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We find it hard to think of men as vulnerable, and their psychological suffering is often overlooked Over the past 30 years three to four times more men have taken their own lives than women, and at no point during this period has the rate of suicide in women been higher than that of men. This raises questions about why we haven't been thinking about the psychological needs of men and boys sooner. Men's Health Week aims to raise awareness of this and other mental health problems that men face. Traditionally, men are reluctant to seek help, have high levels of isolation, high rates of drug...

Time to Change hopes its model for raising awareness among primary care staff can be rolled out across the country It seems like common sense that the first place someone with a health problem is likely to turn for help is their GP, who is expected to deal with them in an appropriate manner. For people with mental health problems, however, this isn't necessarily the case. According to the anti-stigma campaign Time to Change (TTC) , many people experiencing mental distress arrive at the GP surgery to find that primary care professionals are ill-equipped to deal with their needs. Sometimes the...

The mental healthcare specialist discusses competition in the NHS, the government's reforms and spending a year at sea Describe your role in one sentence : I am a practising psychiatrist in the NHS and chief executive of Beacon UK , a new entrant to UK healthcare, working with the NHS to improve mental healthcare. Why did you want to work in healthcare? I always wanted to go to medical school but remember thinking from quite an early stage in my training that – as much as I love it - I would be unlikely to practise clinically full-time for my entire professional career. The best thing about...

No two days are the same working for a trust with a £100m turnover and 500,000 patient encounters My day is bookended with routine but most days are different, as you'd expect with a £100m+ turnover and 500,000 patient encounters. I'm from Lancashire, and Essex has not taken me from my roots of plain speaking, cheese and onion pies, Blackburn Rovers and punk! I tell staff about all kinds of things in my blog; being approachable means being visible on the front lines and inviting people to comment. I arrive at work at about 7am and the day starts with a bit of banter with the other directors...

One in four people suffer mental health illness, making Norman Lamb's pledge to put this on par with physical health welcome In government, as in society, attitudes tend to change gradually, so health minister Norman Lamb's commitment to "prioritising mental health like never before, making sure that it sits on par with physical health" has come as a welcome step change to mental health professionals. Although one in four people in the UK will have mental health problems at some point in their lives, mental health services suffer institutional disadvantage compared to physical...

Reliable health information is reaching a far wider audience now, but how can mental health professionals decide what to choose? In the last couple of years, we have seen many new, more democratic and engaging ways of delivering reliable health information to hard-pressed mental health professionals. Specialist blogs, developed by people who understand the information needs of health professionals, as well as the subtle complexities of the field, are engaging a wide audience and generating debate. In the late 1990s I helped set up an Oxford University educational programme for mental health professionals...

People with mental health problems are experiencing less stigma and discrimination, but attitudes of health workers are not improving The Time to Change campaign seems to have made an encouraging impact on attitudes towards mental illness in England. According to independent evaluation of the campaign's first four years, people with mental health problems are experiencing less stigma and discrimination, are feeling more empowered and are enjoying more social contact. One group in society appears to be proving resistant to this positive influence, however. Extraordinarily, the evidence suggests...