A new world-first online training program for clinicians has been designed to stop men falling through the cracks of the mental health system.
Orygen has partnered with men’s mental health charity Movember to develop and evaluate 'Men in Mind', which supports mental health clinicians to better engage with and respond to male clients.
Following the pilot of the training program, participants reported a significant increase in their competence and confidence in working with men.
Movember head of research and Orygen research fellow Dr Zac Seidler said work in this area is urgently needed.
“We lose seven men a day on average to suicide in this country and the vast majority have been in contact with mental health services in the years prior,” he said.
“It’s about time we walk the walk and rather than just telling men ‘talk more, reach out, seek help’ we build a system that can cater to their diverse needs and offer them care with men in mind.”
Dr Seidler said he hoped by providing their clinicians with skills to understand, connect and respond to men’s distress, it will improve men’s mental health outcomes.
“We hope to reduce the seriously high dropout rate from therapy, get guys into the room, sticking with it and getting better, faster,” he said.
Dr Siedler said there are many common myths around men and their mental health, which aren’t helpful.
“There’s a really strong stereotype that men don’t seek help and that if they do, they don’t know how to talk openly and honestly about their emotional lives. What we now know is that its these very beliefs that are holding men back,’ he said.
“Guys have endless potential to engage in treatment, we just need to offer them something that they want and need and that meets them where they’re at.”
For more information on Men in Mind visit the Movember website: https://meninmind.movember.com