Helping men and boys live longer, happier, healthier lives makes our city a better place for everyone.
To help us Improve Male Health in Brighton & Hove we will create a citywide taskforce of people and organisations who are committed to improving the physical, mental, emotional, sexual and spiritual health, care and wellbeing of every man and boy living and working in our city.
The overriding objectives of the Improving Male Health Taskforce will be to help us transform the way the world works for everyone – including men and boys – by helping us to:
- Identify and highlight the key health inequalities experienced by men and boys in Brighton & Hove
- Identify the key barriers to improving male health
- Identify actions to improve men and boys access to health services
- Identify actions for improving male health outcomes
We also hope this Taskforce will help us develop and roll-out the Get A Move On! campaign that we piloted during National Men’s Health Week 2010. The campaign aims to help more men and boys live longer, happier, healthier lives by taking action to Get A Move On for the recommended 5 lots of 30 minutes moderate exercise using sport as a motivator.
Furthermore, we will ask the Improving Male Health Taskforce to identify ten key objectives to drive forward our work to improve the ways the city works for men and boys in 2011-2012 which could include:
| Increasing representation of men in health services through recruitment of volunteers – eg health trainers and sports volunteers |
| To increase cancer awareness and take up of screening services |
| To take action to reduce smoking/increase take-up of smoking cessation services amongst men |
| Increase take-up of alcohol reduction services amongst men |
| Develop a male-focussed suicide prevention initiative and consider the value of bringing http://www.thecalmzone.net to Brighton & Hove |
| Indentify objectives around sexual health –eg increased take-up of screening amongst young men |
| To help develop the Get A Move On! project as an ongoing campaign to increase the number of men and boys taking regular exercise |
| To take action to improve male access to GPs through a variety of initiatives |
| To help develop a Men’s Talk Network of men’s groups across the city in workplaces, sports venues, GPs surgeries etc |
| Identify objectives around healthy eating for men and boys |
Glen Poole is UK co-ordinator for International Men's Day, Director at the consultancy Helping Men and news editor of insideMAN magazine. Follow him on twitter @HelpingMen or find out more about his work at www.helpingmen.co.uk.
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