Male suicide: CALM on Department of Heath help for men
Suicide is one of the biggest killers of
men in the UK and has been rising since
2001.
Three times as many men commit suicide
as women, and being male is known to
be the most common risk factor.
Campaign Against Living Miserably
(CALM), an organisation that tries to help
is complaining that the Department of
Health is failing to recognise the
problem.
In a statement, the Department of Health
said that many statutory and third sector
organisations have already set up
projects to support men and encourage
them to contact services when they are
in distress.
Jane Powell, the campaign's founder and
director, told the Today programme that
the problem was "cultural", she
explained that "we don't see men as
needing help".
She said a man who is pressed is more
likely to behave aggressively and end up
in prison.
And she added: "That underlines the
need to look at this nationally, within the
mental health viewpoint, and culturally."
Martin Seager, consultant clinical
psychologist at the SW Yorkshire
Partnership Trust, said that it was
important that we "remove the blind
eye" that we are tuning towards this.
