You Can’t Repair Your Psychological Well being With Duct Tape.
The opinions on this weblog don’t essentially mirror the opinions or ideas of Males’s Well being Community. This weblog was contributed by Man Remedy®
By: Journey Starkey, VP of Partnerships, Man Remedy®, Dr. Jodi J. Frey, Professor and Affiliate Dean for Analysis, College of Maryland College of Social Work, Amanda Mosby, Program Supervisor, College of Maryland College of Social Work, and Erika Shook, Public Relations Specialist, College of Maryland College of Social Work
In his 2020 e-book, Upstream, Dan Heath got down to discover the significance of reimagining system-level interventions which might be designed to help people upstream of disaster.
Within the e-book’s introduction, he writes, “Whenever you spend years responding to issues, you possibly can generally overlook the truth that you might be stopping them . . . Upstream efforts are broader, slower, and hazier – however once they work, they actually work. They’ll accomplish huge and long-lasting good.”
By his estimation, if we might shift our efforts to focus extra on prevention of issues, somewhat than response to them, society might extra successfully and effectively deal with issues at their root as an alternative of continually making an attempt to deal with signs of an issue. Not solely would this ideological shift guarantee extra individuals are higher geared up to assist themselves, entry help, and lead more healthy, more-fulfilling lives, it will additionally assist break the cycle of all the time responding to crises which will increase the burden on already-taxed programs of care.
Beginning In 2012, our crew introduced the same mindset to at least one more and more difficult, but very important space of want: males’s psychological well being. Via a collaborative partnership between the Colorado Division of Public Well being and Atmosphere, Denver-based advertising company, Cactus, and Grit Digital Well being, a crew of clinicians, suicidologists, public well being staff, technologists, and advertising specialists got down to construct a artistic strategy that took rising charges of suicide and growing psychological well being issues amongst working-aged males head on.
The results of that collaborative effort was the primary psychological well being marketing campaign designed to point out males that addressing their psychological well being is the manliest factor a person can do – Man Remedy®. Our foundational analysis revealed that, whereas many males have addressable psychological well being wants, a big share of them are hesitant, and even resistant, to looking for assist. This barrier to help-seeking leads to damaging downstream penalties, like a rise in suicide deaths and extra acute psychological well being crises. It additionally highlights a spot in messaging and sources which might be designed for males, successfully resonate with them, and encourage them to take motion.
Man Remedy’s core perception is that, on the subject of psychological well being, the very best protection is an effective offense, and, with slightly effort and elbow grease, we will construct instruments that present psychological well being training and help for males upstream of disaster. On this article, we’ll discover why it was important to construct a male-centric psychological well being instrument, the significance of constant to smash stigma round males’s psychological well being, and the way forward for Man Remedy as an important public well being instrument.
1. Bridging the Hole: A Manly Method to Psychological Well being
The dialog across the significance of supporting males has taken on new life lately, and plenty of people and organizations are actually dedicating their efforts to fixing the issue of “what to do about males.” Nonetheless, this has not all the time been the case, and plenty of males nonetheless take care of the lingering help hole attributable to an absence of instruments and programming that meet their distinctive wants. In the USA, statistics round males’s psychological well being spotlight this:
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SAMSHA knowledge reveals that over 24.6 million males expertise a psychological well being situation, but many males typically select to not search assist for his or her psychological well being because of stigma.
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The CDC stories that, whereas males make up 50% of the inhabitants in the USA, they account for ~80% of suicide deaths and are ~4x extra more likely to die by suicide than ladies.
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The Nationwide Institute of Well being notes that 1 in 5 adults stay with a psychological well being situation, however solely 40% of grownup males search assist for his or her psychological well being.
On prime of the info highlighting this males’s psychological well being disaster, we’re additionally up towards a negatively labeled view of masculinity that reinforces how males needs to be robust and stoic, bury their feelings, and hold a stiff higher lip. Whereas this “cowboy up” mentality might be argued to drive outcomes like resilience and fortitude, when harnessed within the incorrect approach, it may well result in a dangerous view of 1’s psychological and emotional well being that leaves many males feeling remoted of their struggles. To not point out, it reiterates the false notion that looking for assist, and counting on group for help, is a weak point, not a power. What’s more and more apparent to many now could be that males are struggling in a singular approach, and to successfully deal with these struggles, an equally daring and distinctive resolution is required.
