From: Yogesh Gopal, Director, Everglade Windows
According to the Men’s Health Forum, an organisation which is dedicated to improving the health of men, one in five men die before the age of 65. To mark Men’s Health Week (14 – 18 June 2021), I attended a special event focussed on raising awareness around mental health.
Men’s Health Week is a campaign by the Men’s Health Forum and the 2021 theme has been focussed on ‘The Can Do Challenge’, a five-step approach to improving mental wellbeing.
Three times as many men as women die from suicide in the UK but are less likely to access mental health support and help. I have been a part of MenSpeak Men’s Groups for some time now. They create spaces for open and honest conversations to raise awareness and get people talking about mental health.
The last 18 months have been challenging for us all, and I think everyone would agree that their social habits have significantly changed throughout lockdown. This event in Central London marked the first time that the people in our group were back to meeting face-to-face since the start of the pandemic. The discussions were focussed on how life has changed and how we can attract more people to join groups like MenSpeak to get more men talking about their mental health.
As a company that is immersed in the sector, we are very conscious of the shocking statistics on mental health in the construction industry and, as an organisation, we are making sure that we can offer the right support to our team, to keep everyone talking and improve our collective wellbeing.
Picture: Yogesh, 2nd left, discusses mental health issues
