time talking about their feelings? After all, plenty of women do commit suicide too. Maybe those women would benefit from the same different approach that this program is offering?

catallus

From the link:
"Rachel Clare, assistant director of Calm, says: "At Calm we work hard on breaking down the barriers to men seeking support when they hit a crisis, and to challenge a culture that equates asking for help with weakness or loss of masculinity.
"We hope that this campaign will not only engage a new audience and raise awareness, but also encourage healthy debate across the country about what it means to be a man in society today, and get men talking about the issues that matter to them.""

There's a lot to be said for their approach, I'm sure it will be a help to those who have "problems communicating their feelings", but we should keep in mind that a lot of suicides occur because there is nothing left to be said.

eviltwin

UCDVet wrote: »

Surely there are women who have a very difficult time talking about their feelings? After all, plenty of women do commit suicide too. Maybe those women would benefit from the same different approach that this program is offering?

Of course there is but its not the same. Society allows women to cry and be emotional, it judges men who do the same. Women are not judged as harshly for saying they can't cope.

Chancer3001

12 men take their life EVERY DAY here??

Is that correct?

Chancer3001

Just thinking. That couldn't be right. No way nearly 4000 suicides a year here....

If it's not right, it shouldn't be the first thing you see on their website.


If it is right.......my god.

catallus

It's a UK site.

Over there 6,045, 5,608 and 5,675 people aged 15 and over committed suicide in 2011, 2010 and 2009 respectively, according to wikipedia.

I think it averages 500 per annum here.

NTMK

Chancer3001 wrote: »

Just thinking. That couldn't be right. No way nearly 4000 suicides a year here....

If it's not right, it shouldn't be the first thing you see on their website.


If it is right.......my god.

its for the uk but male suicide in ireland counts for about 400 death a year which is a shocking figure in it self

limklad

UCDVet wrote: »

Surely there are women who have a very difficult time talking about their feelings? After all, plenty of women do commit suicide too. Maybe those women would benefit from the same different approach that this program is offering?

Far more men commit suicide far more than women... Many are unreported as there is suspected car accidents of single lone male drivers are suicide too.

It just men are far more unfortunately successful in commuting the act as they are told to "MAN UP" when trying to talk or other degrading comments and are consider weak by people similar to you. Many of them are mothers or sisters or grandmothers or aunts or wifes or girlfriends and many a males too. Many men are in financial and or other distress, and cannot see a way out and cannot face their mothers or sisters or grandmothers or aunts or wifes or girlfriends out of shame and embarrassments.

Society especially females expect men to save them, be there, be rich and serve only, just like corrupt behaviour of old, when certain old groups say "Children should be seen, but not heard"

Today in the media and public domain too, it more like "Men should be out of site until called, to be mocked, shamed or blamed. Their feelings and concerns, should never be heard."

Women are very good at talking.... So talk to the women who attempting committing the act and stop trying to take from these people by hijacking and distorting issues that effects many a woman and child too.

UCDVet

eviltwin wrote: »

Of course there is but its not the same. Society allows women to cry and be emotional, it judges men who do the same. Women are not judged as harshly for saying they can't cope.

For the sake of argument, let's say you are 100% correct. The thing is, why not make a program that advocates the idea that it is okay for EVERYONE to cry and be emotional, instead of a program that focuses solely on men.

Women who feel that they can't show emotion because they need to be strong for their children or who fear they can't succeed in a male dominated career or whatever other reason - could hear that message and say, 'Oh, well, maybe it is okay for me to show emotion'.

No sense it explicitly excluding a gender for the sake of excluding a gender.

I've seen similar programs with math and science - programs that could be about getting children interested in math and science, but specifically exclude men....or domestic abuse programs that, again, limit themselves to female victims only (despite a significant number of men being victims of domestic abuse).

There are lots of people out there, some of them don't even identify with the gender they were born with and everyone else tends to be on a spectrum of how manly or womanly they feel. It just seems better to be inclusive rather than exclusive.

UCDVet

limklad wrote: »

Far more men commit suicide far more than women... Many are unreported as there is suspected car accidents of single lone male drivers are suicide too.

It just men are far more unfortunately successful in commuting the act as they are told to "MAN UP" when trying to talk or other degrading comments and are consider weak by people similar to you. Many of them are mothers or sisters or grandmothers or aunts or wifes or girlfriends and many a males too. Many men are in financial distress and cannot see a way out and cannot face their mothers or sisters or grandmothers or aunts or wifes or girlfriends out of shame and embarrassments.

Society especially females expect men to save them, be there, be rich and serve only, just like corrupt behaviour of old when certain old groups say "Children should be seen, but not heard"

Today in the media and public, it more like "Men should be out of site until called, to be mocked and blamed or shamed. Their feelings and concerns should never be heard."

Women are very good at talking.... So talk to the women who attempting committing the act and stop trying to take from these people by hijack and distorting issues that effects many a woman and child too.

