Men's Health Week
15th - 21st June
This week is Men’s Health Week.
Organised by Men’s Health Forum, the theme for this year is 'Men and Pharmacy’, specifically asking the question “how can we use pharmacies to improve men’s health?”
They’re targeting a triple win:
“If the government uses pharmacy effectively as part of its men’s health strategy, it could boost men’s health by improving access, reduce pressure on the NHS and benefit the high-street pharmacy by increasing footfall.”
Obviously, the week doesn’t only have to be about this, and any positive conversations we have about men and men’s health are a step in the right direction.
But I must admit, I do like this year’s theme. The stats are pretty compelling around men’s health. To summarise, generally speaking men are more resistant to healthcare pathways, leave things later than they should to get checked, and so are at higher risk of premature mortality from a bunch of stuff.
The equation is pretty simple. If we can get more men acting on their health sooner, we’ll save more lives.
The pharmacy could be a good place to do this.
Part of this is obviously practically getting more men actually getting things checked that they need to.
But the other part of this is the psychological side of it.
There’s a silly belief that traditional masculinity peddles which is that asking for help with your health is a sign of weakness. This isn’t always the case with some things, but it might depend how a health setback occurred. For example, many men may proudly show off the cast around their leg if the injury occurred during sport or some sort of extreme activity, which has inherent connotations of being “manly”.
But anything outside of this can be seen as something we have to sweep under the rug.
So the actual act of getting more men into healthcare pathways, chatting about their health, getting familiarised with medicines, realising the world doesn’t collapse when you do this stuff…can only be a good thing.
All that being said, I’m intrigued to see how the actual execution of this week goes.
We’re talking about working back decades of conditioning with stuff like this, a simple poster telling men to pop down to the pharmacy isn’t going to change that instantly.
I have a feeling that this week will reach the people that are already converted and get this, and will fall on deaf ears for the rest.
Although, of course, this is the challenge with any of this work - this publication included.
So I want to look at this with a glass half-full mentality - that it’s a good thing we’re having these conversations, and if it reaches even one new man, that’s a step in the right direction.
I’d love to hear, are you doing anything in particular for this week? Have you seen a great campaign, or is your workplace planning on doing something?
And if you’ve read this and there’s a thing you’ve been delaying getting checked up or having a conversation about, whatever that might be, use this article as your sign to book the appointment 👍
You can also read more about Men’s Health Week and find various resources here:
George x