Once we began work on Man Remedy, the lads we interviewed supplied suggestions that one of the best ways to attach with them was to speak to them the way in which they talked to one another. So, we constructed a instrument that leaned into humor to subvert those self same masculine tropes that usually forestall males from reaching out for assist. In doing so, we have been capable of get males to do one thing about their psychological well being. In a current interview, our Founder – Joe Conrad – put it this manner, “Oftentimes when males wish to deflect a subject or a stress, they use humor. And so we’re utilizing that very same method to get them to drop their defenses, lean in slightly bit, and be open to eager about psychological well being in a complete new approach.”
In brief, Man Remedy’s “huge thought” is that utilizing humor and male stereotypes – with a fictional therapist named Dr. Wealthy Mahogany, and taglines like “It’s a bodily on your emotions, however you get to maintain your pants on” – is an efficient technique to bridge the help hole and ship on our three important targets:
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Smash by way of psychological well being stigma
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Get males pondering in a different way to take motion with their psychological well being
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Scale back suicide in our communities
From the onset, our goal has been to construct a framework of help that resonates with males throughout lived experiences, is quickly accessible, and helps join males to actionable sources that guarantee they’ve the instruments essential to help themselves, it doesn’t matter what curveballs life throws their approach.
2. Smashing the Stigma & Supporting Males Upstream
Whereas Man Remedy has helped transfer the needle on overcoming many help-seeking challenges for males – ManTherapy.org has over two million guests, we’ve had over 500,000 accomplished Head Inspections, and we’ve related tons of of hundreds of males with psychological well being sources – we’re additionally keenly conscious that the challenges round males’s psychological well being persist.
Of their 2025 report on The State of American Males, the Equimundo:
Middle for Masculinities and Social Justice reveals the totally different ways in which many males proceed to wrestle in silence:
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86% of males consider the highest trait associated to being a person is “being a supplier”
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Males who face monetary instability are 16x extra more likely to have suicidal ideas.
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71% of males consider they will have their popularity destroyed in the event that they communicate their thoughts.
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65% of males consider that “nobody actually cares if males are okay.”
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53% of males consider that “nobody actually is aware of” them
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48% of males consider that it’s higher in the event that they conceal components of themselves.
Couple these statistics with growing tensions attributable to conflicting ideological viewpoints on how a person “ought to” be, and we’re left with many males feeling like they lack a transparent path ahead to get assist. This lack of locations for males to attach with care, and one another, permits the dangerous stigma to persist, and it additionally creates a void in having the ability to successfully join males to the care they want previous to discovering themselves in a disaster.
The problem in addressing stigma and the damaging notion of masculinity is providing a life raft to males in a approach that doesn’t come throughout as belittling or speaking right down to them. The Man Remedy perspective is that psychological well being isn’t taboo, shouldn’t be ignored, and with the appropriate messaging and instruments, we will smash by way of the stigma to construct males up of their every day lives.
How we will break stigma, and truly help males, is by catching them upstream with instruments that resonate and assist them navigate what they’re experiencing. Elementary to that is serving to males perceive that psychological well being doesn’t exist in a vacuum. Emotional well being, bodily well being, religious well being, relational well being all performs a job in a single’s capability to look after themself and domesticate a wholesome life-style.
A key a part of this psychoeducation for Man Remedy comes by way of our Gentlemental Well being sources on matters like anger, nervousness, despair, and extra. Because it goes, you can’t deal with a factor you don’t perceive, and so constructing out academic sources for males will help them study what they’re going by way of, search for warning indicators, create actionable plans to deal with these issues, and can in the end assist them construct a more healthy mindset and consider of themselves. It’s a no-B.S. strategy to psychological well being geared toward driving motion and serving to males thrive.
