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Introducing the Self Management for Men

Project

Friday 9th April 2010

Cara Doran

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Strategic Aim

“To increase the capacity of all agencies in Scotland supporting self management to engage with men and respond to the specific needs of men, through improved awareness of the impact of masculinity and gender on self management.”

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Why is there a need for this work?

From our experience and understanding, there is currently:

• an invisibility of specific work to ensure men’s needs are understood and met

• a lack of attention in service provision to the specific barriers faced by men

• a lack of available data relating men’s needs concerning self management and long term conditions.

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What we don’t know…

“There is currently a lack of specific knowledge and understanding of how men self manage long term conditions. There is little research available, particularly research focusing on Scotland. The information that is available is mainly quantitative in nature and gives little insight beyond how many men are affected by specific conditions.”

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What we do know…

• Serious illness and long term conditions have a serious impact on men’s lives

• This impact is often closely related to masculine roles, and individual capacity to fulfill these roles and perceived responsibilities

• The impact can be far reaching and enduring

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From what we’ve heard so far today…

• Masculinity is inextricably linked with men’s experience of illness.

• Complex dynamics work on how men view themselves, how they are viewed by those close to them, and how men perceive those views of others.

• Illness can be closely associated with loss (of masculinity)

• Men can and will adopt a range of strategies to cope.

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Project Funding

• Self Management Fund for Scotland - £4.2m

• Long Term Conditions Alliance Scotland (LTCAS)

• Successful application for funding - £250k over 2 years

• New project launched January 2010

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Aim of the Project

The Self Management project is designed to help a range of agencies to support men in effective self management.

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How will this benefit you, your organisation and the

men you work with?

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Improved understanding of how gender and

masculinity can impact on men’s ability to self-manage long-term

conditions

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Increased understanding of the barriers which men

may face when accessing support.

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Increased capacity for agencies to engage

more effectively with men.

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Improved self-management, physical health and emotional

wellbeing for men.

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What will the new project deliver?

• Training• Consultancy and advice• Written resources and toolkits• Website• Seminars and networking opportunities• Research• Major conference• Work to highlight broader equality and diversity

agenda

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Men’s Health Policy

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Gender equity analysis recognizes that different approaches may be needed for equitable outcomes.

Men and women should be treated the same when appropriate and treated differently when required.

Equity in health

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Gender Mainstreaming

“It is a strategy for making women's as well as men's concerns and experiences an integral dimension of the design, implementation, monitoring and evaluation of policies and programmes”

* Report of the Fourth World Conference on Women, Beijing, 4-15 September 1997 (United Nations publication,Sales No. E.96.IV.13), chap. I, resolution 1, annex II.

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Equality impact assessment (EQIA)

Equality impact assessment is all about considering how your policy (by policy

we mean activities, functions, strategies, programmes, and services or processes)

may impact, either positively or negatively, on different sectors of the

population in different ways.

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And finally…

• By better understanding the relationships between personal and societal views of masculinity, illness, health, seeking support, accessing information and the needs of individual men, we can have a significant impact on the health experience of men in Scotland.

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Self-Management for Men ProjectMen's Health Forum Scotland

Unit 23, Wellpark Enterprise Centre120 Sydney Street

GlasgowG31 1JF

 Tel No: 0141 550 7515

Fax: 0141 550 4443Email: cara@mhfs.org.uk or duncan@mhfs.org.uk

Website: www.mhfs.org.uk

 Men's Health Forum Scotland (MHFS) is a charity

registered in Scotland SC 032351