It's time to talk openly about mental health in men.
This Movember, UKIM would like to show support by raising awareness of men’s mental health. It’s no secret that we’re great advocates for mental health and we strive to improve mental health conditions around the UK. We proudly work as an occupational health provider and our clinicians work incredibly hard to ensure that everyone gets the support they need when it comes to not only physical health, but also mental health.
According to Men’s Health Forum, 12.5% of men in the UK are suffering from one of the common mental health disorders and 3 out of 4 suicides (76%) are by men. Statistics show that suicide is the biggest cause of death for men under the age of 35.
We understand that there’ll be many seeking help, but there’s also many who are reluctant to access help for various reasons such as: stigma, not knowing where to go for help and feeling embarrassed. We encourage those who are struggling with their mental health to talk about it and that’s why we are working hard to keep the conversation surrounding mental health going.
We launched our Wellbeing in Sports solution with Bradford City AFC, to help get players talking - not only to our clinical support team, but also to each other. We offer a more tailored approach to mental health support so that clients can feel truly listened to and supported.
We think that we all need to be a part of the wider conversation to break the stigma surrounding men’s mental health and encourage those who are struggling to speak up without concerns.
It’s important that men feel like they can ask for help, especially from their work’s occupational health teams - that’s what they’re there for.
As a leading health services provider, we will continue to fight against poor mental health and make sure that we provide the correct support for all clients, whether that be an Employee Assistance Programme, access to nurses and psychologists, 24/7 escalation support, as well as general wellbeing strategies.
