Masculinity And Men S Health

Gift to King's University College Library from The London Grief Resource Centre, 2006.

Fewer men than women are diagnosed with depression and treated for depression related disorders and other common mental health problems. This is partly due to the real prevalence of depression being lower in men, which is thought to relate to biological differences between the sexes. However, there is also the compounding challenge of men not seeking help for psychological issues, delaying engagement with therapeutic services until problems deteriorate and being diagnosed with other conditions (e.g. psychosomatic) - that is, depression is hidden or masked by men and is, therefore, under diagnosed. In addition, health professionals and significant others may not recognize mental health issues in men and may not recommend mental health services when they do. It is important to note that gender norms intersect with wider social change and challenges, including economic hardship, limited mental health service provision, racism and discrimination against marginalised groups of men. Although rates of depression are 50% higher in women than men, suicide rates are approximately three times higher in men than in women and are linked to traditional masculinity factors (e.g. limited emotional disclosure and help-seeking) that are disproportionately experienced by specific groups of men(e.g. gay men, rural men, divorced men, and unemployed or indebted (i.e. who feel they have failed in the traditional breadwinner role) men)

"Though accessible in style, this book is not an easy read. Chapters brim with information and analysis. A lesser author could have written an entire book from the information Robertson squeezes into a single chapter. So insightful is his analysis that he leaves the mind racing with thoughts and ideas." Nursing Standard "Men's health texts are hard to find - delighted this text addresses issues like access to health services." Margaret McLoone, Sligo Institute of Technology, Ireland "Steve Robertson has written a valuable book that will serve as an excellent introduction to social science perspectives on the links between masculinities and men’s health … The book is clearly written and the coverage of existing literature is excellent. I have no hesitation in recommending it to all those wishing to extend their understanding of masculinities and health." Professor Lesley Doyal, Journal of Men's Health How do men understand ‘health’? What do men consider to be the role of health services in helping them stay well? What inhibits or facilitates men’s engagement with health services? Notions about men’s health are wide ranging and much is said about the role masculinity plays in creating health outcomes for men. Based on empirical research and data, this book provides an interdisciplinary exploration of the links between men, health policy, gender and masculinity. It also offers explicit guidance for practice for those working in the health field looking to better understand and improve men’s health. Importantly the book: Incorporates the views of disabled and gay men to highlight issues of diversity Draws out key implications for health promotion work with men Includes ‘key points for practice’ within each chapter The book uses interviews with men and health professionals, to explore the key aspects of men’s health and healthcare delivery. Although set within the UK context, it also has wider resonance as it considers how men conceptualize health, how this becomes embodied, the importance of relationships and emotions in men’s preventative health practices, and the socially contingent nature of men’s engagement with preventative health care services. Understanding Men and Health will be of particular interest to academics, students and researchers in nursing, health, sociology and gender studies as well as to pre- registration and post-registration health professionals with an interest in men and health.

This text is the first to provide a contextual understanding of the clinical issues that affect men and masculinity across a wide range of cultural and national settings. It demonstrates that gender can no longer be viewed as an isolated characteristic; in an era of increased globalization, mental health professionals need to take ethnic and cultural issues into account to provide adequate care for male patients. Numerous international perspectives are offered by the contributing authors, authorities from countries such as Australia, Argentina, Denmark, Canada, India, Ireland, and South Africa, on theoretical and clinical innovations for working with men. Their chapters also offer insight into the socio-cultural contexts for counseling men in and from their respective countries by exploring the ways in which "being a man" is socially defined, what unique challenges men face, and how these challenges can be negotiated within their specific cultural settings. Topics addressed will include boyhood notions of manhood, relationship concerns and power, fatherhood, and men’s body image across the life span. This text will ultimately enable mental health practitioners to have a better understanding of how to work more effectively with male clients.

* How do traditional concepts of masculinity restrict men's life choices and affect their health? * Why is it that men die earlier than women? * Can men find new ways of negotiating masculinity that are not injurious to their physical and emotional health? This book provides a clear and relatively concise social psychology, drawing together the variety of arguments, controversies and approaches that constitute the field. It is organised around three interrelated aspects of critics' dissatisfaction with social psychology: its methods and claim to be a science (the paradigm crisis); its mental concepts and especially its view of selfhood (the conceptual crisis); and its dehumanising character and the political effects of psychological practices and knowledge (the moral/political crisis). Several critical tools have guided efforts to rethink the discipline, such as sociological and philosophical studies of science, the turn to language, discourse analysis, feminism and poststructuralism. These are described and their usefulness is examined in providing a critique of and alternatives to social psychology's subject and method. The emphasis throughout is on the variety of approaches to deconstructing and reconstructing social psychology, encouraging a broad appreciation of subsequent controversies such as realism and agency. Students will welcome the clarity of the author's approach to a field which has seemed daunting and impenetrable in the past.

Masculinity has a powerful effect on the health of men and boys. Indeed, many of the behaviors they use to "be men" actually increase their risk of disease, injury, and death. In this book, Dr. Will Courtenay, an internationally recognized expert on men’s health, provides a foundation for understanding this troubling reality. With a comprehensive review of data and literature, he identifies specific gender differences in the health-related attitudes, beliefs, and behaviors of men and boys and the health consequences of these differences. He then describes the powerful social, environmental, institutional, and cultural influences that encourage their unhealthy behaviors and constrain their adoption of healthier ones. In the book’s third section, he more closely examines the health needs of specific populations of men, such as ethnic-minority men, rural men, men in college, and men in prisons. Courtenay also provides four empirical studies conducted with multidisciplinary colleagues that examine the associations between masculinity and men and boys’ health beliefs and practices. Finally, he provides specific strategies and an evidence-based practice guideline for working with men in a variety of settings, as well as a look to the future of men’s health. Medical professionals, social workers, public health professionals, school psychologists, college health professionals, mental health practitioners, academics, and researchers from a broad array of disciplines, and anyone interested in this topic will find it to be an extensively researched and accessible volume.

Worldwide, men have more opportunities, privileges, and power, yet they also have shorter life expectancies than women. Why is this? Why are there stark differences in the burden of disease, quality of life, and length of life amongst men, by race, ethnicity, (dis)ability status, sexual orientation, gender identity, rurality, and national context? Why is this a largely unexplored area of research? Men's Health Equity is the first volume to describe men's health equity as a field of study that emerged from gaps in and between research on men's health and health inequities. This handbook provides a comprehensive review of foundations of the field; summarizes the issues unique to different populations; discusses key frameworks for studying and exploring issues that cut across populations in the United States, Australia, Canada, the United Kingdom, Central America, and South America; and offers strategies for improving the health of key population groups and achieving men's health equity overall. This book systematically explores the underlying causes of these differences, describes the specific challenges faced by particular groups of men, and offers policy and programmatic strategies to improve the health and well-being of men and pursue men's health equity. Men's Health Equity will be the first collection to present the state of the science in this field, its progress, its breadth, and its future. This book is an invaluable resource for scholars, researchers, students, and professionals interested in men's health equity, men's health, psychology of men's health, gender studies, public health, and global health.

This book explores the social, political and theoretical underpinnings of the men's health field. Written by experts in the field, it provides a comprehensive understanding of the relationships between cultural understandings and health-related issues. It looks at important issues such as prostate cancer, chest pain and heart disease and how men experience such problems. It examines sexuality, mental illness and ethnicity as well as the role that sport can play in men's health outcomes.