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- Men's health and sanity are being put
at risk by job insecurity and uncertainty about the male role within the
family, an official report says today.
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- Women are often the breadwinners and
outshine men at school and university, while males dominate the numbers
in prison and among drug addicts and special needs pupils, according to
the report which urges the Government to tackle men's apathy towards their
own health.
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- The report reveals that the Government
spends eight times as much on women's health as it does on men's. The massive
gap means that as well as a higher suicide rate, men have lower life expectancy
and higher rates of death from cancer. Prostate cancer kills around 10,000
men a year - four times the number of women who die of cervical cancer.
Research into prostate cancer gets £37,000 a year compared with £4.3
million a year on breast cancer research.
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- Seventy-five per cent of suicides are
males, but 40 per cent of men will only go to see their GP if told to do
so by their partner, according to the Royal College of Nursing Men's Health
Forum.
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- The beleaguered male: suffering from
his lack of identity
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- The forum's report, Men's Health -
A Public Health Review, was launched today by Public Health Minister Tessa
Jowell. It examines the influence of unemployment, crime and education
on men's health and calls for a high-profile agenda for public health issues
specific to men. Forum chairman Dr Ian Banks said: "We don't want
to be seen to be knocking women or saying that money should be switched
from women's health to men's health.
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- "But we need to maintain women's
health at the same time as improving male health. Women's health is inextricably
linked to male health."
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- Changes in patterns of employment in
Britain have affected numbers of men out of work and the way they view
their place in the family, which can affect their health, says the report.
Three men for every woman aged 18 to 24 have been unemployed for a year
of more, and many new jobs are perceived as low-paid, part-time "women's
work".
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- "Unemployment can destroy a man's
personal and social identities, particularly if he sees his role as the
bread-winner," said Dr Banks. "This can often lead to a life
crisis and with that an increase in stress; that in turn may lead to family
poverty, to effects on diet and other basic needs, and inevitably, illness."
Long-term illness
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- is 40 per cent higher among unemployed
men, who also suffer a deterioration of mental health. Dr Banks called
on the Government to increase funding for research into male health issues
and into the best way of educating men about their health.
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- "We do need more money to go into
research but we also need a change in attitudes," he said. "Men
are far less likely to go to their GP and when they do, they come at a
much later stage in their ill-ness. What we need to do is find new and
imaginative ways of educating men.
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- "New initiatives like health education
campaigns at football venues and in pubs has worked in recent years -
we need to see more of that.
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- "Doctors need to be given more training
about how to get men to open up about their health problems and go to their
GPs.
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- "We also need to look at schools.
There is still a situation where girls are taught all about their own health
while the boys are sent off to play football."
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- The report also suggests that uncertainties
among both men and women about how men should act is compounding health
problems. "This has resulted in media discussion on subjects as diverse
as whether men are 'redundant', to the extreme ways men try to show they
are still real men.".
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- A 1993 study found boys lagging behind
in school exam results and outnumbered at university, says the report.
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- "As a priority we should now decide
which issues of men's health are in most urgent need of attention, including
specific groups of men, and decide which targets are the most achievable,
said Dr Banks.
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- "It is vital for the Government's
new public health agenda to tackle these key issues to ensure that men's
health is moved up to centre stage." The forum, set up by the RCN
in 1994, plans to set down targets for improving suicide rates, cancer
survival rates and other illnesses.
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