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House of Assembly - Fifty-Fourth Parliament, First Session (54-1)
2018-06-20 Daily Xml
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Grievance Debate

International Men's Health Week

The Hon. A. PICCOLO (Light) (15:09): Today, I would like to talk about International Men's Health Week, which was actually celebrated last week. International Men's Health Week gives us an opportunity as a community to focus on the health and wellbeing of men and boys in our community.

The latest ABS data available for 2016 shows that, tragically, in that year 2,866 people died from intentional self-harm, which is obviously suicide, and that 75 per cent of those people were men and boys. It is not only the people who actually take their own life who are affected but also their family and friends. While we as governments are putting more money into that sort of work, I think more needs to be done because the figure is not slowing down.

What is really concerning is that for older men, the rate of suicide is actually increasing, particularly for men 85 years and above. When you look at people of Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander descent, once again they are disproportionately represented in these figures regarding suicide. Commenting on these trends in 2016, the National Mental Health Commissioner, psychiatrist Professor Ian Hickie AM suggested that many Australian men now entering middle age have not addressed mental health concerns that manifested in their adolescence in the 1990s. You may recall that earlier figures indicated the higher suicide rate amongst younger people. Clearly, as those people get older, that problem of suicide is actually moving with that cohort of men in our community. Professor Hickie said:

Youth suicide hit its peak in the 1990s and men suffering from unaddressed depression and mental health problems then are having that exacerbated by problems they face as they enter middle age, leading some to suicide.

Professor Hickie also emphasised that many of the men have been employed in manufacturing, construction, farming and mining, areas which have declined over the past years and have experienced high levels of redundancies and uncertainty. He goes on to say:

Those with better employment prospects in these fields a decade ago are now experiencing a downturn, they often have families to support and mortgages to pay and they are then losing their jobs and losing their connection to friends and financial security.

Most importantly, they become disconnected from community. Professor Hickie also said:

Sometimes their families fall apart as a result and they find themselves going through a divorce and personal upheaval too.

Professor Hickie goes on to express concern that there were no strong mental health campaigns and services targeting middle-aged men, typically those employed in manual occupations. While technologically savvy people employed in secure and growing industries are more likely to reach out for help when they are depressed, Professor Hickie is reported as saying that men in more hands-on fields often felt they had nowhere to turn.

That leads me to two events I attended last week to mark International Men's Health Week in my community; one was held in Munno Para at the Playford Uniting Church. That event was sponsored by the Northern Men's Wellbeing Network. The Northern Men's Wellbeing Network is a group of men and women who are at the coalface delivering services to men and boys in the community.

They work with the most vulnerable men and boys in our community. Their role is to improve the wellbeing of men in the community and have not only better outcomes for those individuals involved but also better outcomes for their families and their communities, because mentally and physically healthy men means we have healthy families and communities. The network event, which, as I said, was held at the Playford Uniting Church, was well attended and had a number of men who talked about their life experiences and also raised issues about delivering services for men.

The other event I attended was arranged by the Willo's Men's Shed in Gawler, which hosted a breakfast in the shed where they talked about issues confronting men. Also, at this time, I would like to acknowledge the work undertaken by Professor Gary Wittert at the Freemasons Foundation Centre for Men's Health for doing some cutting-edge and internationally acclaimed research to improve the quality of life for men in our community.

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