In a video on his social media channels, Ben Bradley MP has encouraged his constituents to “reach out to the men around you” on International Men’s Day, which took place on Sunday 19th November. International Men’s Day celebrates worldwide the positive value men bring to the world, their families and communities.
In the video, Mr Bradley said that it can be “one of those issues that sometimes isn’t popular to talk about”, and highlighted how he had previously been criticised for bringing up important issues relating to men’s health.
Mr Bradley has long campaigned for equal treatment of men and boys, who are often overlooked by society. Specifically, he has consistently raised issues that urgently need addressing surrounding white-working class boys who are statistically most likely to drop out of school with no qualifications and most likely to commit suicide.
On International Men’s Day, the Government announced a series of measures to help drive improvements in male health outcomes and encourage more men to seek help for health issues.
Announcements include:
- Joining Prostate Cancer UK to unveil a £42 million screening trial to find ways of detecting the country’s most common male cancer earlier.
- Government will appoint the first ever Men’s Health Ambassador in England. Applications will be invited from anyone with an interest and expertise in men’s health. The role will be open for applications shortly on GOV.UK. The successful candidate will be responsible for increasing awareness of certain conditions and health needs faced by men. They will help dispel taboos and stigmas and encourage more open conversations among men about their general health.
- A host of improvements and updates will be delivered to the NHS web ages that are most used by men. This includes to pages on prostatitis, testicular cancer and low sperm count to ensure these pages are user-friendly for men seeking advice and support.
- The Government will establish the first Men’s Health Task and Finish Group. Membership will include behavioural scientists, men’s health campaigners, experts and academics. Together, they will help to identify how more men can be encouraged to engage with their health, including a focus on better understanding male access to primary care services, such as GPs, and male uptake of the NHS Health Check.
Commenting, Ben Bradley MP said:
“International Men’s Day is a really important time to highlight men’s issues and it shouldn’t be controversial to say that, in some cases, men are affected differently, or by different issues sometimes compared to women.
Unfortunately, I have been slated in the past on numerous occasions for saying things like a specific ‘women’s health strategy’ should be matched by a ‘men’s health strategy’ with the same specific focus. Whilst men’s issues often aren’t popular to talk about, they are very real and we need to do more to discuss them.
In places like Mansfield in particular, there aren’t many people who have not been affected in some way by male suicide. Almost 4 in 5 people who take their own lives are men, and it’s the biggest killer of men under 40. We all have fathers, sons, brothers, boyfriends or husbands. We need to do more to support the men in our lives.
I welcome Government’s package of announcements to support men, and I am pleased that it is a priority. This is an issue I feel incredibly passionate about, so I won’t stop campaigning on it even if I get criticised for it. We all need good men in our lives, and we need to support them.”
Ben’s video about International Men’s Day is available here.