3. Seeking to the Way forward for Man Remedy®
Lastly, as any craftsman is aware of, a instrument is barely nearly as good because the one who makes use of it. What makes Man Remedy profitable, and in the end capable of ship real-world change for males, are our companions and customers who leverage the marketing campaign for help. Man Remedy started as a grassroots effort to scale back suicide and enhance psychological well being for males on the native stage, and it has grown a world viewers due to its distinctive capability to resonate with males and plug into public well being initiatives.
In 2021, the outcomes of a four-year, $1.2 million CDC-funded examine confirmed that Man Remedy, in addition to broader public well being initiatives concentrating on males, are profitable in partaking males wherever and at any time when they could want assist in on-line screening and referrals to sources with on-line packages similar to Man Remedy. This analysis, led by Dr. Jodi J. Frey and her crew at College of Maryland, College of Social Work by way of her Middle for Behavioral Well being and Properly-Being Analysis (BHWell) discovered that males within the examine who used Man Remedy reported much less despair and suicidal ideation over a three-month time interval, decreased stigma towards psychological well being, and elevated intentions to hunt therapy.
In reality, males who used Man Remedy, compared with the comparability group in the examine who solely acquired on-line despair and suicide screening with sources, have been statistically extra more likely to have interaction in formal help-seeking behaviors within the three-month time interval after utilizing Man Remedy. This included actions similar to making an appointment with a psychological well being counselor, speaking to their main care physician about despair and suicide, and collaborating in an expert on-line help group. Following this seminal examine of Man Remedy, Dr. Frey’s analysis in Michigan and Ohio continues to help optimistic outcomes from Man Remedy, demonstrating that the net program isn’t solely reaching males at best danger, however serving to them enhance their psychological well being and well-being.
Along with psychological well being outcomes described above, our crew works intently with group organizations inside the two states to help a state-wide public well being marketing campaign for males’s suicide prevention, centered round using Man Remedy. Up to now, now we have over 750 group companions in Michigan, and in simply 1.5 years of launching the more moderen marketing campaign in Ohio, now we have 362 group companions. These companions use Man Remedy as a instrument of their broader work to forestall suicide, and they’re additionally capable of entry county-level knowledge inside just a few days from the analysis crew to assist drive their prevention efforts, along with demonstrating outcomes of engagement and use of the 988 Disaster Line inside their counties.
The influence of community-research partnerships like those between Man Remedy, Dr. Frey and her crew, and leaders inside Michigan and Ohio can’t be overstated. In Ohio, our funder and lead companion is the Ohio Suicide Prevention Basis. Within the quick time that the analysis and group companions have been working collectively, they’ve seen important impacts in reaching males in danger for suicide throughout Ohio. Because of our companions’ efforts to share Man Remedy data and promotional supplies, the Man Remedy web site noticed almost 80,000 distinctive customers, and over 1.2 million web page visits, with customers spending a median of over two minutes per session (which is above trade requirements). The 18-Level Head Inspection (Man Remedy’s on-line danger evaluation) additionally proved extremely partaking, with 62% of all web site guests finishing the net evaluation. Importantly, over 3,200 sources have been accessed, and 462 disaster actions have been taken whereas on the Man Remedy web site — underscoring the platform’s position in connecting males to vital psychological well being help.
Our 13-year historical past of partnering to deal with the systemic challenges and distinctive boundaries that discourage males from looking for care have taught us that supporting males’s psychological well being is a crew sport and males shouldn’t really feel that they have to go at their issues alone. Our crew stays dedicated to making sure that males throughout lived experiences have a protected, confidential place to show to pop the hood on their psychological well being, whereas additionally supporting our broader communities with a turnkey resolution that reveals addressing psychological well being is the manliest factor a person can do.
As a sensible, mustachioed therapist as soon as stated, “You’ll be able to’t repair your psychological well being with duct tape.”
Whereas the bootstrap mentality can go a good distance, it has a ceiling. Now, greater than ever, males want a spot to show to study, and deal with, life’s challenges. So, if you want a pork shoulder to cry on, there’s Man Remedy. It’s remedy, the way in which a person does it.