Yes - absolutely - more men kill themselves than women. But should our goal be to end the disparity by creating male-only suicide prevention programs, or should our goal to be to end suicide by creating effective programs that target the root causes of suicide?

Look at the suicides that happen, look at why they happen as best as we can tell, create a program that addresses it.

If we believe that encouraging people to get help for suicide/talking about it, will be an effective way of preventing suicide - cool. These anti-suicide programs should focus on encouraging people to get help and to talk about their problems. But why make JUST MEN. Would suicidal women not also benefit from the same advice?

Now, if there is scientific evidence that FOR MEN we should treat the condition with X and FOR WOMEN we should treat the condition with Y - then, absolutely, separate programs would make sense. But so far, all the anti-suicide advice I've heard seems to apply for both genders.

Links234

Different folks might need a different approach, there are suicide prevention campaigns specifically for LGBT people, because the suicide rate for LGBT people is alarmingly high and the T part even higher. Things like the Trevor Project, etc. There's not going to be a "one-size-fits-all" suicide prevention campaign.

limklad

UCDVet wrote: »

Yes - absolutely - more men kill themselves than women. But should our goal be to end the disparity by creating male-only suicide prevention programs, or should our goal to be to end suicide by creating effective programs that target the root causes of suicide?

Look at the suicides that happen, look at why they happen as best as we can tell, create a program that addresses it.

If we believe that encouraging people to get help for suicide/talking about it, will be an effective way of preventing suicide - cool. These anti-suicide programs should focus on encouraging people to get help and to talk about their problems. But why make JUST MEN. Would suicidal women not also benefit from the same advice?

Now, if there is scientific evidence that FOR MEN we should treat the condition with X and FOR WOMEN we should treat the condition with Y - then, absolutely, separate programs would make sense. But so far, all the anti-suicide advice I've heard seems to apply for both genders.

There is nothing "Cool" about preventing suicide. It is a very difficult and emotional draining issue.

Anti Suicide programs by bias lens can have much more disastrous effects in the long term by not only the primary persons effected but by secondaries people such and partners, children, other family members and friends .

Not all programs fit the issues of all suicide problems. It is very naive to think so. What is available is very sparse and very well lacking resourced with neglect by those in power and money. From Domestic violence, shaming, mocking with outright abuse with false claims and many other issues, from been denied access to children with all the obligations. Emotional disconnect with only pain to dish out is a primary aim of the offender/s. So many issues, so many solutions is needed and so much work is needed by the families, public, government and agencies with joint and reasonable solutions is needed.

So much abuse and neglect and plenty of females and males alike, with having no problems in dishing out.

eviltwin

UCDVet wrote: »

For the sake of argument, let's say you are 100% correct. The thing is, why not make a program that advocates the idea that it is okay for EVERYONE to cry and be emotional, instead of a program that focuses solely on men.

Women who feel that they can't show emotion because they need to be strong for their children or who fear they can't succeed in a male dominated career or whatever other reason - could hear that message and say, 'Oh, well, maybe it is okay for me to show emotion'.

No sense it explicitly excluding a gender for the sake of excluding a gender.

I've seen similar programs with math and science - programs that could be about getting children interested in math and science, but specifically exclude men....or domestic abuse programs that, again, limit themselves to female victims only (despite a significant number of men being victims of domestic abuse).

There are lots of people out there, some of them don't even identify with the gender they were born with and everyone else tends to be on a spectrum of how manly or womanly they feel. It just seems better to be inclusive rather than exclusive.

There are general suicide prevention programs open to all but there needs to be specific ones too to address the challenges of dealing with specific groups. There will always be people who won't talk and there is not much we can do about that but what we can do is challenge this idea that men need to be strong, that real men don't cry, that a bloke feeling overwhelmed by things needs to just man up and grow a pair. That's still the mindset of a lot of people and that's stopping men getting help and that has a huge impact on their mental health even if they never attempt suicide.


In addition to a campaign aimed at men at risk it would be great to see one aimed at society as a whole to break down those stereotypes and remind us all that our attitude to men and our idea of what a man should be could be contributing to the problem.

gctest50

Chancer3001 wrote: »

12 men take their life EVERY DAY here??

Is that correct?

about one every day here "officially" - would be very under-reported though ?

There were 525 suicides registered in 2011

- www.cso.ie

mikemac1

limklad wrote: »

I would not say hidden.
It is wept under the carpet and every now again, the carpet is lifted sometimes or replace because of the stench, and others hide it again, because it is inconvenience for them (who are lacking in scruples), as it takes from their so call issues and take what they call, is their money and it takes from their narcissism.

I will not mention the group here as it inappropriate to give them the time of day ... or night for that matter, for they will hijack the more important issues.

I've read this a few times and maybe I'm just slow but I don't understand it. Is there a group competing for funding and doesn't want any discussion of this issue?

You rant about a group and then don't name them, it's all very vague.